nono
Not Your Type · Xiaoyuan Gao · 2024
A dot-matrix modular family by Xiaoyuan Gao built around a deliberate no-descender design rooted in her own childhood experience of learning Latin script in China without instruction on descenders.
About
The family spans four subfamilies across ten styles: nono core (Dot, Round, Square, Tube), nono Particle (A, B, C), nono RGB, and nono Shaky, the last of which is a multiaxial variable font controlling width, movement and size. The RGB subfamily uses OpenType contextual alternates to randomly assign one of four colours to each character as you type. The absence of descenders is a conscious design choice drawn from Gao's primary-school habit, turning an uncorrected mistake into a consistent and distinctive formal principle.
Classification
Built on a dot-matrix grid with a no-descender design and multiple stylistic subfamilies including particle, RGB colour and variable shaky cuts; firmly display/experimental rather than any conventional text category.