CSTM Xprmntl

Yury Ostromentsky: In 2017, everyone rushed to launch theirTelegram channels — and we did as well, with @cstmfonts. At first we didn’t understand what to post there, and that’s when I got an idea: to start designing a typeface and use the Telegram channel to broadcast our working process live. I decided that I would work on it every day for one hour, and finish it in exactly one month. And so I did. 

The key idea of Xprmntl 01 is to mix as many styles as possible in one graphic system. There is a set of graphically relatively simple symbols as a base, while above it there are several alternative sets of very different stylistics: a little child’s scribbles, a little of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, contrast signs, non-contrast signs, geometric ones, pseudo-blackletter, smooth, wrinkled, simplified — well, all in one. 

Ilya Ruderman: Yura included me as a co-author for some reason, while in fact my participation was rather limited: upon reading all Yura’s posts and notes, I asked him to give me the file, opened it and added a few ideas. 

As a result, we got a typeface that embraces lots of time-relevant, fancy trends in design, a certain snapshot of the time. A versatile tool, a useful help for a designer who needs to create a bright statement of one word or one short phrase. Whatever text you set, it would be almost unique, because you have at your disposal several stylistic systems and tricks that can help achieve an inimitable result when mixed. 

YuO: We continued that experimental story with our Telegram: first we came up with Xprmntl 02, then Xprmntl 03. The system ‘one typeface — one month’ didn’t work for us anymore, though, — the last typeface in the series took us three years.