The making of IKONEN. About.
 IKONEN typeface and symbols came to life during the corona pandemic when most of us were in lockdown.  

Graphic designer Claudia Eggimann made use of the form called «flower of life». An ancient geometric shape. By choosing a grid of the first 7 circles, her goal was to use only the existing lines for drawing. Lines, which will never be straight. It was quite a challenge.

01    CREATION.The search for shapes and symbols of things. Things that scare, things to like, things that just wanted to be drawn. Initially all symbols and letters had been drawn by hand, on paper, with a brush. In clear separation of black and white. Even the grid was drawn anew on every blank sheet with the compass.

It was a quiet and lonesome experience. There was no «ctrl+z» and no «every stroke is perfect». The sound of the brush meeting the water glass, the compass drawing clean lines on the paper. It was a real joy to be at home all day long, and the drawings sometimes did not turn out as wished for.
02    RESUMPTION.For a while, the drawings have been set aside. By the beginning of 2025, Claudia Eggimann started to make a digitalised version. Instead of exactly tracing the original lines, she redrew all shapes in Illustrator (still not pixel perfect). The original versions she will maybe later publish as IKONEN Original. Until then they remain at herself.
03    DIGITALISATION.Thought to create icons/symbols only at first, even an alphabet occurred. Never before having digitalised a typeface, Claudia Eggimann decided to take some first steps in font design software (GlyphsMini, very basic) and tried her best to kern and turn the alphabet and icons into typeface files. Like this, they can be easily used as a web font with low weight on websites or fit on top of each other because of the same width of letter. Fazit: very difficult and time-consuming – but hooked :)
BASIC INFORMATIONS
For more download the PDF Datasheet or browse through the website.

01    Symbols and Typeface are all delivered as font files (*.woff/*.otf) for faster loading on websites. File sizes range from 10 to 40 KB.
File sizes range from 10 to 40 KB.


02     All symbols are set in a similar invisible field. They fit on top of each other if typed within the same measurements. They can be mixed and matched and used for visual stories. Head over to IKONEN Insane to see more.

Two symbols from different packs combined.



03    Patterns can be generated by adjusting the typeface's line height and letter space. They can also be mixed with each other. Making patterns is not only possible within the pattern pack but also with all other symbols too.
First row: Font as it is.
Second and third rows: Adjustments in line height and letter space.



04    The TypefacePack includes two weights with rudimentary characters for setting headlines in Deutsch, Français and English.
The letters can be arranged into picture-like structures without losing readability. Or use the SVG-Files to even create full pictures.










trynow!

ikonen