Anthony Burrill finds inspiration in what we discard. Lining back alleys, warehouses and dishevelled dormitories, cardboard boxes are universally under appreciated.
Inspired by the rough, industrial printing seen on cardboard boxes, F37 Box mimics this with a textured outline. The variable font contains both a bounce and twist variable axis. This allows the user dial in the desired amount of haphazardness by controlling the baseline bounce and letter rotation. Each glyph contains three similar, but not identical alternates forms that cycle through. All this combines together to give a convincing replication of these rough and un-designed functional letter forms.
F37® × Anthony Burrill
• F37 Box
• Styles 4
• 2023
The Designer
Graphic artist Anthony Burrill combines a knack for simplicity that packs a punch with analogue craft skills and powerful, positive messages.
Burrill frequently collaborates with other forward-thinking creatives across disciplines spanning music, architecture, curation, education protest and more; pushing his traditional discipline of choice, letterpress printing, into bold new territories. Whether working on an art school pavilion, an acid house record, a book or a poster design, Burrill’s work is instantly recognisable. While his pieces all bear the marks of his letterpress process and all its joyful idiosyncrasies, Burrill’s direct and multidisciplinary approach is one that’s constantly evolving, combining tradition with bold new approaches and technologies. Words, gentle humour, no-nonsense communication and people are at the heart of Burrill’s practice and his distinctive brand of upbeat messaging: its core DNA is one created through a longstanding passion for creativity without limitations, the power of simplicity and an innate curiosity about the world and people in it. His work is held in the permanent collections of the V&A and The Design Museum in London, The Cooper-Hewitt in New York and has been exhibited in galleries around the world including The Barbican Gallery in London, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, The Triennale in Milan and The Stedelijk Museum in Breda.
Inspiration
F37 Box
Interview
Tell us about the inspiration behind your collaboration with F37®×. If it was an unused concept, what was the potential use case for it.
It was the day before the re-cycling was being collected and I was busy sorting through boxes and breaking them down. The idea for a new typeface had been in my head since I received the request from F37®. Inspiration can be quite elusive and you have to be on the look out constantly. As I was breaking down a particularly large box I noticed the crudely printed lettering. I’ve always been a huge fan of utility packaging type and imagery. I love the raw quality of the letterforms and the awkward layouts found on this kind of throwaway packaging. I was lucky with this box, it had lots of words printed that included almost all the letters of the alphabet. I cut out the bits of the packaging I needed and took it back to my studio where I scanned it in and managed to create the missing letters with the information I had available. I sent the scans over to F37® and they did an amazing job of developing the rest of the missing glyphs and giving life to the letters using the shifting baseline and angles.
When starting the process of creating your font, what typographic conventions did you look to break or experiment with? Or were there conventions of functionality you championed?
I wanted to make something that felt raw and characterful and had the immediate quality of type found on cardboard boxes. These typefaces aren’t intended to be examples of high end design. They are everyday utilitarian typefaces that simply convey technical information. They aren’t meant to look pretty of communicate any particular tone of voice, they are simply there to tell us to not drop the box, open carefully and do not crush. The type is there to give instructions as plainly and simply as possible. This is the kind of visual communication that I find most inspiring. It’s the overlooked and undervalued that often has the most to say. It’s not polished or crafted any more than it needs to be. It’s honest in how it speaks and says what it needs to say.
Now that your typeface has launched, what would be your dream project to use your F37® typeface on?
I’d like to use it to create a huge piece of word art on the side of a building. Somewhere unusual, maybe out of the way and unexpected. The ideal place to create a piece of work that engages with a new audience.
What have you learnt through developing and creating your own typeface(s) with our F37® type designers?
Never to overlook the things that are part of our every day life. Inspiration is everywhere and strikes with most potency when we’re least expecting it.
How would you describe your typeface in three words?
Raw, characterful, playful.
F37 Box Font Sampler
