Store Norske Nora - Geometric modular typeface based on Nora Gulbrandsen’s playful 1930s alphabet.

Store Norske Nora Font Typeface Store Norske Nora.pdf Buy License


About

Store Norske Nora is a reinterpretation and expansion of the lettering alphabet originally developed by industrial designer Nora Gulbrandsen (1894–1978). Gulbrandsen is recognised for her modernist contributions to Porsgrunds Porselænsfabrik during the 1930s, where she served as chief designer from 1929 to 1945. She characterised her approach as ‘formlek’, which refers to playful experimentation with forms, in contrast to strict functionalism. Gulbrandsen was appointed during a period when Porsgrunds Porselænsfabrik sought significant renewal, and her leadership resulted in a comprehensive transformation of the company’s visual identity and product range. Beyond designing numerous cups, plates, and vases, she also redesigned the corporate logo, developed a proprietary typeface, and produced catalogues and advertisements.

The typeface is constructed geometrically from modular components, which are divided and spaced to evoke abstract representations of plates and other porcelain objects. Store Norske Nora is a variable font that allows these modular letterforms to shift horizontally, ranging from widely spaced to more condensed configurations, including versions that approximate conventional letterforms. The font has gained recognition in branding and editorial contexts for its distinctive and precise graphic qualities. Nora has proven popular for branding and editorial projects due to its strong and clean graphic character.

Store Norske Nora is designed by Arve Båtevik.

Technical information

For full technical specifications and character overview, please see the technical section at the end of the specimen PDF.

Language support

Nora supports a compact Latin display character set for selected Western European and Nordic language use.

Supported languages include Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish.

Character set

Nora supports a compact Latin display character set with uppercase and lowercase letters, selected accented Latin characters, figures, punctuation, quotation marks, spacing characters and combining accents.

OpenType features

Nora includes OpenType features for access to alternates, glyph composition and decomposition, case-sensitive forms and stylistic alternates.

The font software has two stylistic sets: ss01 for alternate I/J/R forms and dot/dieresis-related forms, and ss02 for alternate Ø/ø forms.

Feature tags: aalt, ccmp, case, ss01, ss02.