The variable font technology allows Clippy to move between Retalic, Roman and Italic with fifteen styles that cover a range of weights – it’s quite the range for one system, all tied together with a similar, playful character and the freedom to find out what works best for the intended use. Besides Paperclip Contour, Tor took inspiration from modular lettering such as Herbert Bayer’s work, and as new weights and associations emerged during the creation of Clippy, Tor saw similarities to E13B-like mid-weights and CNC engraving, a manufacturing process that utilises computer-controlled machines to carve and etch lettering into materials.
“The most obvious change was turning the contour style into a filled typeface, but I also added uppercase letters and redesigned the numbers to fit the system,” says Tor. “Early on, I realised the rounded shapes could work well as a variable font, rocking between Retalic and Italic masters. The result reminded me of a roly-poly toy. Later, we produced a few physical roly-poly toys based on the lowercase a.” Some glyphs in the re-designed Paperclip Contour were redesigned to make the ‘rocking’ movement work better, for example: the lowercase j created spacing issues because of its wide hook, so it was replaced with a straight Futura-style tail. In its motion assets, Clippy is clearly designed to rock and roll, back and forth, wiggle and swing – it’s a nod to the revolving, curvy metal of the simple paperclip, its bendy attitude and highly satisfying architecture. There’s no better typeface than Clippy to explore that motion and momentum, for it’s exactly the kind of energetic movement that makes it feel like the perfect update on a typographic classic.