Custom Typefaces

Serendipity sometimes plays a crucial role in bringing together designer and client, providing the impetus to complete unfinished sketches. Such was the case with Corridor, a custom typeface drawn by Tim Ripper for a new rebrand of the MIT Alumni Association by Michael Bierut’s team at Pentagram.

Means is a versatile serif family drawn for Mailchimp, used as the primary typeface in the latest iteration of their identity. Referencing the work of Oswald Cooper, designer Greg Gazdowicz toned down many of the retro elements while retaining the friendliness that is elemental to the Mailchimp brand. Used across display and text, from mobile to billboards, Means presents Mailchimp, grown up.

Commercial Type partners Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz have designed a series of new typefaces for Nature, one of the world’s leading scientific journals. Working closely with creative director Kelly Krause and external design consultant Mark Porter, Barnes and Schwartz have created Harding, a multi weight text and display family

Tim Ripper has drawn a new serif text and display family called REI Stuart for the latest evolution of the REI Co-op identity. The family is based loosely on the Plantin model, with a soft finish reminiscent of the routed lettering on National Parks Service signs.

Since its foundation 15 years ago, Rapha has been producing some of the finest cycling clothing in the world, both for amateurs and for the pro teams. Working closely with Rapha’s internal design team, Commercial Type partner (and long time cycling enthusiast) Paul Barnes and long time collaborator Dan Milne have created a new range of typefaces for the company, Rapha Sans and Rapha Serif.

Hanya Yanagihara is now editor in chief of T, the New York Times Style Magazine, leading creative director Patrick Li and his staff to reimagine the look of the magazine from front to back, once again enlisting Berton Hasebe and Christian Schwartz to create custom typefaces for the redesign: Kippenberger, an all-purpose sans; and Fact, a compact and utilitarian serif.

Founded in 2005 and first appearing on shelves in 2007, Greek yogurt maker Chobani rebranded and introduced all new packaging at the end of 2017. The rebrand was carried out by the company's internal design team; two key elements of the new identity are the new logotype, drawn by Berton Hasebe, and a new typeface drawn by Berton in collaboration with Christian Schwartz.

The team of designers at Commercial Type recently worked to create a new typographic palette for the redesign of La Repubblica, a popular national daily newspaper in Rome, Italy. Combining three complete typefaces under the unifying theme of being uniquely Italian and refreshingly stylish; the Eugenio family consists of Eugenio Serif, Eugenio Sans, and Eugenio Text.

A major expansion project provided the impetus for a refresh of communications and signage at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, including a new typeface: MoMA Sans, a cohesive family designed to cover the full range of typographic needs, including exhibition graphics, subway posters, wall labels, film schedules, mobile apps, the website, and signage.

Creative director Darhil Crooks has commissioned a new display sans for The Atlantic. Drawn by Christian Schwartz, this typeface helps to give a new personality to the feature well.

Yandex Sans, designed by Miguel Reyes and Moscow-based type designer Ilya Ruderman and art directed by Christian Schwartz, is a new corporate typeface for Yandex, the largest search engine in Russia.

Christian Schwartz drew a new display serif face called Gingrich for the 1000th issue of Esquire. The typeface is named for the founding editor of the magazine.

Christian Schwartz drew Graphik Round Black for Bon Appétit's 2015 Hot Ten, their annual roundup of the ten best new restaurants in the US.

Greg Gazdowicz drew an all-caps titling typeface for New York magazine’s 2015 fall fashion issue.

The Daily Telegraph has undergone a design transformation to mark its 160th anniversary. Under the guidance of design director, Jon Hill, one of the last remaining quality daily broadsheets in the UK has a completely new typographic dress from Commercial Type. Working closely with Hill was Commercial Type partner, Paul Barnes, who has developed two new type families as well as designing the new...

The McClatchy Company publishes 29 daily newspapers across the US. Working with Garcia Media, they have spent the last year developing a unified design language that will bring together the print papers, mobile apps, and web editions with a more consistent overall look. We designed a set of typefaces that will help to bridge the gap between design consistency and individual character.

Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz have drawn a custom version of Paul's Caslon Doric Black for the identity of the 2nd Istanbul Design Biennial, designed by Project Projects. 

Pentagram designed new opening titles and bumpers for the 40th season of Saturday Night Live, which debuted on September 27. Berton Hasebe drew a custom version of Druk Condensed, slightly lighter and wider than the existing version.

New York design studio Project Projects have redesigned poets.org, the online home of the Academy of American Poets. A major component of the redesign is a new digital revival of William Addison Dwiggins's Electra, first issued by Linotype in 1935, made with the kind permission of Monotype.

A small addition to Graphik debuted in today's issue of T, the New York Times Style Magazine: Graphik Titling, based on the as-yet unreleased Condensed, X Condensed, and XX Condensed widths of Graphik.