STORMƝORD ©

— Bespoke Branding For Nordic Ecofeminist Founders

Design Ethics For The HUN + ECOLOGY Certificate

The HUN+ Ecology Certificate is meticulously made to meet your deep-rooted desire to grow your precious presence in the fertile soil of serenity down to the slightest possible detail.

Compassionate visionaries like us, who deeply care about equality, diversity and Mother Earth, we do not resonate with noiseful narratives and mindless designs. Neither do those we truly seek to serve. The HUN+ Certificate is meticulously made to meet our deep-rooted desire to express ourselves genuinely throughout our work.

2. Inclusive Design & Feminist Design Ethics

2.1 Inclusive Typography

2.2 Prioritizing Low Impact

2.3 The Arial® System Font

2.4 The Palatino Linotype System Font

2.5 Rum Typeface by Trine Rask

2.6 North Typeface by Trine Rask

2.7 Accessibility & WAVE Web Evaluation Tool

3. Low Impact Webdesign – B/W photos and tools

4. Sustainable Domain Endings – no more .com! 

5. Resources made ready for your inspiration


2. Inclusive Design & Feminist Design Ethics

Feminism is not a gender war. It´s about finding wisdom and wholeness for humanity. It´s about embracing the wise, feminine partnership with the masculine in ourselves and in the outer world. In an ideal world, there is no separation between us. Ultimately Storm + Norð envisions an empowered society – a partnership beyond gender, between people. A common path, where the feminine is lived by everybody, no matter which gender we feel, we are – if any, all for the benefit of sentient beings and Mother Earth.

After 5 years of research, honouring the journey, not the goal, Storm + Norð proudly presents the result, which is translated in all design projects created by Storm + Norð. Every single project, including this site, is meticulously made and powered by earth-friendly, socio-economic, and/or female-founded companies and designers, down to the slightest possible details.


2.1 Inclusive Typography

Every font family has a story. Every typeface carries the cultural marks of its makers, along with the stories of the political and cultural moment in which they were designed—but to date, those histories have been largely devoid of experiences from Black, indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) designers. Graphic design is and has always been, a predominantly white industry (and its leaders are mostly male). According to AIGA’s 2019 Design Survey, only 29% of the 9,429 respondents identified as a designer of colour, with only 3% identifying as Black.


2.2 Prioritizing Low Impact

Storm + Norð prioritizes values based on research and an enlightened perspective down to the slightest possible detail. As a result of this one-pointed mindset, “back to basics”, beauty, and simplicity, says goodbye to heavy-loaded website attachments and Adobe / Google fonts. Founders note: As a dedicated typography enthusiasts, who often fall in love with curves and crispy crafts created by the world’s most excellent designers, I had to learn to love and to let go: The types for this site are set with a ‘low-impact living – high impact giving’ mantra and high accessability and readability in mind. Visiting and browsing the site, you will simply load specific system fonts and locally hosted premium fonts, created by the outstanding Danish designer Trine Rask. Every choice is made with the goal to lower the environmental impact.


2.3 Arial® System Font

The system “fallback” font is set as a tribute and in memory of Patricia Saunders | 1933-2019. Patricia Saunders (then Patricia Mullett) in the Monotype Drawing Office in 1955, aged 22. © Monotype Archives. I am featuring the Arial® typeface as a tribute to her important work as a role model for women in type design. “Patricia will long be remembered as a role model for aspiring women type designers, and her contributions to type design will continue to inspire further generations working in this field,” Prof. Fiona Ross and Dr Alice Savoie write in their 29 June 2019. Source: University Of Reading


2.4 Palatino Linotype System Font

The second system “fallback” font is Herman Zapf´s Palatino. Hermann Zapf (German: [tsapf]; 8 November 1918 – 4 June 2015) was a German type designer and calligrapher who lived in Darmstadt, Germany. He was married to the calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse. Named after the 16th-century Italian master of calligraphy Giambattista Palatino, Palatino is based on the humanist types of the Italian Renaissance, which mirror the letters formed by a broad nib pen reflecting Zapf’s expertise as a calligrapher. Its capital ‘Y’ is in the unusual ‘palm Y’ style, inspired by the Greek letter upsilon, a trait found in some of the earliest versions of the letter such as that of Aldus Manutius. Unlike most Renaissance typeface revivals, which tend to have delicate proportions such as a low x-height (short lower-case letters and longer ascenders and descenders), Palatino has larger proportions, increasing legibility.


2.5 Rum Sans Typeface by Trine Rask

Storm + Norð promotes the Rum Sans typeface, created by the outstanding Danish designer Trine Rask, for several webprojects and prints.

“Rum Sans is a wide range type family, it encounters several alternates that makes it a textface as well as a display, it is serious and playful. Rum Sans is available in a sharp as well as a soft version – rounded, but not too rounded on the outside & sharp on the inside to keep it crisp with a clear shape. Rum Sans Black was the first variant to be published in 2010 after receiving Certificate of Excellence in Type design from Type Directors Club, New York & the family has been growing ever since.”

Typeface: Rum Sans & Rum Soft Sans, 22 styles & part of Rum Family
Available from: www.myfonts.com
Design date: 2001-21
Contact: Trine Rask
Recognition: Rum Black, Certificate of Excellence in Type design, Type Directors Club, New York 2010


2.6 North Typeface by Trine Rask

Storm + Norð promotes the North typeface for bodytext in several web-projects, e-books and prints.

“North Family is a small type family designed for books and pages of text in smaller or bigger sizes. It has been designed with special care for the Scandinavian languages, their letter combinations and special characters, but contains accented characters for all european languages. Languages do not only sound different, they look different even when they use the same alphabet. Scandinavian languages have a higher frequency of the letters f and g. When you lay out a text, when you work with typography, the typeface is the building block of your page & you can not choose the frequency and combinations of letters.”

Typeface: North, 4 styles
Available from: www.myfonts.com
Design date: 2004-06
Contact: Trine Rask


2.7 Accessibility

During every web design process, Storm + Norð uses the WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool. A suite of evaluation tools that helps authors make their web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities.


3. Low Impact Webdesign

Hurrah! This web page is cleaner than 80 % of the web pages tested. The internet can be a dirty place to spend energy and time. Data transfer requires electricity, which creates carbon emissions — and this (also) leads to climate change. In spite of the fact that trying to solve the carbon problem is like peeing in your pants on an icy day, as long as the lungs of Mother Earth, our soil, are choking (and this is what we really should care about), trying to reduce carbon is better than doing nothing. This Low Impact Website reduces data transfer by up to 70% in comparison to our regular website.

To achieve this, I added a few tools and principles.

  • Monitoring every page on projects by implementing a Website Carbon Calculator.
  • All images are B/W or monochrome colours. This website loads a minimized version of all images, which decreases the loading speed and environmental impact of the site.
  • Loading system fonts Instead of load-heavy, fancy designer fonts, as described above.
  • Rarely using video, but when it happens this site compresses all data to the greatest extent possible.

4. Sustainable Domain Extensions

Storm + Norð decided to challenge ‘normal’, conventional, and commercial by quitting local and commercial domain endings like .com. Instead a conscious choice is made to host projects at .org, .eco, and .ngo domains, which all support a greater cause. For example, the .org domain is managed by the non-profit Public Interest Registry (PIR), an organization whose mission is to support its parent non-profit the Internet Society (ISOC). As part of its charter, PIR supports ISOC’s efforts to ensure the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. More than 50% of the proceeds from each .org domain registration contributes to keeping the internet open, free, and accessible to all. There are many reasons to choose a .org. Storm + Norð ensures that every created online project oand presence is supporting efforts to expand Internet access and helping to make the Internet a better place for all.


Feeling Inspired But Overwhelmed?

If you feel inspired to build your next web project or change your current for the better, you might feel overwhelmed and don´t know where to start. I guess, I more than understand. Here is some advice for you: start asking yourself, what is the smallest possible change with the biggest impact, you are able to make today, right now? One of your answers might be: changing your choice of typography on your website. Start diving into the readymade free resources below or feel free to connect with Storm + Norð for personal consulting.


Resources Readymade For You …

Alphabettes →   Future Fonts →  How To Support Black Type Designers →  Queer Design Club →   Typequality →   Type With Pride →   Vocal Type →   WAVE, The Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool →   Website Carbon Calculator →   Women Who Code →   Women Who Design →