Gestalten

Your name/Company name and a brief introduction:
Rodrigo Fuenzalida. I’m a 28-year-old designer from Caracas, Venezuela, with a strong interest in typography and alphabet design. My major references come from 60s and 70s design, geometry, calligraphy, handwritten type and letterpress.

A short description about the font:
Khubo is a 3D-looking font based on the cube, with three versions: Fill, Outline and Sticks. It’s still in development -- maybe we’ll see more versions of it in the future.


What was the main idea behind designing the font?
The idea behind Khubo was fairly straight-forward: to make a font using a cube as a starting point, instead of the square. The idea was to make a modular 3D-font.

How would you characterize your style?
My style is based around big black geometric display typefaces.

How did you come up with the name of the font?
It’s a cool name from a somewhat common origin, the “cubo”

What inspires you?
Constructivism. 60s, 70s, 80s. Geometry, color, vintage illustration, vintage-looking illustrations, logos.


Which is the bigger challenge: working on your own personal project or for a client with a strict briefing?
A client with a strict brief.

Do you have a working routine? What are your ideal conditions for you to work in?
Since I work at a studio here in Caracas, with very strict and managed briefs by our clients, my work routine can mean coming to the studio and working for 8 hours on design projects from print to web.

When I have free time, I use it to draw letters and make sketches of ideas for new alphabets. Sometimes I combine that with a newly discovered passion for illustration.

What is the ideal usage of your font?
I really haven’t thought about this until now. But I’m sure that it will be as a big display font for titles and very short sentences. Or in heavy graphics projects as a companion or maybe an illustrative font.

How would you describe the state your handwriting is in?
My handwriting is awful! I write like a 4-year-old kid who doesn’t know to write!

Where does the font end, where does the image begin? Is there a line to draw?
This is a very good question. I ask it to myself everyday.

In my personal research on typography, I try to erase that line between type and form. I’m always trying to merge them in equal percentages. I always think that I’m studying the form using type as an excuse.

Your future plans/projects?
Continue with the study and develpoment of alphabets. Start my own Studio. Start selling some silkscreen prints. And continue to work, hopefully, with more people from around the world.