For thousands of years, humans have revered cats. Now, they’ve become a muse again with a new font that aims to convey cats’ sense of “playfulness”. This cat-inspired font is part of a campaign for Smalls, a high protein natural cat food subscription service based in New York.

Created by Smalls’ lead designer, Miles Barretto, in partnership with Good Type Foundry, the cat-inspired font is based on the Adieu sans serif typeface. The result is the cheeky Adieu Smalls uppercase font, which Miles envisioned to “create alternate characters that would surprise and delight.” And unless you’re more of a dog person, this set could easily rival some of the best free fonts for designers for your affections.

But how does the nature of a cat get translated into a typeset? Research. To get inspiration for the font, Miles spent time observing cats and their everyday movements. Thus, Adieu Smalls takes its greatest inspiration from the way cats use their bodies as a form of communication.

“I think it’s fascinating to know that within cat owners there is a commonality of experiences in having a cat and trying to translate those unspoken facts through the design was a learning process that I have not really thought of until working with Smalls.”

Elements of “playfulness” can be found in the wiggly M and O. The font also draws upon the cat’s tail, which Miles describes as creating a slight hook at its tip when a cat is interested. Similarly, the U and E have been given the cattail treatment at their ascenders and descenders. The same “playfulness” and movement can also be seen on Smalls’ refreshed packaging, breaking conventions of regular cat food. To top-off the cat-inspired font, Miles also created Small Talk Magazine, a print accompaniment to the Small Talk blog.

Click here to get the font for yourself.

Source: https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/12-18-august-2019/the-worlds-first-cat-inspired-font/