Challenge

Music and typography have always co-existed. So what would a typeface for today’s Mumble rap movement look like? How does a typeface that doesn't care to be understood look?

Concept

Ignoring classic typography legibility rules, we created a handwritten alphabet and used digital technology to distort it more than a hand could do. We created 4 different typefaces, the Crazy Standard, Crazy Thug, Crazy Carti and Crazy Savage. The amount of variations allowed for each character to never be repeated twice. We then uploaded the typefaces to the open source typography network and shared them as a source for other creators.

The typography was then disrespectfully plastered on every piece of the campaign, from exotic cars driven by the artists and apparel to retail windows and basketball courts, to the portraits of the artists themselves by 90s anti-establishment photographer Mark Lebon.

In the worlds of basketball and rap, tradition is sacred. Both artists and players are expected to respect history, and be humble towards it. In the 90s, adidas released the audacious Crazy shoe for Kobe Bryant, an unapologetic player who rejected the traditional wisdom of attending college by going straight from high school to the NBA.

Twenty years later, in 2017 adidas relaunched Crazy. The “Crazy Isn’t Humble” campaign embraced a community that displays the same creative arrogance: a new generation of artists who are operating against every tradition, reinventing the rap genre on their own terms.