ecofont

Since the tutorial the other day, it's got me thinking about where I can go with my Final Major Project (FMP) and what briefs I might want to look for or create myself.

As the theme/subject of my FMP is Sustainability Within Design, I have considered the ways in which a designers works, their ways of working within the studio and also the way they actually work, how they go about answering briefs. Choosing whether to use recycled paper, whether the brief is worthy of being produced.

I had thought of creating my own typeface, that uses less ink when going through the printer, that prints most appropriately on recycled stock etc..

But looks like this has already been done :(
I discovered the 'ecofont' whilst gathering some research for my dissertation. It's developed by SPRANQ Creative Communications.



"The prints we make for our 'daily use' not only use paper, but also ink. Your ink cartridges (or ink toner) could last longer.
Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. In the picture you can see how the Ecofont is created by omitting parts of the letter. At the shown size, this obviously is not very nice, but at a regular font size it is actually very usable. Naturally, the results vary depending on your software and the quality of your screen. Using up to 20% less ink" - ecofont.eu

Discovering this isn't going to stop me from looking at creating my own sustainable typeface as part of the FMP. Reducing the amount of ink used in some other way...fingers crossed!