Klim Type Foundry

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 award in 2008. His typefaces 'Hardys' and 'Serrano' won the same recognition in 2009. Sowersby has collaborated with other notable designers, including Christian Schwartz and Erik Spiekermann in the design of 'FF Meta Serif'.

Sowerby's lettering also appears in the logos for the Harvard Business Review and the Bank of New Zealand.

Major projects

Pure Pākati

In 2015 Sowersby created a custom typeface for Tourism New Zealand with Rangi Kipa, Philip Kelly and Karl Wixon. Sowersby devised letterforms which were carved on blocks of kauri 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' 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 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.

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'' 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 direction of DNA Design, designed ‘Hokotohu’, with its serifs based on Rākau momori, for th
Hokotehi Moriori Trust

PayPal

In 2014, the PayPal product team commissioned Klim to create a typeface that “should be fluid, delightful, easy, calm and humanistic.” It should also be “mobile-first, numeral-centric” and “space-efficient”. After three different approaches, the foundry settled for 'Dutch', made with inspiration from Jan van Krimpen'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'' magazine
Kim Hill interview with Kris Sowersby
Radio New Zealand National, 10 October 2015
*Lecture a
Typographics 2017
festival, 17 June 2017.
Ockham Lecture Series

{{Authority control

Type foundries
Companies based in Wellington