MONTPENSIER

Montpensier takes its name from small, round candies—bright and festive. Work on the typeface began during Nadezhda’s studies with Nick and Svetlana Nedashkovski. Their modular type system became the foundation within which she began searching for her own approach to constructing letters. The typeface of Trajan’s Column was used as a reference for the proportional system. As the characters took shape, the system was gradually adapted: some constructions retained the original proportions, while others were refined in the process. The work on the typeface gradually developed into an experiment with legibility. How readable does a typeface need to be? Can it be ornate while still remaining functional? Where is the boundary beyond which visual expression displaces function, and how can it be approached without being crossed? In Montpensier, ornament becomes part of the construction of the letters. The typeface does not abandon legibility, but neither does it aim for neutrality. Its forms balance decoration and function, remaining recognizable while drawing attention to the way they are built. Montpensier is both a type experiment and a research project, created in an attempt to find its own balance between complexity of form and clarity of reading