Last Edit 2025.12.19

Hongshuang Fu (she/her) is a graphic designer living and working in Beijing. She enjoys observing, playing with, arranging, and creating typefaces. She also loves her cat—Mimi.

傅弘双 (She/ Her)是一名在北京生活和工作的平面设计师，平时喜欢看字，玩字，摆字，造字。她也喜欢她家的猫——咪咪。

Instagram
@georisbest

Website
fuhongshuang.com

From Xiaoyuan:

The only time I've met Hongshuang was in a Zoom meeting, where we discussed the publishing plan for KitchenSet. This article is mainly to introduce Hongshuang and her new typeface, KitchenSet—a font made with kitchen utensils. Through a Q&A format, I hope to share her approach to making things and the thoughts that cross her mind in daily life. Perhaps somewhere along the way, you—the reader—will find yourself smiling. Anyways, thanks for reading this.

我和弘双唯一一次见面是在一个 Zoom 会议里,我们聊了聊 KitchenSet 的出版计划。这篇文章主要想介绍弘双和她的新字体 KitchenSet——一套用厨房用具做成的字体。希望能通过问答的方式来介绍她创作时和日常生活中想到的东西。也许读到某处时，那个正在阅读这篇文章的你能会心一笑！不管怎么样，谢谢来读。

Hihi, my name is Hongshuang Fu. I am currently based in Beijing, I love indulging myself into cycling, wandering and creating every day*but don’t really have a stable income*. My hometown is quite different from Beijing, which is a warm and humid place, sometimes I miss the mountains and sea there. I am not entirely sure how to describe myself, but I know for certain that I have a wide range of interests in every sense. I enjoy always being on the path of seeking answers, though I don't necessarily need them.

我是傅弘双，目前在北京天天骑车散步和创作*并无稳定收入来源*，家乡在一个潮湿温暖的地方，有时会有些想念那里的山和海。我并不太确定如何描述自己，但我确信不论在哪方面我都是杂食动物。喜欢永远走在追寻答案的路上，但并不一定需要答案。 

The whole making process of KitchenSet was super spontaneous and intuitive, totally different from my usual research-heavy projects—and that's exactly why I love it so much.

When I started, I only had one rule for myself: if type design usually involves careful hand control or experience-based decisions, then I'd skip both completely. I wanted to use the most ready-made, everyday objects as the typeface itself. So I grabbed some disposable cutlery from my school cafeteria and a bunch of glasses with different rim sizes.

It was such a fun play! Once you break down any glyph into just straights and curves, simple kitchen stuff can become letters. The knife blade determines the font size, the glass rims become all the curves. The utensils set the rules—all I had to do was dip them in ink and press down. I didn't overthink whether it should be serif or sans-serif, regular or italic. For this project, I just wanted to let my gut feeling lead the way.

「厨房用具」是一次非常偶然和直觉性的字体创作，它与我惯常做的基于研究的大体量项目非常不一样，我想这也是我非常喜欢它的原因。在我开始做它时，我对自己只有一个要求：如果说字体设计的最初常常涉及人手对于画笔的控制或是基于经验的考量，那么我就既不要使用人手或是经验，我将用最现成的物品作为字体本身。所以我选择了当时学校的一次性刀叉勺和杯口直径不一的玻璃杯。是非常愉快的玩耍！当任何字形都被拆解成直线和曲线，简单的厨房用具就可以成为文字：刀身是决定字体大小的因素，杯口则变为一切的弧度。用具已经设定了规则，我所需做的便是蘸上墨水和按压。我没有刻意规定自己做出的字体是否得统一为衬线或非衬线体、常规体或斜体，在这个字体创作中，我只想让更多的直觉引领我。

I used kitchen sink as my workbench. Utensils, cups, and ink as my most essential tools and experimental objects. Some characters I made were completed in a single attempt, while others required trying out multiple times. In the end, I selected my favorite versions and brought them into Glyphs for final adjustments. That’s how the typeface took on its form, ready to circulate in digital media.

厨房水台是我的工作台，餐具、玻璃杯、墨水就是我最重要的工具和实验对象。有一些字符是一次就完成的，另一些则是尝试了好多种印法。最后我选出我最喜欢的版本一齐放进Glyphs里做最后的调整，它就变成了可在数字媒介上流传的样子。

There was an artwork kept lingering in my mind when I was making KitchenSet, even though I had no understanding of its concept at the time—only a vague impression of an image: Paul Elliman’s Bits(3) (I just learned the name of the work while writing this paragraph). The piece showcases characters formed by combining human made objects of different shapes and sizes. There's actually a very basic rule here that is often ignored when using computers for type design: when using found objects as materials, their varying sizes and proportions make it difficult to control the dimensions and stroke weights of each character. So, this led me to wonder—could I limit my making process to just a few basic tools? 

After making this decision, I thought about using a scanner to capture the compositions of utensils, but due to some technical problem *laugh*, I eventually chose to use ink printing. Still, I kept some images from my scanning experiments(4).

我想有一位艺术家的作品在「厨房用具」创作期间一直萦绕在我脑海里，即使我当时一点都不了解他的创作概念，有的只是一个图片的印象：Paul Elliman的Bits(3)（我写下这段话的时候才知道作者和作品的名字）。其中展示的是大大小小的人工制品组合而成的字符，这里其实有一个非常基础的规则，使用电脑造字甚至会被直接忽视。但如果要用现成品作为材料，这个问题就不得不去关注——现成品的大小和宽窄都不一，这会使得每个字符的尺寸和粗细很难控制。那么，我可不可以将创作过程限制在最基本的几个工具之内呢？

在这个决定后，我曾想过用扫描仪的方式扫描经过我摆放的餐具，但是因为一些技术原因（笑）最终还是选择了用墨水压印，但我有留下一些扫描实验的图片(4)。

My creating process was pure joy—I was standing in the kitchen, eating snacks, listening to music, and making letters all at once! So I think this typeface should feel warm and playful, not serious at all. Naturally, I'd love to see it used for food-related projects. Just imagine: "Egg" made with spoons and forks, or "Glass" formed by knives and cups—wouldn't that make you want to look closer?

But hey, if you want to use it in an email to your boss, I fully support that too.

我的创作过程非常愉悦，我可是站在厨房里一边吃一边听音乐一边做字！那么我觉得这个字体应该是温暖的，一点儿也不严肃的。我当然最希望它被用在跟「吃」相关的项目里，想一想，「Egg」是用勺子和叉子做成的，「Glass」是用刀和玻璃杯组合成的，会不会让人很有一探究竟的欲望呢？不过，如果你用这样的字体发邮件给上司我也是很支持的。

It's hard to say KitchenSet was a deliberate decision—it felt more like something that just began unconsciously. When I was making it, I didn't feel like I was designing a typeface. It was more about exploring a method, and the letters were just what came out of that process. Because of this, I felt no pressure at all.

In a way, I could describe KitchenSet as a whimsical journey—I'd go wherever it took me. As for not using traditional type design methods—honestly, it's simply because I don't know how *haha*. I care more about how I make the letters than the letters themselves, which I think reflects my own self-exploration. As long as I can keep playing and experimenting, I don't mind whether I'm following traditional methods or not—because that means I'll always have more possibilities.

好像比较难说这是一个我自主的决定，而更像是一个非常无意识的开始。因为在做「厨房用具」时，我并没有觉得我在做字，更多的是在玩一种方法，而字只是我方法的一种体现，因此我完全没有任何压力。或许我也可以说「厨房用具」是一次非常天马行空的旅行，走到哪儿算哪儿，没有用传统的字体设计方法做字，其实也是因为我并不会传统的字体设计（哈哈）。比起「字」，我更在意的是我如何「做字」，它是我自我探索的一种映射。只要我知道我可以一直玩下去，那我就并不在意是否用传统的方法做字体设计，因为我永远拥有更多可能性。

I primarily work with graphic design, photography, and found objects as my creative tools. However, I still believe that everything can become either the subject of my exploration or the medium for it. So, I’m always willing to give things a try. Rather than being a builder of concepts, I wish to be a craftsman skilled in working with all kinds of materials.

I’ve been playing around with my typewriter these days(5), trying to find more interesting ways to use it! I really enjoy how working with different tools brings me new perspectives, I’ll say it is much like the amazement of the square from Flatland when it entered the three-dimensional world and glimpses another dimension. Apart from that, I’m currently part of an astronomy-themed art residency, using cyanotype as an experimental method in my work.

我多以平面设计、摄影、现成品等作为创作手段。但我依然认为所有东西都可以成为我探索的对象或是用来探索的媒介，所以我都会试一试。比起概念的使用者，我现在更想成为一个擅用各种材料的匠人^-^

最近都在玩我的打字机，企图尝试出更多玩法(5)！我很喜欢使用不同工具时它们带给我的新的思维方式，有点儿像《平面国》里生活在二维空间的正方形被带到三维空间里一窥另一维度时的惊奇。除此之外，我现在正在一个以天文为主题的艺术驻地项目里，用蓝晒作为实验方法创作。

近期看的比较少，看了院线在映的《好东西》，好好好！/游戏的话有王国之泪、霍格沃茨之遗、以撒的结合和泰拉瑞亚（除了泰拉瑞亚，其他我暂时没玩到结局，快去玩泰拉瑞亚吧！）

I haven’t been watching much recently, but I did watch Her Story in theatre—i love it so much! As for games, I’ve been playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Hogwarts Legacy, The Binding of Isaac, and Terraria (I haven’t finished the first three yet, but you have to try Terraria!)