Font stories.

From June 4th to 7th, 2024, the creative industry gathered in the port of Hamburg for the ADC Festival 2024. A who’s who of German and global design, and an event we certainly weren’t going to miss! We had the pleasure not only of attending, but also speaking and hosting partnered activations with Merchery. Here’s the low-down on what we got up to at the festival:

With so many fonts available for free, why should you ever pay for one?

This is the question many brands face. There are plenty of high-quality free fonts available from reputable libraries that will do the job for a variety of projects. In other cases, it’s worth paying for fonts from a foundry or subscription provider. Which is right for you? Here’s a guide to choosing the right option for your project. 
 

It’s well-known that font related issues can have a dramatic impact on your creative workflows, creative output as well as your admin teams. Lesser known, but just as important, is the impact fonts can have on your internal IT, as well as the digital experience you’re offering as a brand.

We recently had the pleasure of hosting Brand Talks in Paris. It was our second time ever hosting in the French capital and was a great success! Surrounded by stunning views of the Parisian skyline, the Eiffel tower looking over from afar, we sat down for a captivating afternoon, listening to some of the industry’s finest. Renaud Cambuzat from lingerie brand Chantelle kicked things off with a presentation about restructuring in an evolving market. Then, Reza Bassiri, from design agency Carré Noir, accompanied by Isabelle Duvernay (from CCF bank), presented two case studies: the rebirth of French banking landmark CCF, and the recent rebrand of the Kronenbourg brewery. Alexandre Delassus and Pascal d’Amico followed up with a candid presentation of sporting mega-brand Decathlon’s rebrand. Our very own Damien Collot and Laurène Girbal closed off the event with a poetic nod to what makes typography so fascinating and intriguing.

With great digital presence comes the great responsibility of protecting your digital assets. Fonts stand bravely at the frontlines of your organization’s brand, valiantly broadcasting its values at every touchpoint. Therein lies the question - how does a brand protect its fonts so the fonts can speak for the brand?

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. Accompanying you on your company’s branding journey, this guide is designed to support you as you decide which path to take when it comes to font license acquisition.

What is the difference between a Company Desktop License and a, well, regular Desktop License? When it comes to font licensing, when does it make sense to join the cloud crowd? Let’s (type)face it, making licensing decisions can feel dicey, that is, unless you have a board game-themed infographic guiding you through the process.

Helvetica Now Variable, new from the Monotype Studio, offers more than a million new Helvetica styles in one state-of-the-art font file, allowing you to create infinite shades of expression, incredible typographic animations, and ultra-refined typography.

Futura Now is the definitive version of the definitive geometric sans, re-digitized based on Paul Renner’s original designs and updated to provide a more contemporary typographic palette.

Serif typefaces are sometimes seen as serious and overtly intellectual, a more somber sister to their laid-back counterpart, the sans serif. But FS Rosa breaks away from these conventions by combining the classic elegance of a serif with warmth and frivolity, created by its round letterforms and curves. 

Malou Verlomme’s Macklin superfamily is a gently irreverent take on the display type of the late 19th century, with an elegant twist that updates these letterforms for modern use. Choose one style, or use the entire variable family as a type toolbox.

“Typeface design is not an art. It’s a craft,” says Marco Ganz, the designer of Veto Sans. “People are familiar with letters. Letters have a purpose. Art has no purpose beyond making people think or wonder.”