design inspiration
When Baka and Baka Too did very well commercially (Baka was named the Best Cursive Rough Script in 2005), I shied away from doing rough, handwritten scripts in fear as being seen as a one-trick-pony. A few years have passed and some early sumi-e brush ‘doodles’ kept appealing to me. I initially thought this new font would just fall under the Baka mantle and just become a new sibling, but as brush hit paper over and over again, the letters took on a different personality from Baka.

This new font was turning out to be far more expressive, smooth and rough, tasty but sticky. This dichotomy demanded a new name. The rough and smooth texture suggested the name Fugu—oddly delicate while rough and functional.

design information
Fugu is a departure from many brush calligraphic lettered inspired typefaces of recent years. It is not intended to be perfectly flowing or over-the-top. It is the product of sumi brush on cotton paper and written in a deliberate casual pace. Each letterform relies on how the hand reacts from character to character. The interplay is instinctual and deliberate with the resulting forms taking on a more visceral appearance on the page and screen. The texture is “real”, devoid of software trickery or plug-ins. The casual style is refreshing and contemporary – further expanded with alternate glyphs, swashes and ligatures found in both the type and glyph palettes.


Since this font was released and won a Type Directors Club Certificate of Excellence in Type Design in 2010, some say that it's not tight, that it's not loose, that it's haphazard and some have ignorantly said it was 'mechanically textured'. This has caused me to laugh because it shows the fleeting attention given to looking at the base letterforms. It was never meant to be perfect or over-the-top. It was intended to be the result of: Step 1, pick up the brush (notice, I did not say mouse); Step 2, make letters that work together with a fluidity that is honest, visceral; Step 3, distill the wealth of characters created and curate the collection into a typeface; Step 4, scan, digitize and finalize. It is far from mechanical, it's not tight, it's not loose. It is, however, a snapshot— personal, casual and relaxing. :)