You'll find more than just one koru-inspired typeface on these fair shores.
Work in progress – Origin Design's koru-inspired typeface. The typeface is currently called "Brizo", after the designer.
More feedback after airing this story in our last issue. Origin Design's Brian Slade describes Wellington type designer Kris Sowersby as "a man after my own heart". Slade is developing a typeface for an as-of-yet unspecified client that also uses the familiar form of the koru motif. Slade says this design solution, part of a "brand refresh brief", is for a client that is "spread across New Zealand with a real need for cohesive comms and distinctive visibility".
"I elected to tackle it [the visibility dilemma] with a typeface they can call their own to communicate their intrinsic New Zealand understanding and value," says Slade. "The type treatment is part of a palette of graphics that can be built into a strong illustrative visual language."
Slade says this kind of influence comes from New Zealand's more confident self-awareness – a desire to " identify with our own visual language and stories, rather than those handed to us from Britain or the USA."
9 Comments
Ah yes, the Koru. The lazy designers shortcut to 'Kiwi-ness'.
Maybe — looks like a pretty refined type design. Difficult to pull off something like this I'd imagine when there's a danger of it looking kitsch or twee…
Maybe – looks like a pretty refined type design
Oh yeah? It looks like a Koru grafted onto something like Avenir. I'd love to know what the base font is. I'm pretty certain Brian didn't start from scratch. Happy to know otherwise!
I agree with Jane about the lazy way to Kiwi-ness, but despite this I like it. It's subtle and is in keeping with the clean lines of the base font. And I'm 2nding Jane's qestion regarding what the base is?
Interesting, and well pointed observation Jane. I would also be interested to hear how the grafting of a [formally simplified and also internationalised] cultural motif onto Latin alphabetic structure might truly be reminiscent of a distinctive national visual language, and not simply appear as stylistic; especially in a commercial context. This solution appears a bit stretched – taking into account the meaning and nature of a conceptual beginning point [koru].
I guess this is symptomatic of a trend in New Zealand design to 'graft' cultural icons onto inherited European, American, Asian culture (in this case, latin characters) as a way to define ourselves visually. I think one good example of this trend/cliché is okooko's branding — who's Wellington store is coincidently located a block behind Origin.
okooko logo: http://www.doublehappiness.com.hk/uploadfiles/logo_200841118548.jpg
Nice article. I would love to see the finished “Brizo” typeface. For anyone who would like to see more work of Kris Sowersby check out this link http://www.creativeroots.org/?p=2752 he's designed a custom typeface for the Hokotehi Moriori Trust.
Nice website Rod — you've got some really nice stuff up there. Worth a look for sure.
Thanks Michael. I'm glad to read that you like CreativeRoots.
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