NaN Hyena is Reymund Schröder’s crisp look at the humanist sans sub-genre, conceived as a sculptural exercise. Reymund, a type Janus, has a two sided practice, one oriented towards the past as a meticulous archivist-historian, the other towards alternate history called Typographic Uchronias. NaN Hyena belongs to the latter. Hyena started as an extrapolation of the work of 20th century calligrapher and type designer Hildegard Korger, a kind of spiritual parenting. With its 3 daytime named subfamilies, NaN Hyena challenges the idea of type hierarchies. It’s thought as a mood spectrum, a subtle play between sharp and soft, as if the shifting light of the sun would cast different shadows on the same object throughout the day bringing familiarity and the unexpected within the same room. Call it Type Impressionism if you like. We cannot not invoke Monet’s studies of the Cathédrale de Rouen here; a series of 30 paintings (1892-1894) of the church’s façade through different times of the day and the year.

Sunrise, with its concave suctions of the stem reminds one of the crisp blueish morning light, a feeling of newness and a positive look at things to come.

Noon carries the settled confidence of midday, when things have been accomplished but more is to come. Its flat terminals are not here to surprise anyone but it’s not even trying to impress. It doesn’t need to.

Sunset is the golden-light moment of the family, a warm and social light. Rounded but keeping its hair-thin crisp connections, Sunset is a surprisingly comfortable moment you didn’t see coming, an autumnal evening with friends.

With its gender bending exploration of typographic moods through the spectrum of light, NaN Hyena redefines once again, as if needed, the way of making type hierarchies and contrast. As such, Schröder encourages you to use the different levels together on the same page, same word or even overlaid. The question now is, how would Hyena Spring Sparrow’s Fart or Winter Nightfall look like?

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