RIOTFace is a font inspired by protest posters, handwritten signs, zines, graffiti, and more. With a built-in revolutionary aesthetic, it is perfect for designs featuring countercultural messages.
It features three variations: Regular, Sliced, and Dotted.
The font is built with advanced OpenType functionality, containing stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures, and extensive linguistic support, covering most Latin-based languages. Many custom glyphs are also included, including symbols of protest and counterculture, arrows, lines, and more.
Font specimen ("The End Of The World")
Font specimen ("Start A Riot")
Font specimen ("Neutrality Helps The Oppressor, Never The Victim")
Font specimen ("Fight Back")
Font specimen ("Power To The People")
Font specimen (stylistic alternatives)
Font specimen (numbers)
Font specimen (diacritics)
Font specimen (ligatures)
Font specimen (punctuation)
Font specimen (symbols + shapes)
Font specimen (full glyph set)
Each glyph in RIOTFace was inspired by a different letter or symbol found in a protest poster, zine, protest sign, graffiti, local music flyer, or otherwise similar piece of art. This allows the typeface to carry an authentic counter-cultural message, rich with texture and history. I spent many hours sourcing and researching this artwork in libraries, online archives, and social media and carefully documenting letters that caught my eye. Since each letter was so unique, I found that drawing/outlining each letter by hand allowed me to adjust the overall weight and shape of the letters to help them feel like one set.
I also had a specific vision for how to present this typeface in terms of color and texture. Since protest work in the contemporary era is often done online, I wanted to emphasize neon colors and punchy graphics to help this project stand out in the digital space. At the same time, I found it important to retain texture, especially hand-drawn elements, to signal a rough-around-the-edges revolutionary aesthetic.
Early project style board, emphasizing color + texture