Horde DarkMatter
HØRDE × Altiplano
Because you are someone who truly matters to us, we wanted to gift you something special for our 5th anniversary. We teamed up with Altiplano to share our passion and celebrate the Lausanne creative spirit. The result is a unique and exclusive font: Horde DarkMatter. Thank you all for the hand you gave us creating what Horde is today!
Horde DarkMatter is the combination of two models that were historical antagonists. In the 1920s, Jan Tschichold published “Die Neue Typographie” (The New Typography). In this manifesto, he confronts the old models, which he associates with vernacular forms of expression, with radical forms based on a geometrical construction. The letter becomes the elementary atom and the method by which the typographic compositions are displayed on the page seems to be borrowed from architecture.
This fusion reflects the typographic compositions of Tschichold's peer: the artist Johannes Itten. The mix of typefaces in Itten’s compositions witnesses the artistic transition of its time. Horde DarkMatter is a tribute to this aesthetic.
The two styles making the expressive universe of Horde DarkMatter are combined in a single Open Type file. They are distinct and complementary, consistent in their weights and geometric construction, and both come from the interpretation of two great typographic eras. The construction of style 1 is a geometrical Sans Serif typeface, with calligraphic features such as bevelled endings and ligatures. On the contrary, the construction of style 2 is free and expressive. Inspired by the so-called gothic script (or black letter), Altiplano proposes a radical interpretation based on a geometrical structure.
Thus, for all graphic explorers in search of new rhythms, the deployment of those two styles gives them the possibility to use one or the other, or mix both of them. With Horde DarkMatter, new colorful languages and images emerge from the composite structure of words.
ALT
COLOR
Festival Lausanne Lumières
You might already have seen Horde DarkMatter font a 220 square meters building at the 2021 Festival Lausanne Lumières. If not, shot a glance at the 8 experimental universes we created with a unique graphic design. 8 propositions inspired by the word “Lausanne” that illustrate our vision of nowadays visual creation: kinetic typography and various 2D and 3D animation.
Horde is a team of passionate creatives who are all specialists in their respective fields. Creativity is the motor that drives our business, and we all share the belief that the human experience should be at the heart of every project and strategy.
Our approach is firmly rooted in the legacy of Swiss graphic design. These are the foundational elements upon which we envision the future of interaction design and technology.
ALTIPLANO
Our font catalog is developed according to the evolutionary and narrative potential of the alphabetic characters. Altiplano sees the letter not only as a vector of meaning, but also as an image.
This hybridized approach allows us to accurately reflect the sensitivities that distinguish a place or a period. Like technological innovations, we create typographic languages that express a world in motion.