TOYOTA | IQ FONT | 2010
The World's First Typeface, Written by a Car / TOYOTA "IQ FONT"
A car writes letters with its tire tracks. And then those letters become an actual downloadable font. Launched from Belgium out to the world in 2010, this project showed people something they'd never seen before.
The problem
TOYOTA wanted to communicate how nimble its new compact car, the iQ, was, to audiences across Europe. The targets were three separate communities: design, technology, and cars. They needed one idea that could grab the attention of all three at once.
The insight
Judge Joachim Souter said you could see the car's DNA in this typeface. Instead of just showing footage of the car moving, they turned that movement into an actual usable typeface. The idea of turning an ad from something you watch into something you use is what made this work.
The idea
They drove the iQ inside a hangar and filmed it from a camera mounted on the ceiling. Software built by Zachary Lieberman tracked the car's path and converted it into the shapes of letters of the alphabet. They released a making-of video showing the whole process, gave the font away for free, and let people book test drives at the same time.
What happened
The making-of video was picked up by more than 6,000 blogs, the font was downloaded more than 24,000 times, and 2,345 test drives were booked. They achieved all this with 0 euros in media spend, and won the Grand Prix in the Design category at Cannes Lions 2010.
Afterthought
Winning by not looking like an ad at all—that moment had already arrived back in 2010. The whole thing came down to one thing: making a genuinely usable font that the design community truly wanted.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2010
