The Klim Type Foundry is a digital type foundry operated by Kris Sowersby, a New Zealand typeface designer. Klim was founded in 2005 and is currently based in Wellington. Klim produces retail typefaces, custom typefaces and custom lettering and logotypes. Sowersby has garnered many international awards for his typefaces.

Kris Sowersby

Sowersby, born in 1981, graduated from the Wanganui School of Design in 2003. 'Feijoa', his first retail typeface, was released in 2007, followed by 'National'. National first gained him international recognition, winning a

Type Directors Club The Type Directors Club (TDC) is an international organization devoted to typography and type design, founded in 1946 in New York City. Mission TDC believes that type drives culture, and that culture drives type—and is dedicated to cataloging ...

award in 2008. His typefaces 'Hardys' and 'Serrano' won the same recognition in 2009. Sowersby has collaborated with other notable designers, including

Christian Schwartz Christian Schwartz (born December 30, 1977, in Concord, New Hampshire, United States) is an American type designer. He has been awarded the German Design Award and the Prix Charles Peignot. Life Schwartz began designing fonts in school. A g ...

and

Erik Spiekermann Erik Spiekermann (born 30 May 1947) is a German typographer, designer and writer. He is an honorary professor at the University of the Arts Bremen and ArtCenter College of Design. Biography Spiekermann studied art history at Berlin's Free Uni ...

in the design of 'FF Meta Serif'. Sowerby's lettering also appears in the logos for the

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...

and the

Bank of New Zealand Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) is one of New Zealand's Big Four (banking)#New Zealand, big four banks. It has been operating since October 1861, and since 1992 has been owned by National Australia Bank (NAB), retaining local governance with a New Z ...

Major projects

Pure Pākati

In 2015 Sowersby created a custom typeface for

Tourism New Zealand Tourism New Zealand is the marketing agency responsible for promoting New Zealand as a tourism destination internationally. It is the trading name of the New Zealand Tourism Board, a Crown entity established under the New Zealand Tourism Board A ...

with Rangi Kipa, Philip Kelly and Karl Wixon. Sowersby devised letterforms which were carved on blocks of

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside '' Wollemia'' and ''Araucaria'' (being ...

by Kipa, which were then inked, printed and digitised to create the typeface.

Financial Times redesign

In 2014 Sowersby was commissioned to produce a new custom typeface, 'Financier', for the redesign of the business and economics daily newspaper, the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

. The Financial Times' head of design stated that the paper wanted "an elegant, authoritative serif with the versatility to handle news and features stories (in the arts, science and sport, as well as finance)" and a connection to its 'British heritage'. Sowersby has noted that he looked to typefaces by

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as "the greatest artist-craftsma ...

in his research for the new typeface. 'Financier' was awarded a gold pin in New Zealand's Best Awards in 2015.

Air New Zealand

In 2012 Sowersby was commissioned, with design company Designworks, to create custom lettering for New Zealand carrier

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 28 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily within the Pacific Rim. The airline h ...

National Geographic redesign

Since the brand's 2016 refocusing on "smart science" across all media, it has gradually transitioned to a bespoke type palette. Their first commissioned typeface was Grosvenor, a custom version of Klim Type Foundry's Tiempos with longer extenders, for article text in ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

'' magazine. In 2018, this was accompanied by Geograph, a geometric sans serif, replacing Hoefler & Co.'s Verlag across all branded media. These two new types were accompanied by two new headline faces and a new magazine nameplate from Tal Leming starting in the May 2018 issue.

Hokotohu

In 2007, Sowersby, under the direction of DNA Design, designed ‘Hokotohu’, with its serifs based on Rākau momori, for th
Hokotehi Moriori Trust

PayPal

In 2014, the

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

product team commissioned Klim to create a typeface that "should be fluid, delightful, easy, calm and

humanistic Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

." It should also be "mobile-first, numeral-centric" and "space-efficient". After three different approaches, the foundry settled on 'Dutch', made with inspiration from

Jan van Krimpen Jan van Krimpen (12 January 1892, in Gouda, South Holland, Gouda – 20 October 1958, in Haarlem) was a Dutch typographer, book designer and type designer. He worked for the printing house Joh. Enschedé, Koninklijke Joh. Enschedé. He also wo ...

's ''Romulus Sans Serif''. This later became ''PayPal Sans'', which has two subfamilies: ''PayPal Sans Big'', and ''PayPal Sans Small''.

References

External links

Klim Type Foundry

Feature on Sowersby online at Computer Arts

Interview with Sowersby
online at ''

Eye An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the ey ...

'' magazine
Kim Hill interview with Kris Sowersby

Radio New Zealand National RNZ National (), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operated by Radio New Zealand. It specialises ...

, 10 October 2015 *Lecture a
Typographics 2017
festival, 17 June 2017.
Ockham Lecture Series
{{Authority control Type foundries Companies based in Wellington Independent type foundries