Velzyland, by CJ Dunn, is an expressive wavy display typeface which grew out of lettering CJ designed for Vast, a surf lifestyle clothing company. Velzyland’s letterforms slope down at a steep angle, reminiscent of the waves at its namesake surf spot on the North Shore of Oʻahu, not far from CJ’s birthplace in Kahuku. Rather than referencing existing vernacular lettering associated with surfing, this typeface has waves built in to the structure of the letterforms themselves. While it can evoke nature and the ocean, the design leans in to its digital construction and contrasts the smooth curves with sharp stroke endings, for a purely contemporary look and feel.
The letterforms of Velzyland are equally at home in branding for a yoga studio or craft brewery as they are for the identity design of an electronic music festival or a contemporary art exhibition. The typeface comes complete with an extended set of punctuation and accented characters supporting most Eastern and Western European languages. Velzyland was conceived as a “unicase” design, where the uppercase and lowercase letters share the same height. So while the letter shapes are different between cases many of them can be interchanged as “alternates” for each, especially handy for logotypes or simply to vary the texture of your typography. To make use of the extreme slant angle of Velzyland, try using a diagonal baseline. Tight leading can also work well to echo the tight horizontal letter spacing. The impactful bold letterforms are sure to stand out as large titles on top of photography, for eye-catching social media posts, or as energetic headings in web or print design.