The Great Youth

The circus is a historic and widely recognized form of performative entertainment, but it is also a curious and distinctive institution that most of us don’t really understand. I created the display typeface The Great Youth as a way to explore and pay homage to my father’s time as a circus performer during the mid-1970s and early 80s in Redlands, California. I grew up listening to him tell stories from his time in the act and these extravagant tales still capture my imagination today. While this typeface was produced as a modular way for me to connect to a part of my own family’s past, The Great Youth also celebrates the time in every person’s life when we throw ourselves into our passions; leaping into the air, arms out and eyes wide open, without fear of failure or thought of what lies behind the next red and white striped curtain.