Play videoFREE FONT FOR VISUALIZING THE URGENCY OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Climate change is a lengthy and abstract phenomenon, and as such difficult to grasp for us humans. We have been wired to react more to the threats we can easily observe. This is why the Nordic’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat created The Climate Crisis Font – an OpenType variable font that helps people see the urgency of climate change in a more tangible form. The font’s weight responds to NSIDC’s (National Snow and Ice Data Center) Arctic sea ice data from 1979 to 2019 and IPCC’s prediction all the way to 2050, showing how the ice is expected to shrink because of climate change based on current forecasts.
BASED ON REAL ARCTIC SEA ICE DATA
The font’s design is based on data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (https://nsidc.org) and predictions provided by the IPCC (https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/). The heaviest font weight represents the minimum extent of the Arctic sea ice in the year 1979, when satellite measuring began. The lightest weight represents IPCC’s 2050 forecast, when the Arctic sea ice minimum is expected to have shrunk to only 30 % of the 1979 extent.
THE FONT
The Climate Crisis Font is an OpenType variable font. On systems that support variable fonts, you can select a specific year from 1979 to 2050 to show the percentual situation of the Arctic ice pack. In case a variable font is not supported, you can use a collection of regular font weights from heavy to thin represented by the years 1979, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2019, 2030, 2040 and 2050.
The font supports the standard of Latin Extended-A. It works for almost all languages based in Latin alphabet from Spanish to Northern Sami.
1979
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y O Ä Ö
1234567890
2050
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y O Ä Ö
1234567890
USE CASES
The font is intended to be used by anyone who wishes to visualize the urgency of climate change. Especially the media can use it to enhance its climate-related storytelling through illustrations and dramatizations. Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat is at the moment using the font to draw attention to its climate-related stories.
Try the font yourself. You can change the weight by moving the slider.
Free for all
Download fontThis font has been licensed with SIL OpenFont licensing. Under the license you are free to use the font for all of your personal or business font needs. Especially we recommend the usage of it when writing about the climate crisis and its diverse phenomena. As we want to keep the font open for everybody, you are not allowed to sell, re-license or otherwise commercially benefit from the font, or it’s code. By downloading or using the font you have read and agreed our term and use agreement. Read full terms here.
Press kit
Download PR-kit Contact person for media:
Tuomas Jääskeläinen
Art Director
Helsingin Sanomat
tuomas.jaaskelainen@hs.fi