Pop-up Exhibition
Flexibility
Designmuseum Danmark digitalized the font “Flexibility”, which was created by the Danish architect and graphic designer Naur Klint (1920-1978), in connection with the launch of the museum’s new visual identity. The font, which is also called “Denmark’s first system font” had been forgotten in the museum’s archives.
The process has been a close co-operation between the museum and Naur Klint’s grandson – the architect and Associate Professor Lars Klint – and Urgent.Agency.
Now it’s emerging on the international scene as part of the museum’s new visual profile.
The missing link in Danish typography history
Flexibility is very special for the Designmuseum, because it makes Danish font history complete. The font builds a bridge between the historic and modern design tradition, because it exemplifies the upheaval between the handcrafted artisanal font tradition known from Knud V. Engelhardt (1882-1931) and Thorvald Bindesbøll (1846-1908) and the modernistic, complete system font that we know from fonts like Helvetica Neue and Univers.
The font is also very special because Naur Klint, who created the font in the beginning of the 1960s, was the son of Danish design’s grand old man Kaare Klint, the man who transformed the museum’s buildings in 1926 from their original usage as Denmark’s first public hospital. The font also symbolizes the transformation that the museum has gone through from a historical museum of arts and crafts to a modern design museum. The two Klint generations have influenced the renewal of the museum in their own way.
The process has been a close co-operation between the museum and Naur Klint’s grandson – the architect and Associate Professor Lars Klint – and Urgent.Agency.
Designmuseum Danmark won a Creative Circle Award in the category Best Design Client of the Year based on the co-operation.
Urgent.Agency won two Creative Circle Awards in the categories Rebrand/Corporate Identity, and Type Design and a Red Dot Award for the Flexibility font.