Phudu
Phudu is a sans-serif display typeface inspired by Vietnamese hand-lettering billboards in the old days, that supports a wide range of languages. As a new way to achieve variable font, the lighter Phudu gets, the extended it becomes, for people to read it easier compared to other lightweight narrow typefaces.
*An open-source project on Google Fonts, so yes it's free!
In my exploration of typeface design, I've often considered what constitutes a Vietnamese typeface. Historically, Vietnamese lettering on store billboards featured adaptations of Latin typefaces, primarily in all-caps sans-serif fonts for store names and descriptions. To create a new, accessible typeface, I blended elements from these traditional designs, aiming not just to revive them but to modernize them while retaining their Vietnamese essence.
I named the typeface Phudu (phục dựng), meaning "revival" in Vietnamese. Interestingly, it can also be read as "phù du," meaning ephemeral, emphasizing the contrast between timelessness and transience.
