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Project turns homeless people’s handwriting into typefaces

Homelessfonts is a project by the Barcelona-based Arrels Foundation that turns homeless people’s handwriting into typefaces for advertising.

Supported by the private Arrels Foundation in Barcelona, Homelessfonts consists of creating a collection of typefaces based on the handwriting of the homeless. The organization recruits individuals throughout the city to create typefaces from their unique handwriting styles.

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Once licensed for use, the idea behind these typefaces is for people and brands to use them in their advertising. There are quite a few offered for sale on the Homelessfonts website, and the companies or individuals who purchase them pick up an eye-catching look for their brand, while the profits go to help the 1,400 people supported by the Arrels Foundation.

With the help of the advertising agency Cyranos McCann, known for creating the fonts many see in their everyday lives in ads, posters, and emails, the Arrels Foundation considered the creative potential of the homeless. After seeing their writing on cardboard signs on the streets, it led to the realization that every single one of them had character, and that converting these styles into fonts was a way to package their handwriting into a product for brands looking for a more personal image.

Cyranos McCann and the Arrels Foundation set up workshops in order to capture the different handwriting styles using typographic exercises which were then scanned and converted into usable fonts with help from design experts.

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You can read the story behind each individual and browse the fonts named after those artists on the Homelessfonts website. Each font is currently available for 19 euros for personal use and 290 euros for a professional license.

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