Tor Weibull's latest typeface replicates the game of badminton

Graphic designer Tor Weibull doesn’t pull from the usual resources to create his typefaces. When we’ve previously praised the Swedish designer for his experimental work it was for a typeface made from tubular metal, but now the designer has turned to sports for inspiration, designing Bad Mono, a typeface based on badminton.

A custom-made typeface for the visual identity of A Game of Badminton, an exhibition by Carl Anders, the typeface mirrors the movements and grid system of the sport. “Working closely with Carl during the development of the visual identity of his exhibition I quickly came to the conclusion that it could be nice to develop a typeface for it,” Tor tells It’s Nice That.

Each of the posters and invitation cards for the exhibition’s opening were built upon the idea of the repetition that consumes badminton, as well as “the strict grid of the net and also the court as a static format of where the game takes place,” says Tor. “A monospaced typeface felt like it could suit for the job and work with the initial ideas for the printer material, but I did also want it to have something more to it than being an ordinary monospaced typeface.”

The result is Bad Mono, a squared typeface that still includes a slight curve, “based on the rhythm of the game and the grid of the net,” Tor explains. “As the feather ball hits the net the grid squares expand and therefore most of the uppercase letters have the double letter width of the lowercase letters.” Consequently the designer has designed a typeface that replicates a moment “as if the ball just smashed in to them and extended them”.