Fonts are like vinyl records: They're cool, and can occasionally be interesting topics of conversation, but they're mostly just fodder for annoying fanboys (and girls) to obsess over. A few fashion designers use gothic Old English and suddenly everyone is riled up about it (or writing a trend piece about it).
But the latest font to be adopted by some big fashion names, called Planet Kosmos, actually has a cool story around it. According to an article today in Racked, Kanye West and Raf Simons—who have both used Planet Kosmos in recent designs—reached out to the font's creator in order to license it for commercial use. Namely, on the shirt above from Raf's spring 2017 collection and on Ye's infamous, unreleased "Calabasas" sweatpants.
This might not sound all that interesting until you realize that Planet Kosmos is actually free to use across the internet. And rather than just pilfer some freebee, both Yeezy and Simons wanted to do right by a man who went to the trouble of putting something unique and beautiful into the world. That man, a Danish graphic designer named Mads Rydahl, created Planet Kosmos in 1996 after he imagined what it would look like on, as he told Racked, "a superfast electric motorcycle from a manga-like next millennium."
Where this story gets even cooler is what Rydhal asked for in return. All he wanted was a "Compact Disc with something you love or have created yourself." Apparently he has received art projects, reggae albums, and, from Simons, a disc with actual designs on it. Simons will also be sending him a couple of shirts once they come out.
Given this world where everyone is trying to cop something for free—especially from brands like Yeezy and Raf Simons—it's cool to see someone who instead wants to just catch a glimpse of another artist's creative process. It's also cool to see a couple of artists who actually care enough about that process to recognize, and to offer compensation for, someone else's creation.
Given the madness of this election day, it's a nice little story to take your mind off things.
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