Designer Jozef Ondrik adapts old fonts to create sleek and refreshed typographic systems

Slovakian designer Jozef Ondrik aims to change his style and give it a different shape with each project. “First comes the idea, the concept, context and then style. I don’t have one particular style or permanent ideology,” he explains. “However, one thing that links all my projects is a component of typography. Whether it’s in the background or it’s a main part, it is always there.”

We’ve featured Jozef’s work multiple times before for his experimental approach to typography, where he often mixes different typefaces together with geometric graphics. In one of his most recent projects, he’s created a cover for quarterly magazine, Smart Cities, which is designed for officials and politicians in Czech and Slovak cities. “The magazine provides information on technologies and concepts for efficient urban management,” explains Jozef. “Smart Cities is run by my good friend Ondrej Doležal and he gave me a chance to design a cover on the subject of public procurement. The result was a gravestone with the text ‘Rest in Peace’.”

The seemingly dry subject matter of the magazine is lifted by Jozef’s bold approach and as well as the final cover, Jozef has included roughs on his website, offering an insight into his process, which he tries to keep adaptable. “My approach to a project changes. For example, sometimes we work on really complex structured websites in a team of four or five people, which requires a lot of communication and consultation with other people on the team,” says Jozef. “Other times, a project is much more about the story and we try to identify a theme for the story, which supports and represents the project.”

Jozef still works with Zdenek Kvasnica as Deep Throat Studio, and the pair have worked on several type-based projects including Oval, Lyra, DT Grotesk and others. For his posters, programmes and covers, Jozef often creates typographic systems from scratch or adapts old typefaces and it can be a complicated process. “Sometimes I revive the font by transforming old fonts that attract me visually or through some personal experiences,” he explains. “I also create and modify fonts for a particular commission we’re working on in the studio, so the morphed characters respond to the brief.”

In the future Jozef would like to run a small type foundry with Matej Vojtuš, which would suit his typographic sensibilities perfectly. “I enjoy finding and creating strange typefaces and characters. But it’s always rewarding to come up with a character set that fits the client’s concept exactly.”