Colophon Type Foundry
Colophon is a London & New York-based independent type foundry established in 2009 by The Entente and joined in 2013 by Benjamin Critton Art Dept. They do graphic design and create bespoke type systems for large and small organisations.
Colophon Type Foundry
Network of different people and studios with different skills can respond to lots of different jobs Bespoke typefaces for big and small organisations
Commissions as a Testing Ground
Colophon build their own custom tools, software, content management systems and most importantly typefaces for most of their projects.
Outside In
stephen gill book design custom typeface relative book often start with one one specific weight for one use case and expand the family from there proportional typeface with the feeling of a monospaced every letter stays the same width across all weights
Stuart Griffiths
- The myth of the airborne warrior
- Visual system black line
- Censorship, censor non factual information in essay
- Inspiration for letterforms from worn down letterpress letters
- Archive typeface
No Cash Value
- Amsterdam exhibition
- Touches on the value, cultural interpretation of money
- Type sizes linked to different notes: £20 -> 20pt
- Value Sans (inspired by old English grotesques), Value Serif (Both typefaces share the same skeleton)
Hotshoe Magazine
http://www.hotshoeinternational.com/about
- New display typeface for every isssue (4 a year)
- Allows for faster process, less polish needed than for commercial typeface release
- Same design system, different typefaces
- Real context for better evaluation
basis grotesque hotshoe own material off white and regular cut. off weight slightly heavier for coloured backgruunds, uk road sign face
Stanley Barker
http://stanleybarker.co.uk/ Custom font based on unica: Grotesk 54
La Fabrique
Documents design process in a visual way
Nasty Gal
Nasty Gal is a fast-growing clothes brand. They work with lots of different designers, freelancers and interns, so they needed some way to introduce consistency. A full brand styleguide would have been too limiting, so Colophone designed three bespoke typefaces for them.
- NG Grot 1
- NG Grot 2
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NG Grot 3
- No traditional Regular, Bold and Light weights, instead three distinct versions of the typeface that can be used in different ways
- Alternate characters, Alternate punctuation
- Automatic application of certan stylistic elements through Open Type features
Castledown School
- Type family for Castledown Primary School
- Combination of different attributes from Arial, Times and Comic Sans
- Relates to handwriting
Three different cuts:
- Castledown Regular
- Castledown Fun (rationalised comic sans)
- Castledown Cursive & Castledown Cursive Instructional
The cursive version was a technical challenge, they used Open Type to create natural ligatures between chracters, each character has up to 14 different versions stylistic alternates
Five Years
- Retrospective show
- Explores loss of control when you release a typeface
- Applied 26 typefaces to made up scenes
- Developed new typeface Burgess Bold for the show