Chilean designer Weichi He Peng’s ‘Photonic’ is a modern iteration of Cooper Black, the famously heavy display typeface. He Peng has explored ways in which Cooper could be transformed into three cuts, Black, White and Grey, thinning out the structural elements to create different characters for different applications and discovering what happens in the intersection between light and dark.
After starting his studies at the Pontifical University of Chile, he recently graduated from ECAL’s MA in type design, where he specialised in everything from visual identities to creating editorial design for print and digital.
Weichi He Peng. Dream collaborator: Dimitri Bruni, Manuel Krebs and Ludovic Varon of the Zurich-based typographic studio Norm
He Peng’s rigorous, systematic approach to design is driven by typographic forms, and his first typeface, Max Fett, was recently released through the ECAL Typefaces portal. ‘It’s a free interpretation of a Fette Grotesk, initially found in some of the work done by Max Bill during the 1930s for the Zett-Haus,’ He Peng explains.
The Switzerland-based designer is building a portfolio with a typographic focus, with clients that include architects, publishing houses, coders and fashion designers. §
