Graphic designer working with branding, type design and lettering.
Copenhagen based.
Contact at:
theopedersen@hotmail.com
What Typedesign
How Contextual alternates
When 2023
The letterforms caught my attention. I knew them. I recognized them. I liked them. But I did not know why. Some quick research and it dawned on me – I liked it, because it had visually transported me back to my childhood. The works of author and poet Halfdan Rasmussen has a special place in the upbringing of me and my siblings. And a lot of these works is illustrated by Ib Spang Olsen.
Amongst many things, Spang Olsen is the artist behind most of author Halfdan Rasmussens book covers. Beyond that, he was an author, designer, member of the danish resistance and a hero to the people. As Ib Spang Olsen himself, his letters are of many talents - used in a variety of ways, primarily on books, ranging from childrens limericks to poems about schnapps. Most of us remembers them as part of “Halfdan’s ABC”, the famous children’s limericks about the letters in the Danish alphabet.
Ranging over a variety of mediums and expressions, one thing that is common in all of Spang Olsen’s work is the letters. He rarely used existing typefaces, instead he drew the titles and text in each work himself. Clearly a part of a system, it is the same letters Ib drew on different works, over many years. An alphabet reference he created for himself. The letters keep the same basic expression in all the works, while changing in width, accuracy, height and so forth – as something created by hand always will. But they also change in expression. From childish to serious. From fast and sloppy to accurate and precise. Historically the letters lean on classic letterforms. In a national history, they are the visual face of many danish childrens first experiences with the alphabet. I dare to call them part of our national upbringing and culture.
For me, his letters are the visual shell over the universe that is Ib Spang Olsen.