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With Franz Jäger he has attempted to create an extremely broad typeface, using the largest possible space of the cone. At the same time it is a so-called building block font. Differently coloured, all cuts may be superimposed and combined, making it an ideal foundation for logos and characters.
Related Gestalten.tv Podcast
gestalten.tv/motion/pfadfinderei
Critzla started off as a sign and poster painter in East Germany and launched his career as an independent designer i
… read moreCritzla started off as a sign and poster painter in East Germany and launched his career as an independent designer in 1994—deep-routed in the Berlin music scene—designing flyers, record sleeves, and posters, not to mention the first 12 issues Flyer, a magazine about Berlin’s club scene.Critzla is a founding member of Pfadfinderei, a graphic and motion design studio that doubles as one of the world’s most popular groups of VJs. Whether providing haunting visuals for Moderat or live VJing at the Louis Vuitton store opening in Paris with Pharell, Pfadfinderei have done for visuals what DJs did to music.
He’s also a type geek and a type designer himself. Critzla designed the typeface Localizer for the book of the same name—Gestalten’s first release—and many other fonts through Gestalten Fonts for which he’s a contributing editor since 2003.
More fonts by Critzla
Pfadfinderei is a collective of 7 de… read more
Pfadfinderei is a collective of 7 designers, with complimentary skills and interests working for agencies as well as in the cultural world. We create classical prints, visuals, visual installations, sets and studio designs as well as fonts. Our main objective and goal is to cope with big tasks together. We’re also a VJ collective and have worked internationally for the last 6 years and performed in Japan, China and all over Europe. Our clients include Louis Vuitton, Adidas, NIKE, MTV, Bpitchcontrol, SONAR, WMF, WATERGATE, etc.
How would you characterize your design style?
Sharp, vector graphics and reduced to the max. No filters and no sampling.
Place of work
Berlin, Germany / Europe
Can you give us a short description about your font?
It was an experiment at first when we created the plain weight.
The basic idea was to create a type with the biggest possible area of the font cone along with good legibility. At the same time it is a so-called building block font. Differently coloured, all cuts may be superimposed and combined. It’s a comfortable wide running font without any counters and modern serifs making it an ideal foundation for logos and characters.
Why did you design this font and what was your inspiration?
It was just for fun and for my own satisfaction to finish this experiment.
What was this font intended for?
I wanted to design a fat logo font with big straight lines that'ss massive and self-confident. Later on, we created the outlined versions and had the idea to develop the font by designing a whole family. By cloning the text and selecting a different cut, you can easily design a font character.
What is the ideal usage of your font?
Big posters with ultra letters, logos and headlines.
Where does the name come from?
The name is a homage to the broad, robust “Franz Jäger” safes which the Danish Olsen gang attempt to crack in each and every episode.
Do you think that too many fonts exist?
Do you think too many stars could be born and the light gets brighter?
Your future plans?
Buy a round-the-world ticket and move around but only to find out how nice Berlin actually is.