PIN Stencil

Conceived by Korean-born, New York-based Hoon Kim of design consultancy Why Not Smile, PIN is a three-weight, nine-cut family of geometric sans-serif types. The design, available in dot-matrix, stencil and solid variations, is based on an expanding grid in which each weight rests comfortably within the other, expanding out from the stroke’s center-point.

Initiated by Kim after a chance look towards the ceiling in a London tube station—which revealed a circular, 24-bulb chandelier above—the project started with a 16-node variation on a geometric dot matrix and grew from there to ultimately include three styles and three weights, each applicable across body copy, headlines, and tables.

With a nearly monolinear stroke width and unique construction, PIN is intended to be mixed and matched liberally: lighter weights adjacent to darker ones, stencil alongside solid —a type family in the traditional sense of the word.

PIN is available in three styles — Dot, Stencil and Solid — and three weights — Light, Regular and Medium, comprising a family of nine cuts. It is open to licensing in both Standard ('STD') and Professional ('PRO') versions, the latter containing a range of additional OpenType features.