Caeli Type Design Process - How Akimbo Type Foundry Designed a Variable Font that Melts

In this video, I very calmly and monotonously describe the process of designing Caeli. Thank goodness for good music.

Caeli is a speculative variable font designed to at once push the boundaries of the variable font format and critically engage climate change through type design. Caeli was developed in five steps:

① Digital Rendering

② Mold-making

③ Ice Casting

④ Environment Action

⑤ Re-digitization

Yes, Caeli was cast in ice and allowed to melt, giving the font its heavy axis. This process led to a variable font, ranging from Light to Black weights, guided by melting ice from the perspective of expanding water.

Caeli characters were drawn with crisp geometric edges at the regular weight to emphasize the transition into a melted letterform. As the Weight axis of Caeli increases, the letterforms that were once ice melt and expand to a more ‘bold’ form.