Dezeen Magazine

Pissjar Sans typeface by Anton Bolin made from urine.

Swedish punk band Pissjar designs typeface made from their own urine

Taking inspiration from the "dirty disruption" created by punk music, Swedish hardcore band Pissjar has designed a typeface made entirely from their own urine.

Pissjar Sans typeface by Anton Bolin made from urine.

Originally intended to be used as an image for the sleeve of the band's upcoming album, Apathy & Cheap Thrills, Pissjar bassist Anton Bolin decided to expand the project to include a full alphabet and a complete downloadable typeface.

"I was doing the record cover for our new album and wanted to do something that suits the dirty hardcore punk we play.  So I started to pee a logo and when it was done, I realised that it would be a refreshing typeface for the world to see," Bolin told Dezeen.

Pissjar Sans typeface by Anton Bolin made from urine.

The band members took turns to urinate on a series of stretched-out bed sheets over a period of six months. Bolin took photographs of the individual letters, before vectorising them and editing the images using a font software.

Bolin created a custom-built frame and stretched a number of different fabrics – from new material to worn bed sheets – over it to achieve the desired effect. Proceedings were at times hindered by dehydration, he said, and each attempt at a letter needed to be captured within 5 seconds before it "bled out".

Pissjar Sans typeface by Anton Bolin made from urine.

"It was so limiting to have to adapt to your bladder," Bolin explained. "On a good day you had three maybe four attempts to create a letter, but mostly I was able to do it two times a day."

"I tried loads of different ways to vectorise it – with a lot of splatter or no splatter at all.  I found out that the best way to keep the typeface consistent was to keep most of the splatter," he added.

"I really like that it is a dirty disruption in a world where everyone tried to be clean, correct and striving to become perfect."

Pissjar Sans typeface by Anton Bolin made from urine.

The resulting typeface – aptly named Pissjar Sans – is available for free download on the band's website.

Amsterdam designer Monique Goossens also used bodily waste to create a typeface using strands of shed human hair.