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ANDREW PAGLINAWAN
Graphic Designer / Type Designer
Dubai — UAE
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Andrew Paglinawan / Quicksand ProA personal experiment, since 2008

QuicksandPro

A little curiosity.
A life of its own.

It began with simple shapes, rounded forms, and a desire to understand how letters were made. I didn't know where it would lead.

Quicksand Pro returns to that first idea with a few more years of experience behind it.

FREE DOWNLOAD

01 / Origin 2008

I didn't really know
what I was doing.

I was curious about how typefaces were made, so I started drawing one. No grand plan. No idea where it would lead. Just simple geometric shapes, rounded forms, and a lot of experimenting.

That was the fun part.

Quicksand

Original Quicksand / Book / 2008

From the archive

QUICKSAND
DASH

I made this version in Illustrator using simple paths with a dashed stroke. It was crude, a little gimmicky, and definitely not how I'd build a typeface today.

But I was experimenting. And somehow…

People loved it.

Original turquoise Quicksand specimen poster, with diagonal lettering reading ‘More than 35 reasons to use Quicksand’, upright, oblique and dashed type, and a 2008 Andrew Paglinawan credit.
The original specimen poster / 2008

02 / Exploration 2008 → 2013

The more I learned,
the more I noticed.

As I spent more time designing type, I started seeing things I couldn't see before. Proportions. Spacing. Curves. Details I had never really thought about when I made the original.

Simple geometric shapes were only the beginning. I was learning to look at how the letters worked together.

The typeface hadn't changed. I had.

Same idea. A different eye.

Left: 2008 Book Right: 2013 Pro Regular

01 / a2008 → 2013
02 / G2008 → 2013
03 / t2008 → 2013
04 / 12008 → 2013
05 / &2008 → 2013
06 / Q2008 → 2013

The idea stayed.
The designer changed.

Quicksand Pro wasn't about replacing where I started. It was about returning to the same idea with a few more years of experience behind me.

I wasn't just learning how to draw letters. I was learning how to build a typeface.

03 / Evolution 2008 → Today

Then it took on
a life of its own.

I released it without knowing where it would go. Over the years, other designers helped it grow, refine and evolve beyond the typeface I originally made.

And somehow, the little experiment I started in 2008 kept going.

An idea, out in the world

2008
Original Quicksand
2013
Quicksand Pro
2016
Further development with Thomas Jockin
2019
Variable font
Today
Still out there.

A history of Quicksand. The six-style Pro family is one part of that continuing story.

Family overview

Now, make it your own.

Six styles, from Light to Bold. Select a passage to edit the text, change its style, or explore the glyphs.

Light

It started with curiosity. I wanted to understand how letters were made, so I began drawing my own. Simple shapes, rounded forms and a lot of trial and error slowly became my very first typeface. I called it Quicksand.

Light Italic

Just the beginning.

Regular

I released it into the world without knowing how far it would go. People downloaded it, used it, shared it and made it part of things I could never have imagined. Somewhere along the way, Quicksand became more than my first typeface. It made me want to keep drawing letters.

Regular Italic

And I never stopped.

Bold

ONE TYPEFACE CHANGED EVERYTHING.

Bold Italic

Quicksand started it all.

04 / Reflection

I couldn't have known what Quicksand would become when I started drawing it.
I just knew I wanted to make letters.

You have to start somewhere.

This is where
I started.

Quicksand Pro / Free & open sourceDownload the family
Andrew Paglinawan / Typefaces

QUICKSAND PRO Download

Browse styles and download an individual font or the complete family.

01 / Style catalogue

Explore the family

Each style is available on its own.

Download family
Andrew Paglinawan / Legal

Legal information