What would Kama Sutra or Jekyll and Hyde look like as a font?

Starting out with the question “can design inspire people to read the classics,” agency BBDO Guerrero worked with The Reading Association of the Philippines to develop Font Books – a set of typefaces based on iconic novels, with the book hidden within the file. The open-source set includes eight so far: display and text fonts inspired by Moby-Dick, The Metamorphosis, The Time Machine, Kama Sutra, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Secret Garden, A Princess of Mars, and Peter Pan.

Each is designed to “give a better appreciation and understanding of the stories,” the agency says, and when you download it, you get a copy of the novel in ebook and audiobook format.

“Every typeface character was crafted to give a better picture of the story,” creative director Michelle Edu explains. “For instance, Moby-Dick is all about Captain Ahab’s quest to get revenge on the white whale, so the animal’s eyes and tail feature prominently in the font. The many thin legs and stiff, segmented body parts of Kafka’s protagonist inspired the letters of the Metamorphosis typeface. The sci-fi tale of Flatland tells the story of a Square visiting worlds of varying dimensions, so the points, lines, and angles he comes to know plays into each font character.”

Instead of the generic font preview that is usually implemented to demonstrate the characters, lorem ipsum or “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” each font instead uses excerpts from the novels, such as “It was that accursed white whale that razed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day!” (Moby Dick).

As it grows, it’s hoped the project will encourage more people in the Philippines – the third largest English-speaking country – to pick up a classic.

Explore the project further and download the fonts here.