Cinq Ans #8: Ans keeps moving

A typeface is a semifinished product with which you can make words or sentences. The content of the writings is defined by the persons who dowload and use it. But every now and then, the designers of TilburgsAns also used the typeface for new subprojects. 

During the research fase in 2015, Ivo and Sander sometimes wanted to thank people for their support and ideas to elaborate their project. They bought a bottle of white wine and replaced the original label by a label with the icons of Ans and a dialect saying meaning 'thank you'. The winery Van Bilsen liked this label asked to also make a red wine label. Therefor a dialect text was used expressing togetherness. In September 2016 both wines were luanched and are for sale in several shops. In December 2020 a bubble wine was added to the collection, also with a dialect text. This text says ‘Just what I wanted’. All wined are made by the famous house Cantine Due Palme in the Italian Puglia region.

Another product by TilburgsAns is teh Chocoline, a chocolate based on the icon of the historic linden tree that grew on the central square from the end of the 16th century until 1994. Marketing Tilburg payed the costs for making the moulds and these delicacies are made by chocolate shop Albèrt. 

A third product resulting from the project is the Kaajbaandexpositie (curbstone exhibition). The TilburgsAns icons are printed on wheelie bins with white foil, making a weekly exhibiton of the cities heritage. The exhibition started in 2017 and has grown to a total of 81 wheelie bins in four streets and several individual wheelie bins throughout the city. 

In Spring 2019 a pin was designed of the knòrrie (canary) to celebrate the third anniversary of Ans. It became very popular and hundreds of them are sold. Two other icons were turned into a pin: the jar pisser and The Golden Sausage, based on a work of art that was destroyed by vandals in 1997. 
These pins inspired other people to ask TilburgsAns to design pins for them. A pin was made of an oak leaf, symbol for ‘mutual trust’. And three pins of monasteries were made for the Brabant Year of Monasteries. 

TilburgsAns started as a typeface with icons. The expectation was that it would result in several nice applications in about two years. But time after time Ans inspires people to take new initiatives. So we say: keep on moving!