Character Type produces custom typefaces/fonts for brands with high typographic standards

Süddeutsche Zeitung

As part of a greater redesign of the Süddeutsche Zeitung – one of Germanys most prominent daily newspapers – an individual typeface system was developed.

Approach

With type being the single most prominent brand element in the newspaper the Süddeutsche Zeitung was aiming for a consistent typographic brand experience across all channels: From print to web and app.

Outcome

Each of the 57 styles – SansSerif, SansCondensed, SansHeadline, Serif, SerifCondensed, Symbol – contains more than 700 characters. Through this the SZ was enabled to tackle any typographic challenge.

Design: Henning Skibbe as partner at Bureau Johannes Erler

Medien Union Sans, Sans Condensed, Serif

Medien Union is one of the largest media outlets in Germany. The typeface family created is being used across a multitude of their media brands from newspapers to school book publishers and radio stations.

Approach

The geometric form of the Medien Union typefaces is based on the superellipse which is found in the inner forms of glyphs such as the o, b, p etc.

The Medien Union design counters these inside forms with tilted outside forms which allow for more economic text setting and better legibility.

Outcome

The need to serve a multitude of reading environments from books to newspaper to digital. They contain an extended glyph set with 2.000+ glyphs including Greek script, mathematics and multiple sets of numerals.

Design: Henning Skibbe

OTTO Script

When the german retail giant OTTO redesigned their corporate design a script typeface was designed to add a personal feeling to a straight and at times technical corporate design.

Henning Skibbe also drew the OTTO logo.

Approach

Fonts can only imitate handwriting. The goal was to create a typeface where no letter would appear to be as the one before.

Outcome

Over 250 ligatures of the most used twin letter combinations in the german language were designed to achieve a handwritten randomness. Through a cleverly programmed OpenType feature the user only needs to write the copy. The typeface does the rest.

Design: Henning Skibbe as partner at Bureau Johannes Erler

Haptic Coles

The largest Australian supermarket chain Coles is using a customized version of our »Haptic« family for their branding. We added several sets of numerals, a bunch of alternative glyphs and a very compressed companion to the family.

Clients selection: Coles Supermarkets, FlyBuys, FontShop International, MedienUnion, OTTO, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Jung v. Matt Brand Identity, Jung v. Matt

Services

Typeface Design

We design typefaces that fit your brand. As a brand element type is woven into even the smallest part of brand communication. It therefore has the ability to permeate brand values in every corner of a brand universe. We are experienced in finding new and innovative ways to make your typeface reflect your brand values.

Spacing and Kerning

The spaces between letters are just as important for great legibility as the letter forms themselves. We take a great deal of care to design these spaces and to ensure all letter combinations pair up perfectly.

Hinting

Hinting is the art of making a typeface shine on any kind of display: Hires or lores. Basically we enclose »hints« into the typeface to instruct the client computer on how to interpret the fonts within the pixel grid.

Font mastering

Typefaces may contain a wealth of typographic tools such as small caps, ligatures or various numeral formats. To make these easily accessible to typographers OpenType features are added.

10 reasons to commission a custom typeface

any size character set

unique design

custom symbols set

one license for all purposes and all users

multiple font formats for your company needs

customised language support

optimised screen performance

custom set of OpenType features

corresponding type styles from sans to serif to slab to script or experimental

individual pricing