Muoto, designed in collaboration between Matthieu Cortat, Anthony Franklin and Sander Vermeulen (Base Design), is the synthesis of a sensitive and human approach to modernist design. This variable sans serif font combines full curves and solid stems, showing that functionalism can actually be warm and softly effective.

     With its robust structure and subdued proportions, it evokes organic forms dear to Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who in 1957 wrote: “We should work for simple, good, undecorated things, but things which are in harmony with the human being and organically suited to the little man in the street.” Muoto embodies this idea while responding to contemporary typographic requirements, with its palette of weights (from Thin to Black) and its increased on-screen legibility.

Type design flourishes when associated with a goal, a project. And like every design project, it is enriched by discussion and exchange. Muoto emerges from a collaboration between Matthieu Cortat, Anthony Franklin and Sander Vermeulen, two members of the studio Base Design.

     In 2009, when GVA Studio joined the Base group, it marked the Swiss studio’s entry into a network of international scope. With tongue firmly in cheek, Base Geneva designed a site that generated posters that played with stereotypes of Swiss style. Basetica “a Helvetica for the 20th century” was designed in this context, commissioned from Matthieu Cortat and distributed by 205TF a few years later.

     In 2021, Base Design wished to redefine their typographic identity, and so the studio once again invited Matthieu Cortat to collaborate on a typeface to succeed Basetica. What came next was a story of debates and questions, of micro-modifications and radical decisions that resulted in the concept and strong connotations transmitted by this new corporate typeface for Base Design.