“We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets.”

Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden; or, Life in the Woods” is a powerful paean to simplicity and nature. This month’s Konstellation comes from a section from the end of “Walden,” in which Thoreau describes the area around Walden Pond coming back to life after the long dormancy of winter. He sees spring as not only a revitalization of the land but as a rebirth of humankind, a chance to make a fresh start.

“A return to goodness produced each day in the tranquil and beneficent breath of the morning, causes that in respect to the love of virtue and the hatred of vice, one approaches a little the primitive nature of man, as the sprouts of the forest which has been felled.”

Choosing fonts and colors for this piece was an enjoyable process. The vivid script used for the title and lift-out quotes throughout the piece add liveliness and vitality to “Spring,” while the other two fonts add dignity and clarity. The color palette was chosen to express both the season of spring and the watery tones of Walden Pond. The purples used for the title and lift-out quotes was inspired by the lilacs and violets that bloom in the spring. The pale blue-green background and deeper blue accent text recall the multiple colors of water. The dark green-gray of the body text draws from the color of old foliage before it comes back to life, adding depth and balance to the color palette.

For more detailed information on the fonts, see the readme file included with the Konstellation.

Be sure to check out April 2012′s Konstellation, “Spring.”

March and leprechauns go together like corned beef and cabbage. It’s hard to imagine one without the other.

Many people are only familiar with the cutesy leprechauns seen on cereal boxes and in modern children’s stories. In older stories, the leprechauns are mischievous creatures who are far less inclined to give up their pots of gold. Some of the older leprechaun tales were meant to teach a lesson about greed and trust rather than entertain small children with delightful little chortling fellows.

This month’s Konstellation falls somewhere between the two extremes. “The Leprechaun; or Fairy Shoemaker” is a nineteenth-century poem written by the Irish poet William Allingham. It tells the tale of a quest for a leprechaun in order to gain golden treasure. The poem is lighthearted and fun, but the leprechaun is hardworking and shrewd rather than simple and foolish.

Green is so closely associated with leprechauns and March that it would be difficult to imagine a leprechaun Konstellation without any green. But we wanted to stay away from the blindingly bright greens seen too often around mid-March. It didn’t feel true to the tone of the piece, and would have made the Konstellation’s style sheet usable for about two weeks per year. Instead we used a more subtle palette of greens, orange, and red that is far more pleasing to the eye and much more in line with the leprechaun Allingham depicts.

The Konstellation’s design was also influenced by the idea of a poem on an old scroll. The multi-layer border helps define the center of the page visually, giving depth and interest to what would otherwise be a somewhat boring background.

The fonts used for the title and the leprechaun’s voice have a little lilt to them, as though they were embodying the sing-song rhythms of the poem in font form. Their subtle details and flourishes bring out the magical subject of the Konstellation. The other font family is simpler, bringing out the uncomplicated simplicity of the story and recalling children’s fairy tale books.

For more detailed information on the fonts, see the readme file included with the Konstellation.

Be sure to check out March 2012′s Konstellation, “Leprechaun.”

Richard Fink, Kernest’s Font Director, has just released “Puffbuddy Light,” a free RasterBRIDGE(TM) Web Font. It’s a specially prepared (and newly improved) font that looks beautiful with a variety of browsers and devices. It’s available to download for free on his website. If you enjoy fun fonts with great performance, be sure to check out “Puffbuddy Light.”

 The Hippocratic Oath has been administered to medical professionals for thousands of years. It symbolizes a doctor’s dedication to practicing the art of medicine responsibly. But as technology has developed, robots have begun to take the place of humans in a number of medical settings. Robots are already used to assist humans in surgery and automate certain lab tests. This Konstellation envisions a world in which robots become full doctors – a world in which the Hippocratic Oath is taken not just by humans but by machines.

The rules laid out in the classic Hippocratic Oath are quite rigid, with little acknowledgement of extenuating circumstances, future developments, or potentially-conflicting requirements. Many modern medical schools get around these  difficulties by administering one of the more modern versions of the physicians’ oath. But it made us wonder – what would happen if a robot doctor tried to strictly follow a literal interpretation of the classic Hippocratic Oath?

The science fiction stories about Asimov’s Laws of Robotics demonstrate the potential pitfalls of a robot trying to follow a limited set of rules. A robot is only as good as its programming and the rules it is given. Try to imagine if a robot doctor took the Hippocratic Oath literally. So much of medicine is human judgment calls. What happens when you remove the idea of judgment calls and create an environment in which there is only one correct response, dictated by a limited set of rules?

This was the inspiration behind February’s Konstellation. The steely gray and bright-burning blue were chosen with the image of a futuristic hospital in mind: sterile, inhuman, artificial, even a little harsh. The three fonts were likewise chosen to be digital rather than organic and human. The end result is clean, crisp, and very utilitarian.

For more detailed information on the fonts, see the readme file included with the Konstellation.

Want to read more about robots in medicine? Popular Mechanics just published a great article, “How Raven, the Open-Source Surgical Robot, Could Change Medicine.”

MinnPost has a slightly different take on the subject, asking, “[A]re robotic-assisted procedures worth the added cost? And, perhaps more to the point, are they safe?”

Be sure to check out February 2012′s Konstellation, “Oath.”

It’s always a challenge to decide what to use for each month’s Konstellation. Not because of a lack of available content – quite the opposite! There are so many choices it’s hard to know which to do first. We try to use a variety of sources and styles for the content, so it there’s a wide range of possibilities.

This month, though, one piece really leapt out at us and practically begged to be this month’s Konstellation: Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Fir Tree.” For those not familiar with the piece, it’s the tale of a little fir tree growing in the woods who dreams of growing up and becoming a Christmas tree. When his hoped-for adventure finally arrives, though, it doesn’t quite go as he imagines, and his end is not as glorious as he’d thought. January is certainly the month to contemplate the fate of all our Christmas trees whose time has now passed. And in a broader sense, the story contemplates the changes that are inevitable in everyone’s life, and the loss of youthful naïveté.

It’s a story that could all too easily be grim and depressing throughout. But we wanted to have a more hopeful air to the Konstellation to fit the Tree’s enthusiasm for life.  The colors, the fonts, and the styling were all chosen to create a warm, glowing atmosphere. It definitely shows how big a difference font and color selection can make in the perception of content!

We created a font palette of four fonts to express the Tree’s story. Four different fonts might seem overwhelming, but these four work astoundingly well together. It’s amazing how a single font palette can express the unspoiled beauty of nature, the old-fashioned world of fairy tales, and a young tree’s optimism… all at once, and all while harmonizing together.

We used different fonts to bring out different voices within “The Fir Tree.” The ingenuous young Tree is represented by a slightly-awkward font that brings to mind letters chipped out of wood. The other parts of nature are somewhat wiser than the Tree yet still simple and pure. This is represented with a clean, refreshing font without extra encumbrances. The voice of humans is a jarring contrast to the peacefulness of nature, with sharp, bladed aspects to the font. The narrator is somewhere between these two worlds, neither as artificial as humans nor as simple as nature. Using a consistent, readable font for the narrator also helps the other voices in the piece stand out distinctly without overwhelming the page.

Despite their differences, the fonts share a quirkiness to them that really manages to unify the font palette. The irregularities in the fonts bring home the fact that this is a tale, a story. This is no dry business report, and should not be treated as such.

For more detailed information on the fonts, see the readme file included with the Konstellation.

If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, be sure to check out January 2012’s Konstellation, “The Fir Tree.”

Sometimes traditional pieces need to be refreshed a bit. Every year, December rolls around and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol gets brought back out. Jacob Marley returns again to haunt Scrooge’s bedroom, just as he has for decades.

But how frightening can a ghost be in the modern world? The Victorian notion of specters in chains seems almost quaint compared to the frights we see today. In many ways, the story seems like a relic of the past whose only connection to the present is through tradition. It’s still a wonderful tale, but sometimes it seems to have lost its shiver-provoking powers.

We wanted to demonstrate the idea that a good ghost story is timeless. We re-imagined Marley as not just a vague misty ghost, but as a modern technological “ghost.” Which is more terror-inspiring – HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” or a bit of fog at night? We tried to bring out all the haunting “what-ifs” of technology and our modern way of life. What chains are we forging for ourselves? What invisible specters are moving along with us each day?

“Marley” has three different fonts, all of which lend a chilling air to the story. All three are very modern, without a hint of musty old-fashionedness. Technology and the future are brought into a timeless tale through fonts and colors without altering the text at all.

The title floats hauntingly in the background, an ever-present reminder of the specter hanging over the story. Using a modern font with contemporary stylings helps keep the piece firmly rooted in the present and future rather than the distant past. Marley is given a futuristic voice with a font reminiscent of old-fashioned computer outputs – a bit harsh, and very inhuman. Scrooge and the narrator’s voices are represented by a font that is very human but still a little harsh. A fog effect adds the final layer of spookiness and misty unreality to the piece.

For more detailed information on the fonts, see the readme file included with the Konstellation.

Check out December 2011′s Konstellation, “Marley,” to see just how spooky the future might be.

At Kernest, we find inspiration for the Konstellations in a variety of places. Sometimes a piece of writing will speak to us. Sometimes an idea will cause us to search out a piece that will fit. And sometimes we’re given a specific challenge.

Patrick Rhone is a Twin Cities writer and the curator of Minimal Mac. His next book, “Enough,” includes this essay, “Saying No is Actually Saying Yes to Other Things.” It’s a compelling idea, and one that deserved the best treatment possible.

The challenge for this Konstellation: find a way to express the warmth and personality of Patrick’s writing in font and color.

We used three fonts to convey the meaning and tone behind Patrick’s powerful essay. For the title, a font with strength and a sense of continuity lends solidity. The body of the piece uses a calm, comfortable font that’s very soothing to read. A handwriting-style font helps bring out particularly significant sections of the piece. Using a handwriting font further strengthens the impression that we are hearing the author’s personal thoughts, enhancing the intimate feeling of the essay.

We also chose a color palette with red, gold, and brown tones. The palette gives the piece a warm, enveloping feel that is cozy without being smothering. It feels like a favorite room, a place where you can go to retreat. It’s sophisticated without being fussy or pretentious.

Patrick’s reaction was everything you could hope for: “That is beautiful. Simply stunning.”

For more detailed information on the fonts, see the readme file included with the Konstellation.

Check out November 2011′s Konstellation, “Enough.”

Many of us are familiar with Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven” and its tale of a slow descent into madness. The poem’s sing-song rhythms and repeated patterns made it an irresistible inspiration for a Konstellation.

The piece starts with a very geometric font, full of reason and rationality. It is straightforward and unemotional. The white text on the light gray background seems very proper, very controlled. This is the voice of the calm, dispassionate narrator.

Gradually we start to see some purple text appear, the voice of our narrator’s confusion and fear. It’s a little unstable, a little off balance. It’s a much more human font, one that isn’t quite sure what’s going on. It brings in a sense of mild chaos. The purple is more wild than the simple white, gray, and black that has appeared so far. Suddenly we begin to wonder if our narrator is as sane and rational as we thought.

As the poem goes on, the gray darkens from controlled and impassive to dark and gloomy. There is less and less of the calm, cool narrator and more and more of the purple text’s insanity. The narrator is struggling with doubts and trying to remain in control of himself. As the story continues, the background continues to darken and the text becomes dominated by the more deranged font. We no longer wonder if the narrator is a bit mad with mourning – we know it.

Throughout it all, the Raven is unmoved. “Nevermore,” says the Raven, regardless of how demented the narrator becomes. The voice of the Raven has clearly been through a lot but it remains persistent. As the narrator becomes more crazed, the Raven’s utterances of the word go from amusing oddity to ominous foretelling. In many ways, the insanity of the narrator’s shriekings are emphasized by the Raven’s unruffled repetition.

At the end of the poem, the reader is left with a sense of deep unease as the impassive narrator’s voice returns. The same font that seemed so reasonable at the beginning now has a tinge of the surreal. Just how tenuous is sanity?

For more detailed information on the fonts, see the readme file included with the Konstellation.

Check out October 2011′s Konstellation, “Nevermore,” for a haunting take on this classic poem.

Not all Konstellations are reinterpretations of classic concepts. Some of them are faithful representations of a particular ideal. Finding a set of colors and fonts that perfectly embodies a piece is its own challenge. “Looking Glass” is a straight interpretation of a well-known children’s book, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.

Carroll was known for his works of “literary nonsense,” combining old-fashioned stories with playful fancy. The story of Through the Looking Glass is a fantastical one, but it still carries all the old-English sensibilities of Carroll’s world. It is both proper and whimsical. This Konstellation’s goal was to contrast the lush, antique stylings of a venerable estate with the the surreal world Alice finds behind the mirror.

Plush golds and browns give an air of luxury. Intricate details in the fonts call to mind cut glass and delicate ornamentation. Pops of bright pink, green, and blue and unexpected variations in the fonts remind us that this is a story about an imaginary world full of variety and wonder.

The font palette is a little unusual, bucking the conventional wisdom that one must always mix serif and sans serif fonts. This non-traditional palette uses four serif fonts  to demonstrate that fonts in the same category can also pair well together. Using all serif fonts is also in keeping with the appearance of 19th century literature.

For more detailed information on the fonts, see the readme file included with the Konstellation.

Step into the world on the other side of the mirror with “Looking Glass.”