Matter of Sorts is a typographic practice helmed by Vincent Chan and assisted by a slew of co-conspirators. Our interests revolve around notions of commoning, design, pedagogy and type and where they might overlap, co-mingle and meld. Matter of Sorts offers a library of retail typefaces and has developed custom fonts for a diverse range of clients across commercial and cultural sectors, in Australia and abroad.

Matter of Sorts ABN 5734 8145 074
Wurundjeri Land, U702 / 37 Swanston St
Naarm (Melbourne), Victoria 3000
@matterofsorts / mail@matterofsorts.com

Fonts

Our library of retail fonts gives us a chance to engage a particular typographic idiom outside the constraints of a commercial client though, more often than not, they are guided by a collaborator. The offerings below are currently being expanded and are considered incomplete. We are, however, licensing certain styles. If you’d like to know more please email mail@matterofsorts.com.

FONT COLLABORATOR YEAR

Cassette Stuart Geddes, Ziga Testen 2021

Syllabus Dominic Hofstede 2021

Staunch Titling Paul Mylecharane, Stuart Geddes 2020

Field Grot Stuart Geddes 2020

Article Brad Haylock 2018

Quadrant Stuart Geddes 2018

Turnery The Company You Keep 2018

Recollection Dominic Hofstede, Warren Taylor 2017

Information

We are priviledged to work on the sovereign land and waters of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. For over 60,000 years the Wurundjeri Willam people gathered and thrived here. We acknowledge that this land was never ceded and that colonisation continues today.

Vincent completed his doctorate in 2021 at Monash Art Design & Architecture where his research explored alternative models of typographic practice. He has been a contributing winner and finalist in numerous Australia Graphic Design Association and Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Design awards and in 2019 was granted an Ascender award from the Type Directors Club—one of ten international winners recognised for ‘expanding the medium of typography’.

He was previously a sessional lecturer at RMIT University and course coordinator of Typography 1 and Type Design at Monash Art, Design and Architecture where he taught for over a decade. Vincent has presented at numerous international conferences and symposiums including the Association Typographique Internationale and the Melbourne Art Book Fair.

Alongside Dominic Hofstede and Robert Janes, Vincent co-directs the typographic (ad)venture Counter Forms. Counter Forms exists as a platform to champion emerging, discursive, antipodean type designers. Driven by typographic research, education and advocacy, we publish original typefaces and texts towards a more accessible, diverse and equitable future. Follow us over at @counter__forms.

Cassette

Cassette is inspired by three primary sources: the technical lettering commonly found in routing and plotter environments, typewriter gothics faces and Dr Allen Hershey’s Hershey Fonts. It began as a unused concept for a custom typeface and evolved into its current state. Cassette is a *skeleton* font whereby weight is added by increasing the thickness of its stroke. It is the house face of the typographic (ad)venture Counter Forms.

Adjustable Scriber, Adolf W. Keuffel. Patent US2011195A, 13 August 1935.
An excerpt from Typewriter Type Faces, Allan Bartram, Footnotes A, 2016.
The Rotring NC-Scriber CS 110 , Germany 1993.
An excerpt from A Contribution to Computer Typesetting Techniques, Dr. Allen V. Hershey, 1976.

Cassette Hairline

Standardization

Cassette Light

Quadrumvirates

Cassette Regular

Middlesborough

Cassette Medium

Electrochemical

Cassette Bold

Gloucestershire

Syllabus

Syllabus is a contemporary consideration of Plantin, the much-loved book face published by Monotype in 1913 and overseen by Frank Hinman Pierpont. Syllabus returns to the same source material, a Gros Cicero cut in the sixteenth century by Robert Granjon, and features a crisper finish and a more serviceable italic. Syllabus was initially drawn to match the proportions of custom typeface Preston for the Art Gallery of NSW but has since learned to stand on its own two feet.

Granjon’s Pica Roman or Cicero, 1559
Syllabus and Preston share sympathetic proportions.
Syllabus in use: The Exhibitionists, designed by Dominic Hofstede (Mucho Melbourne)
Syllabus in use: The Exhibitionists, designed by Dominic Hofstede (Mucho Melbourne)

Syllabus Regular

Instrumentalist

Syllabus Regular Italic

Epidemiological

Syllabus Medium

Autobiography

Syllabus Bold

Crosshatching

Syllabus Extrabold

Dematerialize

Syllabus Black

Reproduction

Staunch Titling

Staunch Titling was drawn for a project run by the Melbourne Housing Research Group which never materialised. Art direction was provided by Paul Mylecharane and Stuart Geddes. Staunch casually references the awkwardly set type on the cover of Psycholinguistics: Chomsky and Psychology by Judith Greene, designed by Omnific/Derek Birdsall.

Psycholinguistics, cover designed by Omnific/Derek Birdsall.
Staunch in use: Public Galleries poster campaign, Pigeon Ward 2023.
Staunch in use: Public Galleries sticker collateral, Pigeon Ward 2023.
Staunch in use: Hot Air, Raafat Ishak, Sonntag Press, 2023.

Staunch Titling Cond Bold

Transatlantic

Staunch Titling Cond Bold

Lexicographer

Staunch Titling X Cond Bold

Interdisciplinary

Staunch Titling X Cond Bold

Photomechanical

Field Grot Cond

Field Grot was designed in collaboration with Stuart Geddes for The Field Revisited, a 50-year restaging of the iconic exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Its point of departure is an anonymous bold sans serif used on the spine of the 1968 catalogue bolstered by nods to the early British grotesques of the Miller & Richard foundry. The condensed cut also finds resonance with Monotype Grotesque Bold Condensed.

The Field Exhibition catalogue, 1968.
Grotesque Bold Condensed 81, Specimen Book of Monotype Printing Types, 1969.
The spines of the original catalogue, the facsimile and The Field Revisited catalogue.
A detail of The Field Revisited, designed by Stuart Geddes, 2018.

Field Grot Cond Thin

Hypercholesterolaemia

Field Grot Cond Light

Compartmentalisation

Field Grot Cond Regular

Buckminsterfullerene

Field Grot Cond Medium

Dendrochronological

Field Grot Cond Bold

Chemiluminescence

Field Grot Cond Black

Greatgrandchildren

Field Grot Narrow

The narrow width of Field Grot is ideal for headlines and subheads where economy is a consideration.

Field Grot Narrow Thin

Interdenominational

Field Grot Narrow Light

Electroluminescent

Field Grot Narrow Regular

Underachievement

Field Grot Narrow Medium

Reimplementation

Field Grot Narrow Bold

Circumnavigation

Field Grot Narrow Black

Phototypesetting

Field Grot

The standard width of Field Grot takes the core DNA of the condensed styles and relaxes their proportion, allowing it to be better suited to body copy.

Field Grot Thin

Psycholinguistics

Field Grot Light

Hyperventilation

Field Grot Regular

Synchronisation

Field Grot Medium

Knuckledusters

Field Grot Bold

Claustrophobia

Field Grot Black

Undergraduate

Field Grot Wide

As the widest style of Field Grot, a more geometric rhythm comes into play with almost cirular Os and an overall wider gait.

Field Grot Wide Thin

Australopithecus

Field Grot Wide Light

Demineralization

Field Grot Wide Regular

Internationalism

Field Grot Wide Medium

Crystallography

Field Grot Wide Bold

Telephotograph

Field Grot Wide Black

Revalorizations

Article Text

Article Text is a Dutch book face loosely referencing Christoffel Van Dyck’s Augustijn Romeyn. After a dormant 6 months wallowing in insecurity, Article was pushed along with art-direction provided by Brad Haylock specifically for use in Art Writing in Crisis, published by Sternberg Press.

Augustijn Romeyn, Christoffel van Dyck, 1682.
Augustijn Cursijs, Christoffel van Dyck, 1682.
Article in use: Art Writing in Crisis, eds. Brad Haylock, Megan Patty, Sternberg Press, 2021.
Article in use: Art Writing in Crisis, eds. Brad Haylock, Megan Patty, Sternberg Press, 2021.

Article Text Light

Telephotograph

Article Text Regular Italic

Electrodynamics

Article Text Medium

Sentimentalize

Article Text Bold Italic

Congressperson

Article Text Extrabold

Intellectualise

Article Text Black Italic

Parallelogram

Quadrant Text

Quadrant is a contemporary ionic amalgamating aspects of the well-known Clarendon genre across different continents with freedom and affection. It draws on the original ionics of British giants, Miller & Richard and Stephenson, Blake & Co., the transplanted Antiques of the American Type Founders, and the imported and renamed sorts from Australia’s F.T. Wimble & Co.

Quadrant Text in use: Surfing World, designed by Stuart Geddes and Ziga Testen
Quadrant Text in use: Kerstin Thompson Architects: Encompassing people & place, Stuart Geddes, 2021.
Quadrant Text in use: Detail of Robert Owen: A Book of Encounters, Stuart Geddes, Paul Mylecharane & Kim Mumm Hansen, 2021.

Quadrant Text Light

Transcription

Quadrant Text Regular Italic

Intellectualize

Quadrant Text Medium

Zimbabweans

Quadrant Text Semibold

Metamorphic

Quadrant Text Bold

Parenthesise

Quadrant Text Extrabold

Hypertrophy

Quadrant Text Black

Kettledrums

Quadrant Text Mono

Quadrant Text Mono is the monospaced counterpart to Quadrant Text. Currently only a regular weight exists with plans to extend to a full weight range.

Quadrant Text Mono in use: Harvey Sutherland EP, designed by TRiC.
Quadrant Text Mono in use: Harvey Sutherland EP, designed by TRiC.
Quadrant Text Mono in use: Harvey Sutherland EP, designed by TRiC.
Quadrant Text Mono in use: Harvey Sutherland EP, designed by TRiC.

Quadrant Text Mono Regular

Pointillism

Quadrant Text Mono Regular Italic

Overzealous

Quadrant Text Mono Regular

Loudspeaker

Quadrant Text Mono Regular Italic

Telekinetic

Quadrant Slab Duo

Quadrant Slab Duo is a duo-spaced slab-seriffed iteration of Quadrant Text with low contrast and the faintest of bracketing.

Quadrant Slab Duo Thin

Narcoleptic

Quadrant Slab Duo Thin Italic

Quadrillion

Quadrant Slab Duo Thin

Horseradish

Quadrant Slab Duo Thin Italic

Marginalize

Turnery

Turnery is a nondescript, workmanlike face that takes cues from building fascia lettering around Collingwood and its neighbouring suburbs. Its wide stately capitals and economical finish embody an air of industry and anonymity. Originally sketched in 2018, it took on new life under a commission by The Company You Keep branding not-for-profit arts organization and arts precinct, Collingwood Yards.

Turnery in use: Collingwood Yards signage, The Company You Keep.
Turnery in use: Collingwood Yards signage, The Company You Keep.
Turnery in use: Collingwood Yards signage, The Company You Keep.

Turnery Regular

Transcendental

Turnery Regular Italic

Photosynthetic

Turnery Medium

Gyrostabilisers

Turnery Bold

Seismographic

Recollection Banner

Recollection attempts to capture the spirit of Australian graphic design between 1960–1990. It refers to this rich period by looking inward, through the well-established intentions and aesthetic tropes of the time, to arrive at a familiar typographic form. The Recollection typefaces were instigated by Dominic Hofstede as a response to his ongoing archival project Re:collection.

Recollection exhibition, Monash Art, Design, Architecture, 2013.
Recollection exhibition, Monash Art, Design, Architecture, 2013. Exhibition design: Warren Taylor.
ABPA Awards Catalogue 1969, designer uncredited.
Recollection type specimen, Dominic Hofstede, 2013.
Recollection flyer, Dominic Hofstede, 2013.

Recollection Banner Hairline

Microprocessor

Recollection Banner Thin

Hydrocortisone

Recollection Banner Light

Thermoelectric

Recollection Banner Regular

Superchargers

Recollection Banner Medium

Extravehicular

Recollection Banner Bold

Acquaintance

Recollection Banner Extrabold

Intelligentsia

Recollection Banner Black

Dostoyevsky

Recollection Display

Recollection Display is better suited to headlines and subheads. It features a double storey a.

Recollection Display Thin

Thermodynamics

Recollection Display Light

Entrepreneurship

Recollection Display Regular

Inextinguishable

Recollection Display Medium

Microcomputers

Recollection Display Bold

Conquistadores

Recollection Display Extrabold

Selfdestruction

Recollection Text

Recollection Text is drawn to be used at text sizes. A double-storey a also replaces the single-storey of the Banner cut and it is more loosely spaced.

Recollection Text Light

Anthropomorphism

Recollection Text Regular

Radioastronomical

Recollection Text Medium

Geomorphologists

Recollection Text Bold

Thermodynamical

Recollection Mono

Recollection Mono is the monospaced counterpart to the Text cut and comes in four weights.

Recollection Mono Light

Palaeontologists

Recollection Mono Regular

Transformational

Recollection Mono Medium

Incontrovertible

Recollection Mono Bold

Phototypesetting

AGSA

AGSA is a custom typeface extrapolated from the Art Gallery of South Australia’s logotype. Its narrow, no-nonsense forms reference fonts like Enge, Reform and Inserat Grotesk, providing a distinct voice for the institution. Its bold low contrast stokes are offset by hairline diacritics and punctuation creating textural variation and interest

Reform Grotesk, designers unknown, Stempel c.1900.
Reform Grotesk, designers unknown, Stempel c.1900.
Reform Grotesk, Gebrüder Klingspor Offenbach, circa 1920
Enge Grotesk, designers unknown, Haas c.1870.

AGSA Bold

AGSA Bold

AGSA Bold

AGSA Bold

AGSA Bold

Help Type

Help Type is the brand typeface of NRMA Insurance. Drawing on neo-grotesque stalwarts like Dick Dooijes’ Mercator, its warm, assured forms communicate utility yet humanity. Help Type comes in dedicated Display, Text and Office fonts and supports an extended Latin character set including coverage for Vietnamese and all Aboriginal languages.

NRMA poster campaign, Droga5.
NRMA mobile app, Droga5.
Neuzeit Grotesk, Wilhelm Pischner, 1932.
Mercator, Dick Dooijes, 1957.

Help Type Display Light

Help Type Display Regular Italic

Help Type Display Medium

Help Type Display Bold Italic

Mecca Directional

Mecca Directional is a suite of typefaces for Mecca’s flagship store on Bourke Street in Melbourne. Drawing from early American gothics and British grotesques, it balances the geometry of the Mecca logo with the energy of early sans serifs. Its distinct numerals are drawn specifically for room signage allowing for heightened expression.

The facade of 299 Bourke Street, Melbourne.
Signage for the Perfumeria along Union Lane.
Grotesque No. 4, Miller & Richard c.1918.
Gothic Modern, Barnhart Brothers & Spindler c.1900.

Mecca Directional Bold

Mecca Directional Bold

Mecca Directional Bold

Mecca Directional Compressed Bold

Mecca Directional Compressed Bold

Mecca Directional Compressed Bold

HK Remix

HK Remix is a collection of fonts drawn for the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Referencing vernacular letterforms such as neon signage and signpainting, its pragmatic, condensed base alphabet is accompanied by three styles of varying effects: outline, neon and shadow, in two optical sizes.

Nam Wah Neonlight & Electrical. c.1970. M+, Hong Kong. Gift of Nam Wah Neonlight & Electrical Manufactory, Ltd., 2015.
Nam Wah Neonlight & Electrical. c.1950. M+, Hong Kong. Gift of Nam Wah Neonlight & Electrical Manufactory, Ltd., 2015.
Neon sign, @streetsignhk.

HK Remix Bold

HK Remix Inline

HK Remix Neon

HK Remix Shadow

HK Remix Small Bold

HK Remix Small Inline

HK Remix Small Neon

HK Remix Small Shadow

White Bay

The White Bay typeface draws from vernacular letterforms found at the White Bay Power Station. From hand-painted labels to routed signs, the typeface intentionally embodies a certain regular irregularity. It’s undulating baseline, changing letter widths and variation in rounding create a vitality that speaks to the unique site.

White Bay Power Station. Image credit: Garbett Design.
White Bay Power Station branding paset up. Image credit: Garbett Design.

White Bay Medium

White Bay Medium

White Bay Medium

White Bay Medium

White Bay Medium

White Bay Medium

ACO Sans

ACO Sans was drawn for the Australian Chamber Orchestra and commissioned by Moffitt.Moffitt. in collaboration with Tame Feral Studio. ACO Sans is defined by its reverse contrast, multiple widths, a cacophony of alternates and musical-notation-inspired glyphs.

2025 ACO campaign. Image credit: Moffitt.Moffitt.
2025 ACO campaign. Image credit: Moffitt.Moffitt.
2025 ACO campaign. Image credit: Moffitt.Moffitt.
2025 ACO campaign. Image credit: Moffitt.Moffitt.
2025 ACO campaign. Image credit: Moffitt.Moffitt.
2025 ACO campaign. Image credit: Moffitt.Moffitt.

ACO Sans Medium

ACO Sans Medium

ACO Sans Medium

ACO Sans Medium

Telstra

The Telstra typeface was commissioned by Maud Design (now with Droga5) under the direction of Sam Turner, Tomas Sabbatucci and Lachlan Richards. The collection of fonts include a variable Text cut — drawn, spaced and manually-hinted for the most trying environments — and a Display cut, which leans into its more geometric underpinnings. It succeeds Laurenz Brunner’s most excellent Akkurat as the core typeface ensuring it maintains or exceeds Akkurat’s economy and legibility.

Telstra campaign. Image credit: Droga5.
Telstra campaign. Image credit: Droga5.
Telstra Sim Kit. Image credit: Droga5.
Telstra Technical Data Booklet. Image credit: Droga5.
Telstra EOFY campaign. Image credit: Droga5.
Telstra campaign. Image credit: Droga5.

Telstra Display Light, Light Italic

Telstra Display Regular Italic, Regular

Telstra Display Medium, Medium Italic

Telstra Display Bold Italic, Bold

Powerhouse Filar

Powerhouse Filar takes cues from various anonymous gothics in the early specimens of Wimble’s Australian Type Foundry. It serves as the house face for Powerhouse and features a unique approach to spacing; across Octo, Quarto, Trio and Mono styles, the typeface creates distinct paragraph textures through its five possible unitisation logics. Production was expertly handled by Wei Huang. Powerhouse Filar will soon be available as an open source typeface. Please stay tuned.

Linn Boyd Benton‘s Self Spacing Type, 1883.
Linn Boyd Benton‘s Self Spacing Type, 1883.
Sanserif No 1 & No.2, Wimble Australian Type Foundry, c.1900.
Gothic No. 1, Wimble Australian Type Foundry, c.1900.
Filar’s unitisation logic.

Powerhouse Filar Regular, Regular Italic

Powerhouse Filar Octo Medium, Medium Italic

Powerhouse Filar Quarto Semibold, Semibold Italic

Powerhouse Filar Trio Bold, Bold Italic

Powerhouse Filar Mono Bold, Bold Italic

Powerhouse Cambium

Powerhouse Cambium is loosely inspired by wood type Series No. 266 from No. 4 catalogue of F.T. Wimble & Company (imported from the Hamilton Manufacturing Company) and tram destination rolls at Ultimo. It features chamfered counterforms and leans into the inherent weight gained at junctures.

Tram destination roll, New South Wales Government Tramways, Australia, c1959.
Series No. 266, Catalogue No.4, Hamilton Manufacturing Company, FT Wimble and Co. Ltd. 1923

Powerhouse Cambium Black

Powerhouse Cambium Black

Powerhouse Cambium Black

Powerhouse Cambium Black

Powerhouse Cambium Black

Powerhouse Punctum

Powerhouse Punctum draws on the language of punchcards, receipt printers and digital interfaces. The 12-font family is orientated on 3 axes: X Transposer, Y Transposer and Amplitude. As these axes are modulated, the typeface swells, degrades, multiplies and disintegrates, embracing the potential of puncture and porousness.

Punch card for 'Powers' Mechanical accounting machine, c.1955.
Punch cards on a Jacquard Loom, 1875–1900.
'Symphonion Simplex' disc by Symphonion Musikwerke, Germany c.1890.
Pong source code, 1978.

Powerhouse Punctum 919

Powerhouse Punctum 915

Powerhouse Punctum 195

Powerhouse Punctum 191

Powerhouse Punctum 111

Caruso

Caruso was commissioned by DarkLab for the Odeon Theatre. Extending on a limited number of glyphs on the current neon sign, it is an all-caps, low-contrast, geometric sans serif. It features solid and outline style and carries the monumentality and wide stature characteristic of the Odeon Theatre signage.

The Odeon Theatre’s iconic neon signage.

Caruso Bold

Caruso Bold Outline

Caruso Bold

Caruso Bold Outline

Caruso Bold

Caruso Bold Outline

Virideon

Virideon was drawn for live music and cultural precinct, In the Hanging Garden. Inspired by the distinct neon sign in the space, Virideon is an all-caps, largely geometric, rounded sans serif with a tubular construction and irregular stencilling logic. The family includes three weights and a variable font.

In The Hanging Garden, 2022.

Virideon Regular

Virideon Regular

Virideon Medium

Virideon Medium

Virideon Bold

Fereday

Feredy serves as the logotype and house typeface of furniture and product design studio TOMFEREDAY. As a nod to the practice’s penchant for technical experimentation the letterforms draw on the vernacular of technical lettering found commonly in routing, milling and plotter environments.

Fereday employs a unitisation logic limiting possible character widths.
The typeface includes a range of glyphs based on the processes and machinery used by the studio.
Allan Hershey’s drawings for what would become The Hershey Fonts.
The fonts available on the NC-Scriber CS2020.

Fereday Hairline

Fereday Light

Fereday Regular

Fereday Bold

Preston

Preston was drawn for the Art Gallery of New South Wales and references the prevalence of Adrian Frutiger’s iconic Univers typeface throughout the 1960s–90s in Australian graphic design. Preston could be considered a work of historical fiction. It attempts to channel a particular attitude, affectionately termed Mongrel Modernism — a kind of Antipodean-digested version of European ideals. Preston is named in honour of Sydney modernist, artist and designer Margaret Preston.

Miscellaneous Art Gallery of NSW pamphlets, AGNSW Design Studio.
Poster advertising 100 years of the Archibald Prize, AGNSW Design Studio.
Sun Books, the antipodean response to Penguin books, source: Re:collection.
Adrian Frutiger’s famed Univers typeface, a conceptual starting point for Preston.

Preston X Cond Bold

Preston Cond Bold

Preston Light, Regular Italic, Medium

Brut

Brut was drawn for the National Gallery of Australia. Adopting the gallery’s principle of trans-historicism, it samples and re-mixes various grotesks across time and place including Bauer Type Foundry’s Folio Condensed (1956) & Venus Extended (1911) and Stempel Type Foundry’s Reform Grotesk (1904–1925).

Nan Goldin street poster. Image credit: Studio Ongarato.
National Gallery of Australia signage. Image credit: Studio Ongarato.
Various posters for the Kunsthalle Basel, Armin Hofmann, Linocut, 128 x 90.4 cm.
Reform Grotesk, designers unknown, Stempel 1900.

Brut Ext Bold, Bold Italic

Brut Cond Bold, Bold Italic

Brut Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic