Kontrapunkt wins gold for Carlsberg typeface at Creative Circle Award 2009. The story behind the typeface named Carlsberg Sans is a real fairytale with elephants, artistic heritage and a happy ending.
The Creative Circle Award jury gives gold to 'a piece of work demonstrating courage and will to break conventions and to set new standards'. "We are extremely proud to be awarded gold for this comprehensive typography for one of Denmark's oldest and most well-known international brands. It's a typeface that will last the next 100 years," says Kontrapunkt creative director, Martin Lasthein Hansen.



ELEPHANTS AND OTHER SWINGING DETAILS
Carlsberg Sans is inspired by the art nouveau details of the Danish artist Thorvald Bindesbøll's famous Carlsberg logo, linking it closely to the visual heritage of Carlsberg. Carlsberg Sans takes stylistic hints and typographic quirks from the Carlsberg logo, yet manages to remain timeless, versatile and practical. The image of the elephant occurs throughout the history of Carlsberg. So what could be more natural than to incorporate details inspired by trunks, tusks and other elephantine features?



CULTURALLY ADJUSTED
Carlsberg Sans has been designed to contain enough character and detail to stand out, while remaining an extremely functional typeface, able to exceed the Western European market. The typeface family contains a full Latin Character set, accommodating all European languages, and a Cyrillic character set, extended with specific Uzbek characters – all incorporating the same distinct characteristics. Carlsberg Sans has been created with extreme care to respect the typographic traditions of the local Carlsberg markets, e.g. specific Polish accents, usually ignored by standard character sets.

A HAPPY ENDING - TYPEFACE AND LOGO HAND IN HAND
"Kontrapunkt has a long tradition of creating custom-made typefaces for our clients, as a typeface has the ability to convey as much character as a logotype or a set of colours. In Carlsberg's case, the challenge was to create a family of fonts that works across everything from the small print of an annual report to headline font and high impact promotions," explains Martin Lasthein Hansen.
Carlsberg Sans was stylistically created to sit comfortably alongside the Carlsberg logo, something that no other typeface had managed before. Text written in Carlsberg Sans will inherently complement the logo, rather than distract from it. And the two lived happily ever after.

For more information please contact:
project manager Nikoline Klareskov at or press coordinator Helene Øllgaard at or +45 3393 1883.
See more on www.creativecircleaward.dk   ///