Nel Letra by Jasper Nijssen is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Zilarrezko Saria A' Design Award in Grafismo, Ilustrazio eta Ikus Komunikazio Diseinua Competition Category.

ZilarGrafismoa· 2022

Nel Letra

by Jasper Nijssen

Client: Jasper Nijssen

Zilarrezko Saria A' Design Award Winner in Grafismoa Category

34,590
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #131193

Visit Site View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

Colors

The Design

About Nel Letra

Tipografia hau diseinatzailea kontuan hartuta garatu da. Nel letra tipo modernoa da, aukera asko dituena. Bertsio erregularrak letra larriz eta minuskulaz eta beste puntuazio-marka dezentez osatuta dago. Nel Brickbuild txantiloiaren bertsio ludikoa da eta Nel Dots puntudun letra. Nel-ek estilo arina eta astuna ere badu dagozkion bertsio dibertigarriekin. Ikonoak (ikonoen letra-tipoa) izan da bere kiderik berriena. Bederatzi aukera daude guztira inprimaketa, kartel, logotipo, webgune edo identitate zoragarriak diseinatzen dituzten bitartean nahasteko eta lotzeko. Familia bat. Diseinatzaileentzat.

The Recognition

About the Zilarrezko Saria A' Design Award

Nel Letra Zilarrezko Saria A' Design Award irabazlea da, goi-mailako, zoragarriak eta liluragarriak diren diseinuei ematen zaien ezohiko aitorpen prestijiotsua. Zilar-mailako irabazleak lan oso distiratsuak eta sormen biziko lanak dira, beren diseinatzaileen aditutasun, talentu eta zorroztasun nabarmenak erakusten dituztenak. Nel Letra erakusleiho-lan zoragarria, nabarmenki profesionala eta sakonki berritzailea izatea espero da. Zilarrezko Saria A' Design Award irabazi duen diseinu hau asmakizun oso nabarmena eta miretsia da, onura ekartzen duena eta artearen, zientziaren, diseinuaren eta teknologiaren mugak zabaltzen dituena. Nel Letra jende askok inbidia duen sorkuntza da, desirak pizten dituena, sentimendu positiboak ekartzen dituena eta harridura eta txunditzea pizten dituena.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: This typeface is developed with the designer in mind. Nel is a modern typeface with lots of options. The Regular version consists of UPPERCASE and lowercase letters, and quite a few other punctuation marks. The Nel Brickbuild is a playful stencil version and the Nel Dots is a dotted typeface. The Nel also has a light and heavy style with corresponding fun versions. There are nine options in total to mix and match while designing awesome prints, posters, logos, websites, or identities.
Dimensions & Packaging: All fonts are available in OTF (local) and WOFF (web) files.
Tags: font, typeface, decorative, playful, letterdesign,
Production Technology: The first sketches were doodles drawn on a lazy Sunday. Those doodles became a grid. The Regular consists of a width of three units and a height of nine units. Each unit is made up of a square of three by three subunits. The Light removes one sub-unit on either side to create a much thinner line and the Heavy adds a sub-unit. The fun, display styles are playful twists designed upon this base.
Design Challenge: The whole Nel is based on the same grid, and design choices. So the design process of the letters went quite smoothly. This was strengthened by the fact that some letters share quite a few similarities (the b > d > p > q). Some are harder to fit in (the k and x). The main challenge was is defining the whitespace between the letters (kerning). The space needs to be different between every letter to look the same. There are quite a few combinations, so this takes a lot of time and effort.
Research: -
Inspiration: During the "mixing and matching" of a few typefaces, the question arose: Wouldn't it be nice for a typeface to have a regular style for the body text and some eccentric, fun versions for headers or high-lighted text? This typeface would make it possible to use different styles and still be coherent.
Project Duration: The main part of this project finished in January 2019 and is available on MyFonts.com. Although once in a while it gets an update. For example: Icons (an all icon font) has been added this February.
Operation Flow: One of the hardest parts of designing a coherent layout is choosing which fonts to use. Nel solves this problem. All styles have their own characteristics, but they're all based on the same design choices. So all options can be mixed and matched with ease. Icons (the all icon font) has an extra. It's possible to combine glyphs. Example: When you type the capital i and 3, there's a bus and a silhouette. When you type the number sign (above the 3) instead of a 3, the human is inside the bus.
Image Credits: All images: Designer Jasper Nijssen, Visuals WBP Nel, 2022.