The Challenge

How can we create a typeface that transports people to Modern Americana?

The Story

Back in early 2022, two designers headed high up into the Californian hills… chasing some crazy dream of finding the ‘real’ America. Stumbling across Ponderosa, a tiny backcountry town averse to big city influence and equally wary of outsiders, they found something even more interesting. Entering the local lodge, a kind of ‘Minis Haberdashery’, they were met with a traditional Californian welcome, “Who the fuck are these greenhorns?” The evening proceeded with a similarly contentious attitude towards politics, drinking a lot of Mayor Bill’s bootleg tequila and riding snowmobiles into the night. These were old school Americans, but with skidoos. They were okies with iPhones, and mountain folk with Teslas. This wasn’t vintage America. This was: ‘Modern Americana’. As a studio, we’ve always loved the reverse contrast fonts so heavily associated with the old Wild West, this was the America we went looking for, but it wasn’t the America we found. So, in collaboration with Tom Baber, we created Pondo Variable, inspired by the old voice of postcard America, but modernised to reflect the West we experienced. The nature of the variable typeface allows designers to express a more contemporary, but still authentic American voice. Delivered in three weights, and a variable.

Collaborators

Tom Baber