Browse Fonts

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Frustro is a display typeface with a multistable perception phenomenon, based on the principles of the Penrose triangle. Also, it is a layered typeface with 6 styles.

Frustro plays with the heritage of the scientific pioneers like Roger Penrose or Oscar Reutersvärd, as they are coming from a mathematical background of geometry, combined with the artistic visions of irregular perspectives like M.C. Escher or OpArt artist like Victor Vasarely created. Which part, scientific or artistic, leads your more to the idea of creating an complex 3-dimensional typeface?
I think both. I briefly studied industrial design at Budapest University of Technology. I never graduated as an engineer, but I developed an interest in geometry and 3D modeling. And of course, I'm a big admirer of Escher’s work, however, I never thought I could make something new in this genre, since he pretty much maxed it out.

Freshly scouted typography talent Márton Hegedűs lives in Budapest and is currently studying graphic design at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.

Was there a particular design in need to create tricky perspectives, that need a font as well to fit into the designs, or was the font itself its own origin?
Frustro was born as a type experiment, but it became quite popular over the Internet, so I decided to take up the challenge and make a font from it.

On which point during the design process you came up with the idea of a negative italic?
The characters on the very first sketches were made of vertical and horizontal lines only, but the connections and corners didn't seem credible at all. The best way to render a cuboid-like object is in an off-axis-view, so I moved the viewpoint(s) aside, and this is the reason of the italic style. At first I tried regular italic, but I had troubles with a few characters, like Z or N–having diagonal lines–so I had to switch the inclination. I kind of like this irregular look.

When did you face the most difficult parts while design the whole alphabet?
The hardest thing was not to get confused by the illusion while drawing, especially when making the extra stars and symbols.

Can you say something about the additional signs?
Those impossible objects are what Frustros principle based on, so it seemed obvious to include them in the font.

Why you had created so many weights? Do they have a certain purpose?
At the beginning there was only the outline version now called 'Spaghetti'. I thought it would be nice to have its inverse as well, so I made 'Fusilli'. Then I realized that there are more possible weights to make and these weights could work as layers with different fill colors.

What's behind the unusual naming?
Since this is not a regular font, the usual naming, light, bold, etc., would make no sense, yet the names should be defined somehow. Finally each weight got its name from a type of pasta and they paired by similarity. Also, pasta names suit well to Frustro due to the same Italian sounding.

In your opinion, is there an ideal usage of your font?
I don't see the ideal usage of Frustro, but I'm sure it's not for body text. I think it's up to the user to find out what to do with it.

Tell us something about your future plans/projects?
I'm going to graduate next year and for a thesis I plan to design a new typeface. This time it will be a proper sans serif with better legibility.