✎ Kelsey Elder
type + tech + teaching

is a typographer and educator based in Pittsburgh, PA. When he’s not teaching at Carnegie Mellon University, crafting letters, and/or tinkering on a press, you’ll most likely find him hanging out with his cats.

about
contact
teaching-type.com


① Recent Projects
Variable
teaching

Gravity Racers typeface + tool
Labore VT
typeface

Emmett Till Memory Project
design advisor

Coterie Baby
logotype + monogram

Melting Metal
publication

Second Shift Autowerks
identity

Meager
typeface

Letter Matters
programming

Dead Bird Letterstranscription + setting
Cards for Loved Oneslettering + illustration
Ameri-Candied Dreamssupergraphics





Labore

typeface
Labore is a result of asking: to what extent can historical material-based research benefit the creation and production of variable font families?

Labore is a variable font that translates relational and proportional systems found in Renaissance-era foundry type into the contemporary era. Its development was heavily supported by research conducted at the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp, Belgium; including extensive analyasis of hand-moulds, punches, matrixes, foundry type, and printed examples. Labore applies the relational frameworks of foundry type making into actionable scripts that assist in the creation of variable fonts and help manage large glyph sets. 

It currently has one axis for weight, with two additional axes for slant and optical size in production. It is a unitized font; all characters share widths across styles. This design detail affords users the ability to stylize text without disrupting line lengths. 

It is engineered to support 435 languages  that use the Latin script with an extended ‘Omni-Latin’ character set and contains a suite of functional (and fun!) OpenType features including; tight fitting (swaps letters to narrower counterparts), misprint (randomized position and occasionally upside down glyphs), and a Saltillo feature (which makes it easier to typeset the glyph).

It will be available in the near future.