Version

Céline Hurka is a graphic and type designer from Karlsruhe, Germany. She works on freelance projects in the cultural field, where she combines an interest in editorial design with emphasis on type design and photography. She is fascinated by how form and meaning change in different contexts and likes to combine meticulous research and quick experimentation. In 2019 Céline has co-authored Reviving Type with Nóra Békés.

Portrait: Melissa Schriek

GRADUATION PROJECT

Version is inspired by the distortions that occur in visual reproduction processes. The collection consists of 4 experimental variable fonts (11 sources), which are optimized for large sizes and for animation. Each of them explores how factors such as medium, resolution, optical distortion, movement, and perspective influence shapes and contours.  By questioning conventions in type design the project offers a new perspective on legibility and reading habits.⁠ While usually type designers use components or repeating shapes across the different letters of one style, each character in Version is drawn separately, there are no repeating parts or details. To enhance this seemingly random effect there are up to three alternates per letter, which can be interpolated. 

THESIS

Reproducing Shapes

When we talk about reproductions, we presume the existence of an original. With the reproduction of an artwork, photograph, or even a book, this relation is evident. The original piece was processed to be distributed to a larger audience. In my thesis and processbook I am exploring how this relationship functions in the context of a typeface. Is the original version the one the type designer saves as a file? Or is it the one sold by a foundry and acquired by a customer?