The Telefon family is a geometric monolinear sans serif with a wide range of possible uses. Originally released in 2012 in three weights, the typeface received a much demanded update in 2017: Three new weights, including lighter ones, all with matching italics, drastically increased its potential.

Bremnes’ design draws from his childhood memories of tobacco logos and sweets wrappers, hand lettered road signs and train station signage, and mastheads in newspapers and magazines – the last graphic remains of Interbellum Norway.

A Christmas gift from his daughter – a book on Georg Fredrik Fasting’s iconic Norwegian telephone booth – sparked the design. Bremnes references the iconic lettering used in Riks’ first iteration. By the second production run, starting in 1978, those gorgeous “N” spikes and the Art Deco-inspired crossbars of “E” and “F” were filed down to conform to current taste.

When navigating 1930’s functionalist landscape, it is hard to avoid the classic geometric sans serifs: While Jakob Erbar’s eponymous grotesk was the earliest, Paul Renner’s Futura is arguably the most well known. Of the two, Telefon is closer related to the often overlooked Erbar Grotesk. Bremnes, however, effectively demonstrates that a thoughtful rendition of the “Funkis” sans serif can transcend its era.

Since its release, Telefon has been put to use in a number of profiled design projects – spanning from the Norwegian passports to numerous books, websites, art exhibitions and commercial brands.