The FREE Web Typeface and RubyContent-powered website for the Original Champions of Design

“It always seems impossible until it’s done,” read the inscription on a rather unique greeting card. On the back, distinctive letterforms highlighted a custom application of the Original Champions fo Design's (OCD) "Free" typeface. "Free" was OCD's contribution to “Image of the Studio,” featuring submissions from more than 75 graphic design firms in New York City.

Inspired by our partner's typographic creativity, we helped turn vector artwork into a working web typeface. Over the course of the weeks and months that followed, RubensteinTech collaborated with OCD to build font files with the desired level of typographic nuance. As luck would have it, a number of “free” tools were available to help us do the job:

1. Inkscape: A somewhat fussy program that can convert vector artwork to individual letter forms and associate characters with glyphs.

2. Free Font Converter: This site is used to convert the Inkscape SVG into a TrueType font file, the standard font format introduced by Apple in 1991.

3. Type Light: A tool that can manipulate the Truetype to finesse letter spacing, line height, ascent, descent, ligatures, and individual letter widths — putting the finishing touches on the font.

4. Font Squirrel Web Font Generator: A web site that builds custom@font-face Kits for use on the web absolutely free of charge.

At certain moments, it seemed impossible to complete the task. But, forged on until the typeface was perfect.

OCD’s work received industry recognition with a win at TDC60. TDC60 is an annual competition held by the Type Directors Club, the leading international organization whose purpose is to support excellence in typography.

The Original Champions of America website was developed to promote FREE ahead of the TDC60 awards, and we made FREE available for download at no charge.