Londres / MA Thesis / The Royal Academy

The interplay of typography & lettering

The Interplay of Typography and Lettering

What Londres Regular, Typedesign
When 2024-2025
How Typedesign, font production, OpenType features
Why Final Thesis, MA, The Royal Danish Academy

My final thesis project at The Royal Danish Academy. A reflection of a personal journey in type and a examination of the interplay between typography and lettering.

Typography relies on a system to ensure consistent reproduction. In contrast, lettering adapts to its context. It creates images. I’m tying together my journey in type, from expressive lettering to type design, by bridging these contrasting yet connected disciplines in the multi-functional typeface Londres—uniting two extremes; chancery inspired lettering and the hard-working features of a transitional typographic workhorse. In essence, i’m adding elegancy to typography and structure to lettering.

Shrubs Light

Typography is “Writing with prefabricated characters” (Noordzij, “The Stroke”, 2005). It is systematic, automated and has specified attributes & information, that can “be passed on” to any given user (Smeijers, Counterpunch, 1996) to create text that fit in every format.

Lettering should “Fit to a given space with beauty and character, ease and accuracy.” as expressed by Edward Johnston, meaning that it should take its form based on the format that it is intended for. Letters for a sign should fit the signs dimensions, and lettering for an album cover should take the square format into consideration.

OpenType Features

Between the poles, a large range of stylistic alternates allows for a custom level expression. All supported by user-friendly coding and OpenType features.

With nearly 300 stylistic alternates, lettering expressions can range from mild to wild, and with as many lowercase as uppercase stylistic sets, the interplay of typography and lettering is build in. Contextual alternates prevents letters clashing, while ensuring a dynamic character exchange, minimizing duplicates and making the font a seamless and dynamic tool for creating lettering, text and everything in between.

Classification of typeface

ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to typography and typeface design. Its annual conference has taken place every year since 1957. I was fortunate enough to be among 80 selected speakers, out of more than 200 submissions for the 2025 edition, held at my former school, The Royal Danish Academy. Shown here are the poster design i brought as an attention grabber and a visual informative tool, explaining the basics and showcasing the design of Londres.

Old-style features: (nearly) oblique axis and old-style stress in ‘e’ and ‘c’. Remnants/subtle hints of broad pen calligraphy in ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘p’ and ‘q’. Transitional: High contrast in the ‘e’ finial.

Transitional features: (semi) high contrast in shoulder of ‘n’. Symmetrical, upright axis in ‘o’. Upright ‘a’. No serifs + vertical beak and spur on ‘s’. Vertical axis and stress in capitals (the ‘D’). High contrast in capitals (the ‘R’),

Specimen Folder

A specimen folder that doubles as a poster. Specimen on the pages, poster on the back. Riso printed on old newspaper, this is a mix of classicism and the contemporary - just as Londres itself is it.

The Interplay

Something about why it is so good. This is not another Bookman - this is so much more. Stjæl noget tekst fra de screenshots du har taget på Instagram f.eks. Something about why it is so good. This is not another Bookman - this is so much more. Stjæl noget tekst fra de screenshots du har taget på Instagram f.eks.

Something about why it is so good. This is not another Bookman - this is so much more. Stjæl noget tekst fra de screenshots du har taget på Instagram f.eks.

Speaker at ATypI 2025

ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to typography and typeface design. Its annual conference has taken place every year since 1957.

I was fortunate enough to be among 80 selected speakers, out of more than 200 submissions for the 2025 edition, held at my former school, The Royal Danish Academy. Shown here are the poster design i brought as an attention grabber and a visual informative tool, explaining the basics and showcasing the design of Londres.

Londres In Use: “Forcats de la Route”, design by Tor S. Johannesen

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Tutoring by Elias Stenalt Werner
The Royal Danish Academy Graphic Communication Design, 2025
Typedesign, font production, graphic design, photography, animation and text by Theodor Ballisager