Crowdfunding Scheme of Lee Hon Kong Kai Font

The Birth of a Hong Kong Font - From signboard maker to a font repairer

I am Lee Kin Ming, and I have been working in my father's signage-making shop since I was a teenager. Nowadays, it seems very simple to make signboards with computer fonts. However, if you were to use the handwriting to make a signboard 30 or 40 years ago, you would have to ride a bus to find a street calligrapher to write it.

Lee Hon was one of the calligraphers who set up shop on the streets at Mong Kok. My father met Lee Hon at work and they became good friends. Before retiring, Lee Hon was afraid that my father would have no font to use for work, he gave my father many manuscripts as gift, which have been preserved until now.

In order not to waste Lee Hon’s thought and kindness, I started digitalising the manuscript into a computer font from 2016 and hoping that everyone is able to use it.

Characteristics of Lee Hon Kong Kai

Bold strokes, obvious at a glance, one complete form are the main characteristics of Lee Hon Kong Kai. It is very suitable on signboards, art craft production, 3D characters, headline wordings, graphic design, digital media design, posters, flags and product packaging, etc.

I hope Lee Hon Kong Kai will bring another choice of font type using to the public. Hopefully, Hong Kong characteristics will reappear with this font type.

Purpose of crowdfunding – Lee Hon Kong Kai
(Stencil form of Lee Hon Kong Kai)

"Lee Hon Kong Kai" has been substantially completed and the proofreading work has been carrying out. The next step is restoring Lee Hon Tong Kai, which is the stencil form of Lee Hon Kong Kai, and the Clerical manuscripts left by Lee Hon.

Without the public support, it is difficult to accomplish these goals. The money raised by the public will be used for the production of the Lee Hon Tong Kai and for the research and development of Lee Hon’s clerical scripts.

Details of crowdfunding

Upon successful achievement of the crowdfunding objective, each backer who donate HK$500 or above (around NT$2,000) will be able to obtain a set of permanent authorization for "Lee Hon Kong Kai" font (Basic)(3,700 Chinese characters), which will be issued two months after the end of the crowdfunding.

Each backer who donate HK$950 or above (around NT$3,600) will be able to obtain a set of permanent authorization for "Lee Hon Kong Kai" font (Standard)(7,800 Chinese characters), which will be issued two months after the end of the crowdfunding.

There are more than 7,000 Chinese characters (including 99.9% for daily use). It also contains Zhuyin, English, numbers, Suzhou numerals and other necessary punctuation marks. At the same time, the most common font format will be adopted, and all major operating systems and software will be applicable.

It is also very welcome to donate a sum at will if you think this authorization is not necessary for you but still want to support the plan.

Social give back of crowdfunding

If the crowdfunding is successful, we will organize a series of free sharing and workshops to help more people understanding this Hong Kong-born font. At least half of the quota will be reserved, and priority of enrollment will be given to our crowdfunding backers.

Extra objectives of crowdfunding

Each backer donated HKD950 or above (around NT$3,600)

Achieve HK$700,000 or above, can obtain
- Lee Hon Kong Kai (standard) (about 7,800 characters in Chinese, English numerals and symbols) Permanent Authorization (issued within two months after the end of the crowdfunding project)

Achieve HKD$1,250,000 or above, can obtain
-Lee Hon Kong Kai (standard) (about 7,800 characters in Chinese, English numerals and symbols)Permanent Authorization (issued within two months after the end of the crowd funding project) and
-Lee Hon Tong Kai (stencil form of Lee Hon Kong Kai) Permanent Authorization (will be issued 2nd – 3rd Quarter 2021)

Terms & payment details of crowd funding (30/06/2020)

1. Mr. Lee Kin Ming is the only project holder of Lee Hon Kong Kai Crowdfunding Scheme

2. The money of the Scheme's support fund belongs to the project. It is only used to support the project and not to buy or sell the product (return or share).

3. If the crowdfunding scheme is terminated due to accident or any force majeure, the project owner, Mr. Lee Kin Ming, will return the donations to his backers. There will be no return mechanism for the transaction fee (about 8%) of GoGetFunding and the credit card platform (PayPal/ Stripe).