Greta Grotesk: Teenage activist Greta Thunberg gets her own font

Swedish climate activist Thunberg holds up her sign, which means 'school strike for climate'. Thunberg’s handwriting on the sign has now been turned into a free font – naturally in ALL CAPS. — dpa

The Fridays for Future movement, which has drawn millions out onto the streets in cities across the globe, grew out of a protest in 2018 by just one teenager with a simple sign.

"Skolstrejk för klimatet" – school strike for climate – read the sign written by Greta Thunberg, then 15, for her weekly protest outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm.

Now Thunberg’s handwriting has been turned into a free font. New York designer Tal Shub was inspired by the young activist to create Greta Grotesk, an all-caps typeface based on her hand-painted protest signs, free for download.

“From the very first moment of seeing her sign, I was really impressed by the bold design and clarity of the message,” Shub told design blog It’s Nice That.

Working from photographs of two signs Thunberg had made, Shub extracted letters, balanced out the weights and created the rest of the alphabet to match.

His intention wasn’t to create the most versatile or attractive typeface but one that was authentic, true to the activist’s original handwriting.

The designer said he was surprised that more people weren’t taking note of the sign itself. "Here's this iconic piece of visual communication, yet nobody's really paying attention to how that design is central to this movement," Shub said.

"It’s really the classic typographic discussion – something that’s staring you in the face, but most people don’t pay attention to it."

Shub, who co-founded Uno, an NYC-based company offering an alternative to disposable cups and water bottles, hopes that Greta Grotesk might be used in projects related to climate change. – dpa