I released Usurp on February 11, 2008 as an experiment in process. Instead of drawing letters with pen or pencil, I cut them out of paper with scissors and arranged them on a counter to see how they worked together in words. Over several days I discarded weak forms and replaced them with stronger ones, gradually evolving the design. Once I was satisfied, I placed the letters on black paper, scanned them, and auto-traced the results. I then refined the outlines in font software while preserving the irregular, handmade quality.

The design that came out of this process was a psychedelic display typeface with heavy slab serifs and exaggerated shapes. It was strictly meant for display use and was never released for free. The name Usurp was chosen partly for its sound and partly to highlight the design of the U and S characters, which stood out in the set.

On May 25, 2021, I issued a technical update. I fixed an inconsistency between the space and non-breaking space characters, removed deprecated glyphs, and corrected the Panose classification data. No visual changes were made. Usurp has not been adopted in notable projects, but it remains a record of a hands-on approach to type design that differed from my usual digital workflow.