Many of the best typefaces seem to begin as experiments, and the Briem Akademi™ design is no exception. While its designer, Briem Gunnlager was a tutor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, he used a simplified version of the font that would eventually become the Briem Akademi typeface as an exercise for his students. The exercise was based on working with "modules" within a rigidly-controlled grid system. Feeling that more could be done with such a design, Briem went to work creating an entire typeface family.
Working within his own, self-imposed guidelines, many of the characters share common traits. Most characters that require a curve share the same one, and diagonals, wherever possible, share the same slant. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Briem Akademi font is its use of a notched design in its horizontal elements, where crossbars and shoulders join their vertical counterparts.