Archive | Originally published 2022-04-14. Ages, crowdfunding progress and current affairs are retained as reported at the time. Please refer to the product pages for current availability and licensing.
Roy Chan began Reborn with a wish to retain Traditional Chinese letterforms that felt particular to Hong Kong. Even a horizontal stroke carries that intention: a firm, pen-like entry and a sharp returning hook suggest resistance in adversity. As the project’s website put it, the typeface sought to express strength, angularity and a refusal to give up.
Reporter: 盧珮瑤
Photographer: H.H.
Trained in advertising design, Roy joked that his experience with imagery had been ‘zero’ before discovering the black-and-white world of letterforms. ‘I felt I might have a sense for it, so I began exploring. It was not so much that I chose type design as that type chose me.’ In late 2019, he left his full-time design job and put his savings of around HK$20,000–30,000 into a lettering calendar. The response was encouraging, but he felt locally made fonts remained scarce. Reborn began to take shape in mid-2020.
A wish for Hong Kong to begin again
Naming the typeface was part of the design. Reborn expressed Roy’s feelings about local practices such as hand-carved mahjong and lion dance. ‘I once imagined that using Reborn in those fields could help them begin again. Really, we are trying to remind other trades that bringing something new into their work can also be a kind of rebirth.’
He studied Monotype Song and DynaFont gothic forms. Song-like details informed the stroke entries, while gothic construction brought the horizontal and vertical weights closer together. ‘Older readers may recognise a familiar flavour.’ The distinctive force of Reborn lay in decisions across the dots, diagonals and hooks. Most visibly, a sharp return at the end of a final horizontal expressed his wish that Hong Kong people would stand up to adversity.
Roy also admired the versatility of Monotype’s Kong Hei style: playful in some uses, serious in others, and visible in both Trial & Error titles and public messaging. He hoped Reborn could work in entertainment graphics, television and film titles. More expansive forms occupied a larger part of the character square, supporting that prominent display role. The intention was that even a simple shadow or outline could work with the drawing.
The reporter compared Reborn to a contemporary man in vintage clothing: nostalgic without feeling disconnected from the present. ‘We want something that can be used in older fields as well as new ones,’ Roy said. He also saw the combination as a way of thinking about generations meeting rather than remaining in conflict, and about rediscovering something of Hong Kong’s spirit together.
Crowdfunding and bringing younger designers into the work
The report stated that the campaign had raised around NT$3.5 million in early March 2022. Roy hoped to employ more young type designers, with a 5,300-character edition then scheduled for December. He also discussed experimenting with individual characters as NFTs, seeking ways to earn income without waiting for an entire character set and to explore a different distribution model. These were plans reported at that time.
People may not consciously notice type, Roy said, but it becomes part of a place’s everyday visual culture. ‘You never know how long a typeface will remain in use. A strong brand might keep it for a hundred years. Then you have quietly left something for that place.’
