A font perfect for not just one, but many projects! Introducing Oceanwide Pro, a sans that loves to be used in just about any situation! Designed with ultra clean lines, versatility in mind, and a host of Pro font features, Oceanwide Pro wants to be your new favorite sans!
Design Features
• Simplicity
• Tall x-height
• Hand-sloped obliques (italics)
• Narrow spacing
• Semi-wide proportions
• Expert kerning
• Well proportioned, usable lights & extra lights
• Large caps
• Great ALL CAPS MODE
• Uppercase punctuation
• Uppercase spacing with California Type Foundry’s Smart Tracking™
• Advanced fraction support
• Proportional lining figures
• Thick joins
• Smooth curves
• Sturdy—great for textures and effects
• Variable font available
• Latin Pro character set for Central European languages. That's the writing for over 782 languages and transliterations worldwide!
Oceanwide’s ultra clean letters work anywhere you want to communicate orderliness and competence, and designed to build trust and rapport with your audience. Its wide proportions make it ideal for display and logo use.
Oceanwide especially shines for white/bright letters on black/dark backgrounds! That’s because the inside shapes are nearly perfect circles in many weights.
DESIGN STORY—THE FORGOTTEN SANS
Originally commissioned and designed in the 1960’s, Adrian Frutiger’s first and original geometric sans serif font has been largely lost to time and never released for purchase.
Back in 1968, Frutiger was approached by Pentagram to make a design for British Petroleum. They wanted a “new version of Futura”. However, they wanted him to make a couple adjustments. First, they felt that Futura was “too fiddly.” By this, they meant that it narrowed too much at the joins. (Joins are for example where the round and straight parts of the 'd' meet.) This is something that is necessary for small print text (to prevent ink clogging), but is not necessary at large sizes. Second, they wanted it to be entirely geometric, using the circular shape with minimal optical corrections.
Unfortunately this font was not even used very consistently in the BP brand. A haphazard mix of Futura and Frutiger's BP font ensued. It was then replaced by another font design very soon after.
Now over 50 years later, designers can have a new font inspired by Frutiger’s classic design, updated and expanded for today’s designers.
Oceanwide is an ultra clean sans combining the best of Frutiger’s design philosophy with the demands of today’s designers. Solid letter joins, wide proportions and straightforward lines were brought forward from Frutiger’s designs, while optical adjustments, weight and slant extensions, and new symbols were added and updated, resulting in a robust and ultimately versatile font for the 21st century.
Frutiger’s design philosophy, in his own words: “If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page… When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.”
The words about the spoon were the ones I kept in my mind as I tried to make the curves ultra smooth, and the shapes ultra simple.
Hopefully this font is a worthy successor to the font that inspired it.
Released on the 93rd birthday of Adrian Frutiger, to celebrate the life and achievements of this amazing designer.
–Dave Lawrence
