NaN Fiasco
NaN · Luke Prowse · 2016
A grotesque sans by Luke Prowse that treats letterform error, misregistration and naive construction as a design system across nine weights from Thin to Ultra.
About
Prowse drew NaN Fiasco between 2016 and 2021, taking slipped vinyl, overlapping posters, flipped glyphs and miscalibrated weights as its structural logic rather than as faults to correct. The result sits against the cool neutrality of its modernist sources: where a rational grotesque is composed and consistent, Fiasco turns inconsistency into a rule, giving the family an irregular warmth. Nine weights from Thin to a notably broad Ultra make it usable across display and body contexts wherever some looseness is an asset.
Classification
A sans-serif rooted in modernist grotesque conventions but systematically subverted through deliberate errata: flipped glyphs, mis-weighting, naive construction and substitute forms. The underlying structure is grotesque; the treatment is wilfully aberrant.