Art Direction: Swiss Typefaces
Typeface Design: Ian Party / Swiss Typefaces
Font Engineering: Christoph Koeberlin
ABOUT IKANSEEYOUALL
In this posh display typeface, the stroke contrast is turned up to the max: thicks are ultrabold, while thins are mere hairlines. IKANSEEYOUALL is brawny and delicate at the same time. Get closer so that you can see all the details: Arches in ‘m’ are sharp as raptor talons. Serifs in ‘N’ or the top arm in ‘k’ resemble rose thorns. Bowl and leg of ‘R’ dramatically taper to meet in a point – if this shape looks familiar, you may be thinking of related approaches seen in Tiffany Heavy or the Prada logo. The contrast axis is markedly inclined, see the ‘o’ or compare ‘p’ to ‘q’. Swiss Typefaces has explored similar terrain for the Black styles of SangBleu Empire. In IKANSEEYOUALL, there are less edges and straight lines, and more flowing and bulging shapes, with bulbous terminals. Stems have flared endings instead of lineal serifs. In letters like ‘n’ or ‘d’, they are angled and slightly concave. Dots are as big and round as can be.
The typeface obviously takes cues from the fat display Caslons drawn by designers like Tom Carnase or Ed Benguiat half a century ago. Additionally, Swiss Typefaces sampled a couple of their favorite moments from the history of lettering art, like the curvaceous ampersand, the flowery asterisk, or the spiraling ‘@’. The design is the opposite of retro, though. IKANSEEYOUALL is made for the present time. Its freshness is epitomized in the needle-like bars in ‘E’, ‘f’, or ‘t’ – it’s a safe bet you haven’t seen a ‘G’ or ‘M’ like these before. To the designers, these letterforms are the typographic equivalent of Koudlam’s “See You All”, a song that not only sparked the name, but has provided inspiration throughout the creative process.
Like all Lab typefaces, it comes in a single style: IKANSEEYOUALL – All of you. With more than 360 glyphs incl. many accented characters, it is ready to be used. Thanks to the extreme modulation, its letters combine into pulsative word images. Make sure to throw in some of the monolinear symbols like hashes, slashes, or dashes. Compose captivating patterns by stacking a few lines of caps. Get seduced by the numerals. Or find your very own ways to use it. IKANSEEYOUALL is an invitation to play.
