Cooper Hewitt
Open Foundry · Chester Jenkins
A modified-geometric sans designed by Chester Jenkins for the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, released under the SIL Open Font Licence.
About
Drawn from scratch by Chester Jenkins, originally commissioned by Pentagram for the rebranded Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the design uses modified-geometric curves rather than strict circular constructions. The family spans eight weights from Thin to Heavy, each with a matching italic, giving it solid utility across institutional and editorial contexts. Letter widths and stroke thicknesses were informed by Jenkins's earlier Polaris Condensed, though the final forms are entirely new.
Classification
The foundry classifies it as sans-serif; the typeface uses modified-geometric curves and arches, placing it in the geometric sans subcategory despite some humanist inflections in its construction.