Font Friday #37

Climate Crisis (free font)

The words Climate Action Now or it will be never written on a mobile phone, very bold on the top and almost disappearing at the end

Display typeface

from Helsingin Sanomat
designed by Daniel Coull, Eino Korkala

Variable Font

1 axis: Weight

8 Styles

8 Styles: 1979 to 2050

Best for

  • Headings (display text)
  • Long reading text (body text)
  • User Interfaces (functional text)

License

Free and Open Source

Specialty

The Climate Crisis Font is a variable font that helps people see the urgency of climate change in a more tangible form. The font’s weight responds to real arctic sea ice data from 1979 until 2019, and a forecast until 2050.

Get Climate Crisis

My thoughts on the Climate Crisis Font

Today on September 24, 2021, it’s not only Font Friday, it’s Global Climate Strike as well. While I’m joining my local Parents For Future group to demand political action, I want to share this great and yet shocking free font I came across. The Climate Crisis Font is a variable font that helps people see the urgency of climate change in a more tangible form. The font’s weight responds to real arctic sea ice data from 1979 until 2019, and a forecast until 2050.

Based on real arctic sea ice data (Image by Helsingin Sanomat)
The weight axis changes from bold to light and almost illegible, visualizing the effect of climate change to the arctic ice. (Image by Helsingin Sanomat)

While the subject itself makes me angry and uneasy, the concept of this free font is brilliant. It shows the urgency and what already happened in such a visual way. The Climate Crisis Font is clearly a good choice for striking headlines and bold campaigns. For everything longer or smaller, even in the boldest weight (1979) is hard to read. The stencil like shapes in some lower case letters can easily be confused, so be aware of that.

The Climate Crisis Font is very hard to read in small sizes and mixed case. Even in the boldest weight. It’s a bit a bit better when set in All Caps. But actually this font is made for short & large display text.
This font is not super legible, some letter forms can easily be mistaken. Use it in display text only.

Thanks to Veronica, one of the now over 700 awesome subscribers to the newsletter, that pointed me to this gem!

What do you think? Is the Climate Crisis Font something for an upcoming project? Tell me in the comments below!

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2 Comments

  1. I love when design gets more culturally and humanistically involved. The idea is beautiful so is the execution. I already know to whom to propose this font for campaigns, it’s a newly opened place in Germany, run by millennials (architects & designers). Their topic and acquisition is the climate crisis.
    Climate Crisis font speaks emotions to me. This gradual artistry from bold to melting is stunning.

    Not to divert attention but, as I said a few times before, your content would be exposed to so much more audience on Linked In, a professional network, where I’ll share this post of yours.
    And congratulations on 759 subscribers! 😲That’s for celebration🤗

    Reply

    1. Cool! Hope this will demand action faster! Thanks for the congratulations! Yeah, LinkedIn, I found my peace with only publishing on one social network, which is Twitter, but even there I recently withdrew a bit to keep me sane 😂.

      Reply

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