Printed on salmon-colored newsprint, this type specimen celebrates the open-source launch of Octogon Variable, an educational type design project.

Based on a wood type first shown in George Nesbitt's First Premium Wood Type Cut by Machinery (1838)—Octagon Variable is a reimagination of an original design by Edwin Allen. 

Today, the original Octagon wood blocks of a full uppercase set in 8-line (no figures or lowercase seem to have existed) are part of the Rob Roy Kelly collection in Austin, Texas. As part of a first year type design introduction class, students at the HAW Hamburg under the guidance of Prof. Pierre Pané-Farré and Simon Thiefes, re-drew and re-imagined the design and pushed the already present spatial illusions further collaboratively. The specimen is completed by a short text that traces the origin of the typeface. 

Octagon Variable was designed by Alexander Royter, Emma Schmalisch, Felix Willnauer, Friederike Temme, Greta Wachholz, Jason Tsiakas, Julia Baskal, Julia Schmidt, Kaja Wetzel, Kateryna Shelevytska, Lara Tamminga, Nina Vierke Liyani, Sania Salem, Sarah-Ann Roehlen, Sofiya Slyusarenko, Stina Scholz, Vanessa Schneider, and Zoe Rygus, with contributions by Pierre Pane-Farre and Simon Thiefes. 

Published by Pierre Pané-Farré / Pantograph

Unbound, 16 pages, b&w, 11.25 × 14.6 inches
Copies ship with soft fold