This was Robby Woodard’s pandemic project. During all the craziness and uncertainty surrounding lockdowns and work-from-home mandates, the veteran designer decided to revisit the classic Egyptienne/Italienne/French Clarendon aesthetic and make it his very own with two extra spoons of fun and a generous dollop of cheer. Quirkwood is what we have after his typographic bender, and we believe our world is all the better for it. This is a spaghetti western with Shazam and Wile E. Coyote cast in prominent starring roles, a bluegrass album of Edith Piaf covers.
By reconfiguring a classic archetype’s DNA and introducing new quirks to it, Robby presents a uniquely sunny and wholesome character with this typeface. The common reverse-stress-slab treatment goes a long way for sure, but there are also plenty of unusual elements working hard in the background here: Ball endings harmonizing with thick soft rectangles, diagonals cutting light into thick softnesses, eager open midsections guiding the eyeballs, strokes thickening into curled serifs just short of swashing out, and giddy extenders bopping along to an eccentric beat.
Quirkwood offers plenty more bells and whistles: Contrast and weight variants, chromatic colour possibilities in layering, stylistic and contextual alternates, small caps, standard and discretionary ligatures, and other OpenType features.
The future is quirky, and we all need cheering up these days. So design accordingly and brighten up someone’s day.
