Type resources for designers and brand owners

Featured article.

Putting AI to work: The magic of typeface pairing.

Have you ever cooked a meal at home and been delighted to find the perfect ingredient to complement your recipe? Maybe you forgot you had cilantro, crushed peanuts, or lemon juice, and it’s just the thing you needed to elevate your dish.

What’s new.

Monotype’s company desktop license empowers cloud access to brand fonts.

Long gone are the days of zipping up folders of font files and sharing them across your organization, or even messier, embedding fonts in documents in the cloud in hopes that the design remains intact. We recently announced an expanded set of licensing rights which allows all employees within an organization to access Commercial Production Fonts in their desktop environments. 

Creative Characters S2 E8: Andrew Krivine and Michael Worthington.

This week we’re welcoming Andrew Krivine, author and punk rock collector, alongside Michael Worthington, faculty at CalArts and co-founder of Counterspace. The creative duo is here to tell the tale of how they co-created the largest exhibition of punk and new wave graphics ever shown on the West Coast.   

Monotype x Limerick.

Over the past four years, we’ve been lucky to forge a reciprocal partnership with the Limerick School of Art & Design / TUS in Ireland. Both Creative Type Directors Tom Foley and Emilios Theofanous have now participated in workshops and modules at the leading fine art, design and creative media school. This year’s students were asked to write a message platform for one typeface and build a marketing plan and design assets to promote it in digital or print media.  

Font resources for brands.

8 Common mistakes to avoid when choosing brand fonts.

When you’re a designer, it’s thrilling to create a new brand or update an existing one. You get to be creative! Strategic! You get a chance to make your mark!

In addition to deciding on a color palette and imagery style, you get to choose foundational typefaces for your brand. But font selection should not be based on looks alone.

How an increased focus on digital transformation has changed customer branding expectations.

Today’s designers are faced with a multitude of new challenges when it comes to designing for a digital world. Customers expect constant communication, have short attention spans, and expect brands to keep up with emerging technology. Learn about the branding challenges to advance your digital strategy and forge ahead.

What creative leaders need to consider in a brand refresh.

You’re at your desk reviewing your emails, and getting ready to kickstart a new design project tomorrow. You’ve read over the project brief, and you have a team call coming up to go over the project guidelines. It’s an exciting challenge, but you’re not sure where to begin.
 

Get inspired.

Creative Characters S3 E3: Getting into the ‘heavy stuff’ with Aaron James Draplin.

We are thrilled to have Aaron Draplin on the podcast this week and to dig into the “heavy stuff” with him – existential musings on life and building a career, the importance of hanging on to your inner kid, and the “weird little spot” he’s in as he approaches 50 turns around the sun.

7 Typographic rebrands that worked wonders.

Today’s brands must keep up with a fast-paced digital world and navigate a “new normal” that’s still emerging from the worst of the pandemic. The last few years shifted everyone’s digital expectations, how brands operate, and in some cases, impacted their business models. Moreover, issues like biodiversity, sustainability, diversity and equity, and brand activism are all booming. So how does this all impact brand building? These macro shifts are greatly influencing how companies position themselves, the services they offer, and how they communicate with their customers.

Font expertise from the Monotype Studio.

Typography terms and definitions.

From alternates to X-height, this list of typography terms and definitions covers just about everything you’d want to know about fonts and typography.

What are font superfamilies and why do we need them?

Font superfamilies are vast collections of type that can meet a multitude of needs without compromising on consistency. But what defines a superfamily, exactly?

What’s in a letterform?

A letter is more than the sum of its parts, but sometimes it helps to know what those parts are called. And it may not surprise you to learn that in a field as meticulous as typography, every little piece of a letter has a name.

All resources.

Adapt to the latest trends and ways of working with Monotype Fonts. Here’s how.

Get inspired, stay adaptable, and deliver on-trend work with time-saving tools within Monotype Fonts.

Creative Characters S3 E5: Changing the game with Maureen Raisch.

After 18 years designing for some of the biggest names in professional sports, Maureen Raisch embarks on a new journey as the first-ever Creative Director for the National Women’s Soccer League. In this week’s episode she reflects on the importance of visibility and inclusivity in sports branding, the power of design to elevate women’s sports, and what she calls her own “personal rebrand.”

8 reasons why you should pay for fonts.

Paid fonts are superior to free fonts in a variety of ways (and no, we’re not just saying that because we sell fonts). Learn what separates a premium font from a free font from experts at Monotype. 

 

Utility, authority, and a hint of steel for Bekaert.

Monotype designed a pair of custom typefaces for global market leader in steel wire transformation and coating technologies, Bekaert, creating a bold, modernist design that speaks to the company’s extensive history and industrial heritage. The typefaces are an integral part of a company-wide rebrand, led by Interbrand and designed to support Bekaert’s ambition to be the leading partner in shaping the way we live and move: safe, smart, sustainable.

Creative Characters S3 E4: Making the Monotype Type Trends report with Terrance Weinzierl and Emilios Theofanous.

This week, we take you behind the scenes of one of Monotype’s biggest, and most anticipated campaigns of the year: the annual Type Trends report. Tune in to hear from the report’s curators, Creative Type Directors Terrance Weinzierl and Emilios Theofanous on their experiences producing the report.

Creative Characters S3 E3: Getting into the ‘heavy stuff’ with Aaron James Draplin.

We are thrilled to have Aaron Draplin on the podcast this week and to dig into the “heavy stuff” with him – existential musings on life and building a career, the importance of hanging on to your inner kid, and the “weird little spot” he’s in as he approaches 50 turns around the sun.

Creative Characters S3 E2: Iterative, content-first design with In-House International.

Monotype’s Executive Creative Director, Charles Nix, speaks with guests Michu Benaim Steiner and Lope Gutierrez-Ruiz, about their Texas-based design studio, In-House International. They’ve done type work for over 100 clients, and their typeface Perfora was recently featured in Monotype’s Type Trends Report. Keep reading for a behind-the-scenes look into their creative process.

Creative Characters S3 E1: Jim Moran, Preserving print history at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum.

In our first episode of Season 3, we welcome the new Senior Director of the Monotype Studio, Tom Rickner, as a first-time host. Tom speaks with Jim Moran, master printer and collections officer for the internationally-known Hamilton Wood Type Museum. Keep reading for a glimpse into the museum’s history and to learn why the letterpress is still so important today.