75-year-old Reichstag graffiti come to life in new font available for free download

In spring 1945 Soviet soldiers left hundreds of inscriptions all over the walls of the Reichstag in Berlin. These were words of victorious happiness as well as bitter loss.

Nearly 75 years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, RT released a “smart” font based on those inscriptions. Now it’s available for free download on #VictoryPages project’s webpage.

Behind each font character there is a real letter, handwritten by soldiers 75 years ago.

These inscriptions are the voices, words and memories of the victors. With its handwritten characters and symbols, calligraphic and rough, neatly styled and expressively sharp, the font May creates a visual link between the past and the present, between the heroes of The Victory and their descendants.

"Font of Victory 'May' is a kind of living graphic monument to veterans. But we want to believe that these letters that came to life, will also serve as a reminder of the price of victory. Remembering and knowing through what hell, pain and suffering the world went through in the middle of the twentieth century, we, the young generation, the heirs of that Victory, must do everything so that people will never again know what world war is.”- the project’s Creative Producer, Kirill Karnovich-Valua explained.

The font was created by Contrast Foundry. Each letter has several alternate forms and sits in line somewhat unevenly, creating a handwritten effect similar to the style of inscriptions on walls. A larger font size would display rich texture, similar to something written on a rough surface, while smaller lettering hardly shows any texture at all making it easier to read - this is possible due to a special algorithm that modifies the letters’ outline.

This font release is a first step for RT’s large-scale project dedicated to the upcoming year marking 75 years since the defeat of the Nazi regime. #VictoryPages is a versatile social media documentary project. It offers an opportunity to look at the historical magnitude of May 9, 1945 through personal impressions of our contemporaries. The story of Victory told for the young and by the young, using the language of modern media will unfold in 2020 on five social networks.

The project will come from the same team behind #1917LIVE and #Romanovs100 and will be rolled out primarily in Russian.