Billowed is a typeface family inspired by a simple shape that tessellates in three different ways: in a single orientation, in two orientations, and in four orientations. The shape resembles a billowing sail, with two concave edges that are adjacent and two convex edges, also adjacent. Forcing letters into this template shape results in some oddly shaped letters, but the result should not be judged by individual letters but by how the words and strings of words appear.

Billowed was designed as an alternating-letter font in which two sets of characters alternate. The alternating is done automatically in applications that support the OpenType feature contextual alternatives (calt). To get the ripple pattern not just horizontally but also vertically, lines should alternate between the right and left styles and leading set to the same value as the font size.

Billowed is monospaced with tight letter spacing to accentuate the ripple pattern. The family includes outline styles that can be used in a layer above the solid style to add color. Billowed was not designed for any particular use but as a challenge to fit letters into a particular geometric shape. The unusual patterns that result are eye-catching and may be useful for advertising or signage and in other places where one wants attention-grabbing lettering.