Variable typefaces give designers the power of choice.
 

For many years, a digital typeface family consisted of separate font files for each weight and style — that is, until an additional option called variable fonts was introduced in 2016. Variable fonts contain the entire font family within a single file, allowing for countless variations in style. “Before that, you could change fonts, but you would actually have to use an alternate font file and swap one letter for another. Here, you’re actually morphing the letters,” says type designer David Jonathan Ross, who runs his own foundry, DJR, and a subscription-based Font of the Month Club.

The beauty of variable fonts, according to Ross, lies in its practical applications. They allow designers the flexibility to control stylistic variables, such as a typeface’s weight and width, and create richer compositions as a result. As an example, Ross points to “Fit,” a variable font he designed as an early experiment in 2016. “Once you know what you want to say and once you set this font, you can just stretch and squeeze to fit that word in that space because it can go from super narrow to super wide, and that way, regardless of the word or phrase you have, it will always find a version that fits,” he explains.

Essentially, variable fonts are a reaction to today’s complex world. Ross mentions that while once upon a time, a novel only required one text from front to back, digital documents of today require headlines, subheadlines, body copy — and these documents must look good on a wide variety of screens, from chapters to phones to watches. “With a variable font, designers have full access to a wide range of font variations to help address this typographic complexity, and can create typography that can truly be responsive to the environment around it,” Ross says. “It’s an opportunity to redefine the relationship between the type makers and the type user.” —Ariela Kozin

The future of type design is female. 

When it comes to gender parity and equity in the design industry, there is much work to be done. Women comprise over half of working design professionals, according to the 2019 AIGA Design Census, yet only 11 percent of leadership positions are held by women. Hone in on the subset of designers focused on typography and type design, and the disparities are likely to widen. As a fresh graduate of the University of the Arts London, Amber Weaver recognized that there was no lack of female talent within the industry — though there was a sore lack of visibility and recognition. “I was going to the library for research, looking through books about typography and graphic design, and I noticed there were not many women being mentioned,” Weaver says. “And when it came to type design, it was always a male designer that was being talked about. I thought, ‘There must be more women out there.’”

Weaver continued to research, and began compiling a list of female design talents, following in the footsteps of efforts such as Alphabettes, an all-female network of typographers. In 2018, with the backing of a successful Kickstarter campaign that nearly tripled its goal, Weaver published her findings in Femme Type, a book that spotlights more than 40 contemporary womxn designers around the world working across type design, 3D, kinetic type, type sculpture, lettering, and more. What began as a one-off project to “diversify people’s bookshelves,” as Weaver says, has since quickly grown into a multi-pronged platform: In 2019, she established TYPE01, a type-focused media company and font shop, and relaunched Femme Type with an online magazine, an inspirational Instagram account (@femmetype), a series of online tutorials, and a variety of collaborative projects under its umbrella.

“People have responded so well to it, because Femme Type really hones in on a piece of the industry that was lacking.” With the book now in its second printing, the enterprising talent has her sights set on larger goals — and the future looks bright for Weaver, as she finds herself contending with a new, positive challenge: “I’ve found so many women now, I can’t possibly compile them all into one book.” —Aileen Kwun

Playing with pattern fonts, beyond letterforms.
 

At a time when anyone with a computer can access thousands of fonts at their fingertips, it can be difficult to remember that digital typefaces are a relatively new innovation in typography’s long history. Slovak-born American type designer Zuzana Licko, cofounder of the influential foundry Emigre Fonts (along with her husband, Rudy VanderLans), has been creating digital typefaces for nearly 40 years — and breaking ground nearly every step of the way. Emigre’s start segued with the launch of the first Macintosh in 1984, which opened up a world with new possibilities and tools for graphic designers. “When we started Emigre, the technology was challenging; we had to figure out a lot of stuff with very primitive tools,” like coarse resolution bitmaps, Licko recalls. “Paradoxically, working within constraints inspired more free exploration than working with today’s limitless possibilities. There was something to react against, a puzzle to solve, a problem to overcome. We had to reconsider basic assumptions, and this led to unusual forms that we might not have explored otherwise.”

“I have always been fascinated by the shapes of letters and their duality of meaning. At their core, the letters form words to communicate a literal message. But the nuance of their shapes and styles, whether starkly simple or exuberantly bordering on illegibility, can communicate as much meaning as the words themselves.” To this day, Licko’s work continues to toy with possibilities and push the boundaries of conventional type design. One of her recent experimental fonts, Crackly, designed in 2019, takes advantage of repetition and keyboard access as a way to make a purely visual, pattern-based set of faceted forms. Each of Crackly’s geometric “letters” combine to create depth and incongruous perspectives that recall Cubism, or the work of M.C. Escher. “In this way, the user can easily try out different combinations and repetitions of elements, more quickly and with more precision than with vector graphics,” says Licko, who has applied Crackly to a range of personal projects, including a set of woven textiles. —A. Kwun

How Vocal Type is diversifying type design.
 

Graphic designer Tré Seals was searching for design inspiration, looking for the perfect typeface for a project when he was struck with a persistent problem: There was a pervasive sameness in the figures, examples and styles featured in design books and magazines. The experience left a lasting impression on Seals, as his research led him to Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller’s landmark article, “Black Designers: Missing in Action,” published in a 1987 issue of PRINT magazine. “That was really the first time that I truly understood what diversity in design meant, and the impact that it has,” Seals says. “But it didn't really get drilled into me until a few weeks later, when she published a sequel to that article for its 30th anniversary.” Holmes-Miller’s writings astutely confirmed what Seals had already witnessed and known to be true: There is a pronounced lack of diversity and representation within the worlds of graphic design and typography. In the three decades since her original piece, not much had changed. According to the 2019 AIGA Census, Black designers make up just 3 percent of the design industry in the U.S.

In 2016, with the encouragement of Holmes-Miller, who is now his friend and mentor, Seals launched the independent type foundry Vocal Type, with an aim of “diversifying design, preserving culture, and crafting typefaces.” Fonts like Martin, Marsha, and Carrie are not only beautifully and precisely drawn, but historically symbolic, named after activists Martin Luther King, Jr., Marsha P. Johnson, and Carrie Chapman Catt — and inspired by the poster signs from the various protest movements they led, from civil rights to women’s suffrage.

The Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 brought much sorrow, but renewed purpose to Seals’ mission, and empowered him to make Vocal Type his full-time focus. Seals is giving voice to powerful moments in history, and welcomes others to engage and take part in what is ultimately a positive message: “The pride I felt in learning about Dr. King, Dolores Huerta, and others — I want to share that pride with people through typography.” —A. Kwun

Vincenzo Marchese Ragona on the beauty of kinetic type.

In a world where we’re constantly on the move or distracted by our smart devices, brands are in need of new ways to stand out — which may be why kinetic typography is in higher demand than ever before. The animation technique that makes text move through coding and clever design is perfect not only for modern billboards, but also for social media and digital advertising. Actually, it was Instagram where London-based designer Vincenzo Marchese Ragona, whose clients include Nike, Lululemon, Etam, and Moncler, first discovered kinetic type.

“We’re now used to Instagram’s endless scrolling,” says Marchese Ragona, who currently works at the world-renowned Monotype Studio, “and studies say you have no more than five seconds to capture someone’s attention. If the content doesn’t capture your attention then it’s gone forever.” After seeing kinetic type used so much on his Instagram feed, he collected a group of friends to figure out how to do it themselves. “It’s okay to emulate people, to see how they’ve done it. Then with time, you build your own practice based on what you learn.”

When we ask Marchese Ragona about his process for creating kinetic type, he is quick to note that part of the attraction comes from the requirement to “try something new everyday.” Generally speaking, however, the art of kinetic type begins with creating the type he wants and then bringing his motion ideas to a coder or mixing presets in Adobe After Effects. “When you think about it, kinetic type isn’t that new. It’s been used since films had opening titles. To present it in new ways for the most impact, it’s about looking to the past, lots of research, and lots of playing.” —A. Kozin