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Yamakasa documents the Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival 2025 and translates its energy into a visual language that goes far beyond mere documentation.

The origins of the festival date back to 1241, when the Buddhist monk Enni was carried through the city on a festival float by the population in order to drive away the plague with prayers. Over the centuries, the ritual ceremony developed into a spiritual festival that is unique in the world. Every year from July 1 to 15, seven groups of men parade through the old town with their magnificent Yamakasas: richly decorated wooden frames weighing over a ton.

German photographer Klaus Richter, who has been a constant companion to the rock and metal scene with his camera since the 1960s, received rare permission in 2025 to accompany one of the teams during the festivities. His photographs document not only the procession itself, but also the preparations, the breaks, the sweat, and the audience. They show the pulse of a community celebrating its tradition.

The impetus for the book came from the photo platform LFI Gallery (Leica Fotografie International). LFI Gallery awarded five photographs by Klaus Richter as Mastershot, five additional images as Selection, and one photo as Picture of the Week in 2025.

Yamakasa was designed by Klaus Richter and his son Gabriel. They conceptualized the book as a spatial and movable object. The headlines and texts move across the pages like the Yamakasa carriers through the city. The open thread stitching is not only an aesthetic detail, but a deliberate reference to the ropes and cords that hold the Yamakasas together. With around 300 pages, the book has a physical presence that conveys the weight and power of the festival.

During the preparations for the festival, the men wear stylish Toban Happi coats. There are over 50 different types. The Nishinagare group, accompanied by Klaus Richter, wear dark blue toban happi coats with white characters. Gabriel Richter initially sketched a headline font based on this, but did not pursue it further: “It seemed too contrived to me.” (Richter)

In the German-Japanese typographic design, the typeface Tausend plays a central role and Gabriel Richter was also involved in its development. Its compactness and slightly slanted ends correspond strongly with the structure of Japanese Kanji and their dynamic strokes. Tightly spaced letters create a feeling of density and cohesion, as exemplified by the groups of men carrying their palanquin. In combination with the Japanese typeface Hiragino Sans from SCREEN Graphic Solutions, whose subtle weight gradations could be precisely matched to Tausend, a captivating typographic dialogue was created – without striking effects or cultural simplifications.

Yamakasa is a book about community, trust, and movement. Tausend is not a neutral carrier of information, but part of the narrative: powerful, compact, rhythmic. The project exemplifies how type not only accompanies, but also carries meaning. And how typography can bridge the gap between form and content.

Try Tausend

Try Tausend

Pangea’s designer Christoph Koeberlin and publisher Ivo Gabrowitsch were thrilled, as both have appreciated DuckDuckGo’s USP for years. Unlike more well-known search engines, it does not collect personal information about its users and displays the same results for everyone.

Initially, the original Pangea was displayed to a small portion of DuckDuckGo users to see whether it would influence or impact their behavior. After just 24 hours, the test was deemed a success. From then on, the typeface could be selected in the settings as an alternative to the previous default font, Proxima Nova.

At the same time, work began on the desired modifications. Fontwerk worked closely with DuckDuckGo’s Brand Team to turn Pangea into the semi-custom font ‘Duck Sans’. To avoid too great a change in users’ viewing and reading habits, the font size had to be adjusted to match the previous one. This meant reducing the size of all glyphs by around 3% and adjusting the vertical metrics and positioning of accents accordingly.

Adjustments were also made to other characters, such as the ‘G’ (more distinct), the ‘&’ (closed), and the dots on the i (heavier), as well as newly drawn numerals that were to become more ‘grotesque’. In addition, the stylistic alternative of the lowercase ‘l’ (without a foot) was to become the standard in the text version. The three weights Regular, Medium, and Bold were made slightly thinner and the character spacing of the display variant was to be reduced slightly. These requirements arose after internal tests with the variable fonts.

These stylistic changes were implemented following a few feedback rounds, with some of them finding their way into stylistic alternates (accessible via OpenType). Over the course of the collaboration, further requests for customization arose. For example, the stylistic sets now include an additional alternative ‘M’ and a third ‘Duck Ampersand’ for eye-catching purposes; the special ‘G’ and a matching ‘k’ are automatically used in the context of the brand name ‘DuckDuckGo’. In a short space of time, Pangea became ‘Duck Sans Display’ for headlines and Pangea Text became ‘Duck Sans Product’ for most applications.

Another challenge was to reduce file sizes as much as possible. A little bit of context: with 100 million search queries per day, every kilobyte of data adds up to several gigabytes, which has an impact on loading speed and carbon footprint. In order to achieve the greatest possible impact here, the fonts were divided into different language areas. Three main subsets were constructed: ‘Basic Latin’ for the most widely spoken Latin languages worldwide, ‘Complete Latin’ for all other Latin languages (a special feature of Pangea: it masters all languages of the Latin alphabet!), and Cyrillic/Greek.

In addition, characters that are relevant for all language areas – such as currency symbols, fractions, and symbols – were packed into a separate file (‘Supplement’). This allows loading times to be efficiently controlled via CSS font stack depending on the user’s browser language.

Last but not least, manual hinting (a type of screen optimization, especially for older Windows systems) paid off here. Not only does it achieve better results than the usual auto-hinting, but is also more economical in terms of file size. For example: The DuckSansDisplayBasic-Regular.woff2 file can be reduced by up to 90% with all of these measures (non-subset version of the regular retail Pangea 136kB vs. basic version of Duck Sans 15kB). Compared to the previous corporate font, the file size savings are even more significant.

‘Duck Sans’ is an excellent example of how a corporate typeface can be efficiently created. We call the process of adapting an existing retail font to individual requirements ‘Semi-Custom Fonts’. And we often recommend them as a more suitable, time- and cost-efficient alternative to clients who are looking for a Custom Font.

The concrete advantages are impressive, the most important being that licenses for semi-custom fonts are significantly lower in price than custom fonts in the vast majority of cases.

You can also choose from a huge selection of well-developed and extensively tested fonts that customers can test for their own first impression in their product or branding.

Modifications of any kind can be made to suit individual needs and, depending on the scope, are often available within a few days or weeks. In combination with fair and far-reaching license agreements, semi-custom fonts can therefore become exclusive fonts in their own right.

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The significance of this award is demonstrated by the numbers… Out of 1,951 entries from over 40 countries or regions, 396 finalists were selected (including 232 from the professional sector) following a rigorous selection process.

Designer Christine Gertsch commented on the award: “I’m delighted to win the Hiiibrand Silver Award and gain recognition for the work that went into it. What began as a manageable display typeface evolved into a variable font family with eight weights and seven widths. Throughout the process, I was constantly faced with visual and technical challenges.

When designing a variable typeface, you have to control every instance within the design space. It’s more about designing a system than individual weights. I had to figure out how many masters I needed and where to place them on the axes. The entire family has to function as a system, but every style and every character in that style also has to be drawn accurately. So it was a constant zooming in and out between different aspects.

Added to this was the challenge of implementing the typeface design as a side project alongside client work—and within a predictable timeframe. Once the typeface was visually finished, I just needed a good name!

I am very happy with the release and how the agency Rocket & Wink presented the typeface family. A big thank you goes to my fantastic team: Ivo Gabrowitsch for marketing and naming, Anja Meiners and Andreas Frohloff for their support with the design, and Olli Meier for the mastering.”

From all of us at Fontwerk, we just want to say an enormous thank you for your trust, Christine, and congratulations on the award.

Push it!

Back in Melbourne, their circle of friends kept pestering them with questions about their trip, so they decided to write a book about it and publish it themselves. The success of “Across Asia on the Cheap” laid the foundation for what was to become Lonely Planet.

Today, the Australian publisher claims to be the world’s largest provider of independent travel and language guides. They publish 650 titles with a total print run of around 55 million copies. The company employs over 400 people in its offices in Melbourne, Oakland, London and Paris and has a staff of around 150 authors.

In 2022, Lonely Planet commissioned the New York creative studio Garrett Elizabeth Office with a comprehensive redesign of the brand. The aim was to modernize the travel guides and website and make them more attractive to both long-time users and a new generation of travelers.

Following the relaunch of the brand, the internal design team set out to find a new corporate typeface. In 2022, they came across Fontwerk’s multilingual Pangea Collection via an internet search and were fascinated by the story of an “adventurous” font that goes on a world tour with extensive language development. Ultimately the decisive factor in the decision was Pangea’s sustainable licensing model: 25 percent of Christoph Koeberlin’s designer royalties go towards rainforest conservation and large-scale reforestation projects.

Shortly afterwards, Lonely Planet began the complete redesign of all printed materials. For this purpose, the publisher licensed Pangea and Pangea Text Regular, Italic, SemiBold and Bold. In order not to delay the new editions of the travel guides, city maps and maps, the design team even received some Pangea Condensed weights before their official publication. The Lonely Planet website was also refreshed and is now set in six Pangea styles.

Try Pangea

Try Pangea

They offer features that free fonts don’t always provide to the same extent:

• Originality and differentiation: Retail fonts open up a huge selection of individual voices. For almost every project, there is “the one font” that really fits—instead of one that just “works.” In some cases, exclusivity can even be agreed upon, for example, for certain industries or regions.
• Technical reliability: Clean outlines, careful spacing and kerning, vertical metrics, OpenType features, screen optimization, optical sizes, broad Unicode coverage—all tailored to professional workflows and long-life cycles.
• Legal certainty: Established foundries offer a guarantee through clearly defined licenses and advice, and in special cases, the option of adapting terms of use to fit individual needs. Plus: Unlike dynamic integration via third-party servers, local use on your own servers is GDPR-compliant. This reduces risks and provides security.
• Support & updates: Professional fonts are maintained and expanded, and there are direct contacts to access support. Whether you need adjustments, bug fixes, updates or simply a quick query—collegial, direct, fair.
• Sustainability and supporting creatives: A license is also an appreciation of the creative work of others. It strengthens the community, enables new designs, and is an investment in the culture and quality that also benefits your own.

Fonts are everywhere: on websites, in social media, in presentations, in mailings, on packaging, in apps, on advertisements. Every day, your brand communicates through text and across all analog and digital touchpoints.

A license for this often costs less than a subscription to many common business tools. Yet the difference is fonts shape the face of your brand for years and leave a lasting impression.

So the real question is not, “How much does it cost to license fonts?”, but rather, “What does it cost not to?”

Answer: Invisibility, risk of confusion, lack of identity, legal uncertainty, complex repairs and with that comes real economic disadvantages and consequences.

Brand impact is not a bonus, it is an economic foundation and neccessity.

Do you need to convince the project management, management or your clients?

These eight points will help you:

1. A typeface is the most important element in branding, especially in digital environments—even before color, shape and images.
2. Our brand is not standard and therefore deserves more than just a standard font.
3. A typeface with strong character conveys our individual brand values ​​subtly, continuously and effectively in any environment.
4. Our corporate typeface clearly sets us apart from the competition (if necessary, analysis of which [open source] fonts the competitors use).
5. Others who use the same fonts dilute our appearance.
6. With professional fonts we reduce effort, legal risk and later workarounds.
7. The value of the right typeface outweighs its cost.
8. We don’t just design “beautifully”, but strategically.

If you want your own voice, you shouldn’t speak with a borrowed tongue. And if you want a distinctive brand, you should start with the font.

If you need support convincing your team or advice on choosing the right font for your brand: talk to us. For us, fonts are not a byproduct but rather the beating heart of our work.

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Typefaces used in the images:
Supermarker, Nikolai, McQueen, Change, Neue DIN, Nice

For the art festival’s signage system, the team, led by Creative Director Giang Nguyen, was looking for a typeface family that was both functional and sensitive and they found just what they needed at Fontwerk. As Giang Nguyen remembers, Pangea Text was chosen very early on: “We wanted an aesthetic that was inspired by signage systems and their functionality: clear, minimalist, but not too technical. Pangea combines all these requirements with its friendly, humanistic tone.”

Typographically, the project was quite demanding, with multi-column layouts and lots of short text passages in small font sizes.

A crucial factor was also the excellent support for the Vietnamese language. Pangea offers full diacritical features that work in both tight line spacing and complex layouts. These features are thanks to the input from Donny Truong, one of the leading experts in Vietnamese type design, with whom Fontwerk works. Truong stands for a philosophy in which linguistic aesthetics and technical precision work together equally. His characteristic script and idiosyncratic touch is clearly noticeable in Pangea’s Vietnamese character set.

For Fontwerk, the appearance of Pangea in Vietnam is an example of how global type design can have a local impact. “We are delighted that our fonts not only work, but are also loved and used in Asia,” says Ivo Gabrowitsch, founder and Managing Director of Fontwerk. It confirms his philosophy of internationalization on an equal footing.

Try Pangea

Try Pangea