Apollo Bagels is a New York-based bagel shop, known for its naturally fermented sourdough bagels. It began as a pandemic pop-up and is now a popular destination. The menu focuses on a curated selection of classic flavors and high-quality toppings. The brand’s logo and identity was created by James Anderson, typeset in DaVinci by Virgile Flores and HAL Four Grotesk by HAL Typefaces. The design is extended to product packaging for take-away cream cheeses, butter and salads as well as the store interior and additional merchandise (T-shirts, bags, etc.). The packaging product shots are by Chandler Bondurant. Apollo’s website was designed by Jacob Price.

Ontario-based Golspie Dairy is “dairy farming since 1874, cheesemaking since 2022”. The new packaging for their Crowdie – a soft, fresh cheese variety hailing from Scotland – uses Parisian as the primary typeface, with Palatino and Gotham for secondary information. The Golspie logo is in Broadway.

Brie in plan

An item from our festive cheese.

Slimbach’s warm reassuring calligraphic Sanvito announces this cheese (“caws” in Welsh) from Cenarth, Wales. Cenarth is a village in Carmarthenshire, on the border with Ceredigion.

The less formal handwriting-style type setting “Rich and creamy brie-style organic cheese” in English and “Caws organig arddull brie cyfoethog a hufennog” in Welsh is Adobe Handwriting Frank. The small text appears to be in Gotham Condensed. The Caws Cenarth logo is based on Palatino Bold.

The Caws Cenarth website and other items from them use the same typography, plus Avenir Next.

Quite delicious by the way.

Brie, at an angle.

Screenshot of the Caws Cenarth homepage

Smoked Ffili

Appenzeller is renowned for its centuries-old Swiss cheese craftsmanship, originating in the mountains of Appenzell region. The use of a secret herbal brine in its maturation process gives it a distinct flavour, affirming its place in Swiss culinary culture.

Late September 2023, Appenzeller unveiled the latest addition to their assortment, Appenzellerin Elegant cheese, featuring a visual identity crafted by Contexta Agency. Revisiting the brand tradition with modernity, the design reflects the character and elegance of the cheese's flavours.

From the Appenzeller website (translated):

Appenzellerin® Elegant tastes quite different from its spicy Appenzeller® brothers and thus goes its own way in terms of taste. It is destined to lovers and friends of mild, floral-fruity cheeses. It presents itself as sweet and only discreetly aromatic, slightly milky and balanced. It is less spicy, but still full-bodied and seduces with a smooth charm. Perfect, therefore, for those who do not like it too spicy.

The Appenzellerin logotype and poster headlines are set in NewParis. The secondary typeface on the cheese label is Montserrat, while on the website texts are either using Suisse Int'l or SangBleu OG Sans with some titles set in Olivier. The logo is a custom work by Swiss Typefaces, a job which also included finetuning the Appenzeller Bear logo.

NewParis, Suisse Int'l and SangBleu OG Sans are all available from Swiss Typefaces.

The recently redesigned package of the South Tyrolean Bela Badia cheese from Mila features JAF Herb joined by Garamond Premier (with some customised details) and Monotype Corsiva. For the small print, Myriad Condensed is used.

Cheese Club (Клуб Сиру) is a Ukrainian brand of cheese varieties. The identity was designed by McCann Kyiv, using Bordonaro Spur for the names of the various flavors. The logo uses FM Bolyar, set on a circle.

Organic Milk has become the first company on the Ukrainian market of organic dairy products to carry out its business in a closed production cycle, from raw materials to promotion of high-level processed products at the point of sale.

The logo and the packaging use ZionTrain.

Source: www.yucabakes.com Dona Rita’s Yuka Bakes. License: All Rights Reserved.

Dapifer is the display typeface used for the website of Dona Rita’s Yuka Bakes. The idiosyncratic oldstyle roman with slab serif overtones serves in its boldest weight to advertise Rita’s Brazilian cheese bread, or Pão de Queijo. Dapifer Black was chosen to communicate the traditional snack’s key features on the homepage. It’s also used for testimonials as well as for headlines, dates and tags in the blog section. The typeface by Darden Studio is paired with Latinotype’s Sanchez for text.

The Yuka Bakes logo pairs Cubano (Lost Type) and Worker (Ndiscover).

Source: www.yucabakes.com Dona Rita’s Yuka Bakes. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.yucabakes.com Dona Rita’s Yuka Bakes. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.yucabakes.com Dona Rita’s Yuka Bakes. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.yucabakes.com Dona Rita’s Yuka Bakes. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.yucabakes.com Dona Rita’s Yuka Bakes. License: All Rights Reserved.

The letter O with the inward curl in Columbus can be used not only for alluding to the opulence of Baroque art. It’s also a perfect typographic miniature for symbolizing tasty spreads, as demonstrated by the wordmark of Alpenhain’s Obazda packaging. A good example how a single glyph can make all the difference!

This line of soft cheese products is one of the few contemporary applications of Columbus (1890) that I’m aware of. Alpenhain has been using Herman Ihlenburg’s typeface for at least a couple of years now, initially unmodified and later adjusted with an upright a and a more left-leaning z, in combination with varying secondary fonts. The current choice is the non-connecting variant of Fineday (Mika Melvas, 2018), together with Bellfort Press (Bartek Nowak, 2015) for the flavor.

International variant with English text. Fineday is here used in its Style Two, i.e. with restrained capitals.

A special “Wiesn dahoam” edition sold during the Oktoberfest season additionally uses Quayside (Dave Rowland Type, 2013) for the script lettering on the gingerbread hearts.

In a previous version, the wordmark in unmodified Columbus suffered from too loose letterspacing. “Original” is in caps from Otari (Vectro, 2010).

ITC Isadora is the primary typeface used by BellaCasara. The script by Kris Holmes is used for the logo and on the packaging, with a shadow effect that doubles down on the split strokes of Isadora’s capitals. BellaCasara is a brand by Quality Cheese, a Canadian manufacturer and retailer of Italian specialty cheese products.

The secondary logo font for “Quality Cheese” is ITC Benguiat. Myriad is used for the product info.

The burrata package shows another secondary logo font that looks like Century Oldstyle. The bilingual product info here is in ITC Isbell.

Van der Leij is a cheese retailer with two shops in the Dutch city of Groningen. On Twitter, Isoletters comments:

This lowercase #DutchIJ is part of a wordmark, based on Museo by @exljbris, in which the outermost elements act as (symmetrical) brackets. That may be why there are no tittles or the like – which makes it more likely that the glyph is interpreted as a ‘y’ by non-native readers.

Interestingly enough, the shop maintains both URLs, kaasvanderley.nl (with y) and kaasvanderleij.nl (with ij).

Fromagerie L’Épicurium offers cheese and wine. The type on the shop window is ITC Bauhaus.

This series of window lettering snapshots in La Rochelle, France, is focused solely on the Bauhaus-inspired geometric sans serifs from the late 1960s and 1970s. (See True Type of the Bauhaus for typefaces that were actually used at the Bauhaus.)

I had this idea after seeing two neighboring signs: one about podiatry and the other about a beauty salon. What interested me was to see the various uses of that genre. In these examples, only two colours are used: white and blue. When the colour is white, the font is combined with a dark background and the sign is about something that deals with food. When the colour is blue, the background is white and the sign is about something that deals with health (podiatry, beauty salon and water recycling).

Institut de beauté, a beauty salon, in blue Pump Bold.

Blue ITC Bauhaus (1975) for orthopedy, orthoses, podiatry.

Established in 1973, Saint Dizier Environnement is a major player in the French rainwater treatment industry. Their logo is in Pump Bold (1970).

The sign for the Moonshake Bar is in white lowercase letters from Blippo Black (1969).

The logo of the 49 Poz’ K’ Sandwicherie is another example for Blippo Black.

Rosie – AKA Bristol’s best Cheesemonger – was taking a leap. Turning a part time passion into a full time business, with a new shop opening on St Nicholas Street. We needed to create an identity that would do the new brand and amazing cheese justice. A shopfront that people would notice and be drawn towards.

Setting up a simple identity system including the main stacked marque, alternate barrel version and all boiling down to a strong and recognisable cheese triangle motif. This doubles up as a strong direction graphic to signpost the shop.

Stationery and printed collateral was produced, together with stickers to be applied to the wrapped cheese. We worked with sign painter Simon Memel to handpaint all signs on site, adding a more crafted finish to what was a simple design and identity.

Cera Brush loves talking about cheese in Transgourmet’s Käse Magazin, a catalog by one of Germany’s leading food companies.

Jürgen Schwarz from M.I.L.K, an agency with strong focus on communication in food and beverage, chose to pair Cera Brush with Transgourmet, their rounded corporate typeface.

A display typeface with high-res details, Cera Brush lives up to its name. From the embossed cover to headlines and initials, its OpenType alternates and handmade look and feel enhance Transgourmet’s corporate typography. In addition, its often overlooked light weight can be seen in short, multi-line text.

Gen Design Studio:

Dom Villas is rooted in the story of the family business—the hard work and dedication that mark the origins of family tradition. This story became an inspiration for the logo and the brand. Therefore we created the character of a Dairy Farmer. The man who works by hand, using the traditional methods, who takes care of his cattle and of the the quality of the final product.

We combined the farmer with a custom-made wordmark that would reflect the purity and originality of handmade products. The predominant use of blue is unusual for cheese in the Portuguese market, which would make Dom Villas stand out in what tends to be a gold-tinted and over-decorated category.

The custom wordmark is a monoline script with a “geometric” look and slight art deco overtones. It takes inspiration from the vintage hand lettering of the Italian 1930s, also very popular in the Portuguese visual culture. Its style corresponds to a handwriting tool – the square stroke ending recalls the broad-nib pen.

In 1978, the design publication U&lc began a series where graphic designers found samples of their own work from the past that they wish they could do over.

U&lc editor Herb Lubalin was asked to be the first designer to take part. He chose to redesign a series of posters he created in 1966 that introduced the winning typeface designs chosen for the VGC International Typeface Design Competition.

In addition to creating what he considered new and improved poster designs, Lubalin also provided a short written explanation of what was wrong with the original and how he arrived at his solutions.

What follows is both the before and after of each poster as well as Lubalin's thoughts on the designs. While it’s open to debate as to whether the 1978 versions are always an improvement, Lubalin's explanations offer a fascinating glimpse into the thinking that went into his work.

“I’ve always had a fond spot in my heart for this quote and for this design interpretation which I feel adds impact to its meaning. The typeface in the original design, however (as I now see it), didn’t exactly serve the purposes of the concept as well as the ITC Machine Bold illustrated below. To reinforce the idea of the black and white horizontals, I needed a typeface that would butt one line against another. ITC Machine Bold was not available at that time, so I used a typeface I felt most suited my purposes. The rounded nature of the original face [Jay Gothic], as you can see, did not work as well as the flat top and bottom surfaces of the Machine Bold. I may be splitting hairs, but that’s what good design is all about. Or should be.”

“There is a glaring design error in this original poster. The impact of the message depends upon the beauty in the styling of the words, Go To Hell, unencumbered by the competition with fanciful typography. In fact, the beginning and end of the quote surrounding the Spencerian script, I have always felt, should embody an element of ugliness to contrast with, and amplify the essence of, the meaning of Caskie Stinnet’s words. I have, therefore, substituted Italia Bold with underscores in place of the original script [Vivaldi]. Since I am somewhat of a diplomat myself, I don’t wish to imply that Italia is an ugly typeface. It’s a beautiful typeface, made somewhat blatant by the addition of the underscores. Besides which, if you will permit a cliche, beauty (or ugliness) is in the eye of the beholder.”

“Oscar Wilde, who was responsible for this quote, once said, ‘There is no sin except stupidity.’ And to him a misprint of his words represented the height of ignorance. He also said, ‘Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.’ In this particular poster, I was guilty of a sin based on experience – the combined effect resulting in a stupid mistake. The era of the quill pen had definitely ceased to exist during the heyday of Oscar Wilde. He wrote with an ordinary pen just as we have done all our lives (until the felt tip pen took over). So, herewith I have eliminated the quill, which was entirely unnecessary in the first place. All you designers and art directors who know how to spell (bad spelling is a common failure among many of us) will undoubtedly get this message, unaided by the visualization of a goose feather – an entirely superfluous prop.” Arrow had to make way for ITC Benguiat.

“Although the typographic styling in the original poster looks uniquely like computerized cheese in its letterforms [Amelia], hindsight dictates that its entire shape relate to my preconceived image of the recognizable hunk of Swiss. So I squared everything up to define the outside configuration as cheese [using ITC Serif Gothic]. The use of an engraving of a mouse and a photograph of the trap robbed the original design of the reality of the situation as defined by the message. Our new rodent is displaying an air of abject disappointment conspicuously missing in the original. And, remember this: Even without designers, ‘Life goes on for ever like the gnawing of a mouse.’”

“Once again, too much is too little. Why use two ideas – one conflicting with the other – when one good one is enough? In this original poster [in Visa], the mediocre symbolism of old age conflicts with the effective symbolism of death, the soul of the message (pun intended) exemplified by the reclining ‘i’. It didn’t take very long to recognize this error and rectify it emphatically by eliminating the old rocking chair and juxtaposing the “i” in the open where one can’t miss its significance. Lending emphasis to this positioning is the author’s name centered below. One more comment. I used the typeface, ITC Garamond Book Condensed, because in my opinion, it is one of the few beautifully designed condensed roman faces available. By using a condensed face, I was able to create a larger typographic image and thus create more impact for the symbolism. Death and taxes are inevitable, but good design is not.”

“A common fault of most designers – present company included – is never to know when to stop after you’ve got a good thing going. In this particular case, I made the obvious too obvious by turning the ‘O’ on its side to graphically illustrate the word ‘mouth’. As you can see in this new design, that added fillip was entirely unnecessary since the ‘O’ prints in red and says mouth any way you look at it. I call this overemphasizing an already emphatic solution. I also tend to feel that the original use of the upper and lower case tends to obscure the small type which is the heart of the message. So much for this anatomical explanation.” The original poster uses Domning Antiqua, the revised version is in ITC Korinna.

“I’m afraid that I don’t have any great words of wisdom to impart on why I changed the type styling of this poster to ITC American Typewriter Light Condensed. The original type [Wolf Antiqua] was quite adequate. But – since the nature of this article dictates that I give an intelligent, if not erudite, argument for my changes – let me put it this way: First, I think American Typewriter is a swell typeface. And second, the poster’s original typeface was designed in the late ’60s. The subject matter spans three generations. In searching for a typeface that would be generic to this span of time, I selected American Typewriter as being uniquely appropriate. And third, it's ten years later and I had to bring our modern Ms. up-to-date. Enough chronology!”

“In this original poster the straw, literally, broke the camel’s back – thereby (in my opinion) breaking the back of the design. Of these eight posters, I find my original solution to this one the most unsatisfactory from a design standpoint. In it you find two solutions to the same problem where one, or the other, would have been much more effective. In fact, the two solutions negate each other. We, as designers, sometimes tend to underestimate the intelligence of others and are often guilty of overemphasis. Given a second chance, I believe that the new poster (below), with emphasis on the additional esses running off the page, the elimination of the nefarious straw that broke the camel’s back, plus the use of ITC Tiffany Heavy Caps, [in place of Antikva Margaret] solves all the problems that should have been solved then years ago. In retrospect, this message by Robert Moses sums up, in no uncertain terms, my 1978 reactions to most of these 1960s posters.”

A year ago, Charles Bréant and his four brothers decided to open a cheese production line in a bid to diversify the family farm located in Bermonville, at the heart of the Pays de Caux, north west of Rouen. Instead of inventing a new variety, they chose to go back to basics and settled on making Camembert, Normandy’s most famous cheese. The idea wasn’t revolutionary, but it marked the opening of the only Camembert production site in the Seine-Maritime département.

What makes the Bréant family’s cheese so special then? First, it’s a Camembert fermier, meaning the entire production process is completed on the farm. All the milk comes from the family’s own herd of 200 dairy cows, and Charles knows exactly what they’ve been fed. Only raw milk is used, and the cheeses are moulés à la louche (moulded by ladle), just as they should be. After a month’s ripening, they are boxed and packaged on site, bearing a very distinctive label. [from Normandy Foodie]

For the label displaying the brand name Le 5 Frères (The 5 Brothers), the Bréant brothers asked the type designer Jean-Baptiste Levée, born and raised right next to their production site, to take care of the packaging design.

Levée and his Production Type team handled the design with great care, avoiding clichés picturing “a lazy cow or an idyllic Norman village”. Instead they dug intensively into the Maciet collection in the library of Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, in the hope to refer classy packaging from the past at a time where the cheese was still a luxury product.

Eventually, they ended up with a minimalist composition: a geometrical perspective made with five triangles, one for each brother. The blue and white alternance evoques burrows in a plowed field or an endless path reaching the horizon. They paired Proto Slab (nicely set on a curve) with an early version of the now freshly released Antique Gothic (derived from a type originally designed for Louis Vuitton). Antique Gothic’s distinctive ‘5’ and its various capital heights helped the brand define its own voice on the stalls of local shops and delicatessen.

‘We really wanted to try something different and our main aim was to target a younger audience with our packaging,’ says Charles. The blue and white triangles sure do stand out!

The brand name set in Antique Gothic is also printed on the wooden side of the box.

Charles Bréant, along with his four brothers, is the founder and producer of Le 5 Frères. He’s pictured in his production line proudly showing the camembert and its packaging.

Le 5 Frères boxes displayed in a refrigerated stall. Le 5 Frères is mainly sold at local markets, cheese shops and delicatessen, and is also on the menu of several restaurants across Normandy.

The Living Food is a Barcelona-based grocery store and deli stocking organic and vegan foods. Francesc Moret Studio worked with the store to develop packaging for its range of nine vegan cheeses. Drawing on the brand's established visual identity of silhouettes, Francesc Moret Studio builds a visual language with a bold graphic style, typographical nuance, and a modern and distinctive colour palette, with the intention of conveying an honest and conscientious brand position and expressing the crafted quality and full flavour of its cheese range.

Where graphic device and deli wordmark are bold — using Knockout in all caps, without word spaces — Freight, used to identify cheese variety, is light, detailed and traditional in its serif flourishes and stroke contrast. Together, these feel in line with both strong initial and a nuanced residual flavour profile, modern outlook and traditional craft, while the use of Aperçu for descriptions layers in an element of the current.

Read more about this project on BP&O.

Norwegian dairy giant Kavli are not only market leaders in the area of soft cheese, they even invented the concept way back in 1924. Sold internationally under the name Primula, the tube-based spread is most popular in its native markets of Norway and Sweden. Seen here is the Swedish packaging, which uses FF Cocon to fantastic effect. With fluid corners and creator Evert Bloemsma trademark sense of motion, never before has a typeface seemed so eatable. Cocon gets some sturdy support of a slab — a stretched Boton? — for secondary elements.