Consul is a self-initated experimental design, exploring the transition from lettering to type, and from analog to digital form. The design is a squared-off grotesk with an unusual contrast pattern, weighted towards the left. The disjointed “N” comes from the source material. In the typeface it is accompanied by the “M”, and figures “1” and “4”.

The artist collective Consulatet takes its name – perhaps ironically – from the Norwegian diplomat and politician Sigval Bergesen, and the Stavanger street named after him.

When their office building was scheduled for demolishion in 2019, Consulatet member Benjamin Hickethier saved two hand-lettered parking signs from the premises. Hickethier traced the signs and added a few characters, as well as figures, for use in a calendar. This work triggered my own interest in digitizing the letters.

Producing a typeface from lettering sources is not without dilemmas. There is always something lost in the translation. Where lettering uses dynamic shapes fitted to a static context, type does the opposite. Where analog lettering is married to its substrate, the digital font can be applied to any material.

To fill out a character set, additional shapes must be invented and systematic rules defined, often erasing the imperfections that gives lettering its charm. It would be tempting to retain the imperfections, but separated from their initial context they rarely make sense. Rather, you are often left with a facsimile – devoid of life in its new medium.

The translation always creates something different than what was there intially. The question then becomes, what is it about the original that make sense in the new context? And many times, the answer is nothing.