The archive · Design & Visual · Product decision · 2020–2023
UND: from a Baum und Pferdgarten display font to a full psychedelic retail typeface
Fashion brand Baum und Pferdgarten commissioned a quick uppercase display face; foundry Playtype kept drawing until it became UND, a full retail typeface.
Playtype · Baum und Pferdgarten
What it had to solve
Danish fashion brand Baum und Pferdgarten needed a quick, uppercase-only display typeface. The foundry that drew it found the shapes playful enough to keep working on them after the campaign instead of stopping at the deadline.
How it works
UND began as a job for Danish fashion brand Baum und Pferdgarten: a quick, uppercase-only display typeface. The shapes were too interesting to stop at one campaign, so the foundry that drew them kept developing the face for its own retail catalogue.
The retail version added lowercase letters and refined the letterforms, making the type even more playful, colourful and psychedelic. The finished font reads as a contemporary homage to the music, graphics and typography of the San Francisco psychedelia scene of around the 1970s.
D&AD's awards archive files UND under Type Design & Lettering and records no sales figures. What the entry preserves is the journey: a seasonal commission became a standalone product because the studio treated the quick job as a first draft rather than a deadline to forget.
Why it lands
- A client commission pays for the first version, so the foundry tests its typeface idea with someone else's budget.
- Psychedelic lettering gives the font a distinctive personality that neutral geometric faces cannot match.
- Adding lowercase and refining the shapes turns a headline-only display font into a system others can licence.
- Releasing the face keeps the design working long after the fashion campaign that paid for it has ended.
What it did
D&AD's awards archive files UND under Type Design & Lettering. The page records no licensing or sales figures; it documents the product decision — a fashion-brand commission developed into a retail typeface with its own point of view.
What you can take
A tight commission is a free proof of concept: when the quick version feels alive, invest the extra drawing time and turn it into a product other clients can licence.
Since then
UND entered the foundry's retail catalogue as a full typeface and was recognised in the D&AD Annual 2023, with the archive filing it under Type Design & Lettering. The archive page reports no licensing or sales numbers. What it documents is the result of the studio's decision: a quick display commission from Baum und Pferdgarten became a permanent product, with the lowercase expansion and refined shapes turning a campaign font into an homage to psychedelia that outlived its original use.
Sources
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