Vivien Gaumand. License: All Rights Reserved.

In 2021, Feed Studio was commissioned to redesign the visual identity of PHI, a Montreal-based art center founded by Phoebe Greenberg in 2007. For 20 years, the institution has shaped Montréal’s artistic landscape by exhibiting leading contemporary artists, including Yoko Ono and Yayoi Kusama. It has pioneered immersive experiences presented on the international stage, most notably at the Venice Biennale, establishing itself as a forward-thinking cultural hub.

During its first decade, PHI went through significant transformations. It began as PHI Foundation, an avant-garde exhibition space, and expanded five years later with PHI Centre, a multidisciplinary space at the intersection of art, technology, and sound. PHI Studio followed in 2019, focused on creating and distributing immersive experiences.

After thirteen years of growth and evolution, PHI embarked on a rebrand that would bring all its entities together under one cohesive identity.

To meet this intention, Feed Studio established type as the foundation of the visual system. Anouk Pennel and Romain Grucker designed Phi, a clear and versatile bespoke typeface available in three weights with italics, complemented by Phi Caption, an optimized version that improves readability at small sizes. Used across all communication formats, from large-scale wall texts to social media assets, all applications follow a grid system based on the typeface’s proportions.

Feed Studio. License: All Rights Reserved.

PHI's brand guide

But how do you differentiate the entities if they all share the same typeface and grid? Studio Feed introduced subtle variations, beginning with a set of symbols for the logos: a circle for the Centre, a square for the Foundation, and a star for the Studio.

The system extends beyond these visual cues, featuring custom alternate characters. The Centre features circled O, Q, dot-based punctuation and diacritics, while the Foundation adopts squared O, U, o and u. As for the Studio, it relies exclusively on the standard alphabet set, since it has no need for promotional materials.

Feed Studio. License: All Rights Reserved.

PHI's brand guide

With these sets of alternate characters, Feed Studio built a solid visual identity that reflects PHI’s ecosystem. It orchestrates all entities into a harmonious system, while allowing each to play its own voice.

Following the delivery of the 142-page brand guide, art director Michel Ouellette and graphic designer Juliette Duhé became the guardians of PHI’s visual identity. They implemented the design across all formats and entities, maintaining cohesion throughout the system.

Photo: Juliette Duhé. License: All Rights Reserved.

Social media assets for the PHI Foundation

PHI. License: All Rights Reserved.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Jouez/Play, PHI Foundation, Montreal, 2024

PHI. License: All Rights Reserved.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Jouez/Play, PHI Foundation, Montreal, 2024

PHI. License: All Rights Reserved.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Jouez/Play, PHI Foundation, Montreal, 2024

PHI. License: All Rights Reserved.

Rirkrit Tiravanija: Jouez/Play, PHI Foundation, Montreal, 2024

Photo: Juliette Duhé. License: All Rights Reserved.

Social media assets for the PHI Foundation

Adil Boukind. License: All Rights Reserved.

Horizons VR, PHI Centre, Montreal, 2023

Adil Boukind. License: All Rights Reserved.

Horizons VR, PHI Centre, Montreal, 2023

Adil Boukind. License: All Rights Reserved.

Horizons VR, PHI Centre, Montreal, 2023

In 2025, PHI Foundation and PHI Centre unify under a single entity and sign their first exhibition under the name of PHI, with the mission of becoming a centre for artistic creation and innovation. The typeface remains unchanged, preserving the visual continuity of the identity, and simplifying the system by removing the alternate characters.

PHI. License: All Rights Reserved.

Nico Williams: Bingo, PHI, Montreal, 2025. For this exhibition, the title adopts a new typographic variation: letters adorned with colored fingertips, reminiscent of the pearls the artist uses in his artworks.

Over the past 20 years, PHI has continually evolved, relying on a solid identity system to ensure consistency throughout transformations. Today, it is stepping into its next chapter with the PHI Contemporary, set to open in 2029. With a revised name and mission, the visual system enters a stage poised to stretch, reshape, and spark unexpected synergies.

For the Cursa dels Nassos 2025 campaign, ESIETE developed a visual system and communication assets built around Nassos Display, a custom typeface designed by ESIETE for the race. The letterforms act as modular building blocks: cropped, repeated, and recomposed into energetic shapes that amplify rhythm, speed, and impact across formats and touchpoints.

Nassos Display was selected for the ADG Laus Awards 2025 (In Book, Creative/Experimental)

Colossal presents itself as “an online art magazine based in Chicago that celebrates contemporary art and visual culture across a wide range of creative disciplines, and is focused on both emerging and established artists”. As a cultural agent, the team behind Colossal also “curates and produces several exhibitions annually, hosts artist workshops online and off, facilitates talks, and publishes opportunities for artists every month”.

From a typographic point of view, it is also a visual feast, which matches the mag’s editorial ambition with an impeccable art direction (as it should be).

On the About page, the editors state:

In a world brimming with information overload, an epidemic of loneliness, climate catastrophe, capitalism run amok, and social inequity, we curate Colossal to focus on the most positive, diverse, and impactful stories that bring about change and meaningful connection. We intend to amplify the voices of artists working toward more equitable and sustainable futures through innovation, unexpected materials, humor, spectacle, and vast reserves of skill and hope. We are supported largely by our extraordinarily generous members.

Such an editorial statement could only be paired with an excellent and vibrant design, and these people and their design partners deliver.

Colossal was redesigned by Firebelly, and it was one of the winners of the 2025 STA 100 Judges’ Choice, awarded by the Chicago-based Society of Typographic Arts.

Departing from the original logo designed by Armin Vit (Brand New), the Firebelly and Colossal joint redesign venture came up with a wordmark that spawned the bespoke Colossal Display, with two distinct wavy S glyphs that feel like they were ritually trimmed at the base with an ancient katana.

In the project page dedicated to their collaboration with Colossal, the agency says:

After rounds of aligning, playing, and imagining, we crafted a final direction on the logo that is dad & son tested and approved — really! This final, larger-than-life mark brand speaks to the core values: play, whimsy, and curiosity. Subtle adjustments to letterforms (especially the distinctive ​“S”) helped preserve Colossal’s recognizability while introducing a tongue-in-cheek referential nature.

As far as headline elements and body text are concerned, the two workhorses that power this publication and art endeavour are its trusty sans, Visuelt (Colophon), and a ridiculously elegant and legible Fabric Serif (Monokrom), which – dare I say – belongs in the same Hall of Serif Fame as Ivar Text, Tiempos, the Feature Collection, Newsreader, Victor Serif, Tid, IvyPresto, Aktuell, Reckless Neue, SN Litteratur Text, etc.

Both Visuelt and Fabric Serif are used in different hierarchy text instances, and they handle both responsibilities with ease.

Article headline with date, byline and share options in Visuelt

Text detail in Fabric Serif

Homepage detail (top)

Homepage detail (bottom with footer)

Installation view of Looking Back: Lucas Samaras's Mirrored Room

Looking Back: Lucas Samaras’s Mirrored Room was presented at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum during its 2023 reopening (June 12, 2023 – January 29, 2024). Installed in the M&T Gallery, a free-admission space, the exhibition highlights Mirrored Room (1966), a sculptural work the museum has held in its collection since its acquisition that same year.

The exhibition graphics were developed within the Buffalo AKG institutional identity, originally designed by Wkshps (Chris Wu, Eric Price, Sarah Demeuse, Ivy Yixue Li, Ella Viscardi). The identity typefaces, AKG Sans and Algebra, both by Commercial Type, were used throughout.

The exhibition design was conceived architecturally: large-scale titles in reflective vinyl, curatorial texts, and archival images were organized within a grid derived from the sculpture’s exterior mirrored panel structure. This grid also referenced a 1966 Members’ Opening invitation from the museum’s archives—the year the work was first exhibited—translating its typographic tone into the contemporary AKG identity.

The exhibition was curated by Associate Curator Andrea Alvarez and designed by Katharine Wimett. Photography by Brenda Bieger.

Eric Price, formerly of Wkshps, on AKG Sans:

Reopening in 2023 with a new OMA-designed addition, Albright-Knox Art Gallery needed a new identity to go along with their new name—Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

While the length and intermingled acronym both posed a challenge, we decided to embrace them in a typographically-driven approach that uses unconventional, alternate-universe forms for the A, K, and G in a custom typeface based on Neuzeit and similar classic grotesques. With enthusiasm for the direction, we collaborated with Christian Schwartz of Commercial Type to create AKG Sans.

Installation view of Looking Back: Lucas Samaras's Mirrored Room

Installation view of Looking Back: Lucas Samaras's Mirrored Room

Installation view of Looking Back: Lucas Samaras's Mirrored Room

Installation view of Looking Back: Lucas Samaras's Mirrored Room

Takeaway exhibition guide for Looking Back: Lucas Samaras’s Mirrored Room printed on mirrored paper

Takeaway exhibition guide for Looking Back: Lucas Samaras’s Mirrored Room printed on mirrored paper

La Mallorquina, a Barcelona-based home textiles company founded in 1947, initiated a rebranding to strengthen its leadership and connect with a younger audience. The project began with an in-depth review of the catalog, retail touchpoints, and communication dynamics to identify long-built brand assets and update elements that had become outdated.

The new identity balances heritage and contemporaneity: it revisits typographic cues from the brand’s early years. All typography is set in Neutraface. It is paired with Basic, a custom typeface inspired by garment-care icons and based on Neutraface. ESIETE completed the system with a flexible visual language, designed to be applied consistently across packaging, retail, and campaigns, and to represent the diversity of collections season after season – reinforcing a perception of quality and trend-forward design.

Specimen of Basic, the custom typeface for La Mallorquina

Catalog covers from 2013

Catalog from 2014, with the custom Basic typeface in use on the back

Since 2024, studio vu-huu has been working on the identity of the Maison de la Musique Nanterre, a nationally recognised arts and creativity venue. For the occasion, b•v-h type designed a new addition to the Eddi family: Eddi Grotesk.

The program for the 25/26 season further explores the visual identity created using the custom Eddi Grotesk typeface and a graphic system based on simple, colourful shapes that make up instruments, dancing bodies and abstract visual scores.

The Eddi Grotesk variant draws on early, historically rooted sans-serif aesthetics, positioning it as a subtle reinterpretation of Eddi, while preserving part of its core DNA.

“The Lives They Lived” is an annual special issue of the New York Times Magazine, published at the end of each year. The edition honors notable artists, innovators, and thinkers who died during the previous twelve months.

The 2024 issue was designed by Annie Jen under the direction of Gail Bichler. The typography combines Farmacia by Nguyen Gobber for headlines with Timezone by HAL Typefaces and NYT Mag Sans and NYT Mag Serif by A2-TYPE for copy text.

Designed for the Experimental Animation Visiting Artist series at CalArts, this poster features the work of Yaloo Lim. Ironica Sans utilizes the familiar skeleton of Helvetica as a base but subjects it to a series of rule-breaking formal transformations. By squaring traditionally rounded curves and terminals and implementing a unicase system, the design disrupts the visual expectations associated with classic grotesque structures.

The layout emphasizes visual rhythm through character-specific variations. The repeating O’s in the name feature contrasting outer and inner counter shapes, creating a subtle shift in formal perspective. In the motion sequence, the M transitions into a fluid, spaghetti-like form that bridges the letterforms, adding a dynamic and playful continuity to the kinetic composition. Small text is added in Effra.

Landing page featuring the gallery's wordmark

In 2024, Chisenhale Gallery in London rebranded with a new visual identity and website designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio. The identity uses Successor as a primary typeface alongside Chisenhale Type, a custom display face derived from the wordmark, which itself predates the rebrand.

Successor is the primary typeface for the identity

The custom typeface developed for the gallery’s wordmark is also employed for display use alongside Successor in social media announcements

Successor in an Instagram thumbnail

Bosanova’s brand redesign by ESIETE redefines the visual identity of a well-known low-cost footwear brand in Catalonia. The project introduces a renewed vision while preserving the energy, enthusiasm, and founding spirit of the brand, strengthening its recognition and differentiation.

At the core of the identity is Bosanova Display, a custom typeface developed exclusively for the brand, shaping its expressive and confident typographic voice.

The redesign positions typography as a strategic tool for contemporary fashion branding.

The Ngôn Dạng campaign is Hùng Đỗ Mạnh’s Bachelor thesis in Van Lang University’s Graphic Design Honors Program.

Ngôn Dạng is an educational communication campaign that helps Gen Z understand their natural communication strengths and develop a personal style that feels authentic and confident. While Gen Z is often seen as outspoken, many young people struggle with self-doubt and social conformity, which gradually limits genuine self-expression. The campaign combines awareness posters, an interactive communication style test, and an educational seminar with talk shows and workshops to encourage self-reflection and practical learning. Through these experiences, participants gain tools to communicate clearly, confidently, and be true to who they are.

The campaign concept, “Reflect to ReShape”, draws inspiration from the phenomenon of light bouncing back from a surface. “Reflect”, in this context, is more than a physical process; it represents an inward journey to understand how we communicate with others, whether through habits, preferences, and challenges in communication, and thus, to “ReShape” how we express ourselves.

Ngôn Dạng Mono is developed based on a 12×12 grid system derived from the wordmark. The custom typeface includes full diacritic support for Vietnamese, ensuring suitability for Vietnamese audiences. At the same time, inspired by Dr. Dellinger’s Psycho-Geometrics, it is designed based on basic geometric shapes, creating tension between straight and curvy lines. In addition, it is combined with Florian Karsten’s Space Grotesk within the same word, creating a visual interest while subtly symbolizing the exchange of information and dialogue inherent in human communication. The complimentary sans is Maison Neue by Timo Gaessner.

A full list of credits can be found on the Behance page.

This geometric sans-serif typeface was designed for the original section of the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) Yonge subway line. The typeface and TTC logo were developed during the construction of Line 1 Yonge–University in the 1940s, perhaps by draughtsman Philip Butt, but the original designer has never been determined. The font is composed of capital letters sandblasted into the tiles of Toronto subway stations opened between 1954 and 1974, as well as on signs.

The sui generis Toronto Subway font was designed in 2004 by David Vereschagin, who visited stations, took photos, and made rubbings of the letters on the original Vitrolite glass tiles. Vereschagin also designed a matching lowercase, inspired by Futura and similar designs.

By 2007, “TTC wayfinding typography” was a case study in what not to do, confusing users and neglecting local typographic heritage by incorporating a jumble of Univers, Swiss 721 and Gill Sans, as documented by Joe Clark in a presentation to the 2007 ATypI conference.

In 2013, the TTC created a design and wayfinding team who readopted the typeface, calling it Bloor-Yonge after the busy station at the intersection of two lines, and they began to re-apply it through the system. Lines recently built by the new regional transit authority, Metrolinx, only use the iconic typeface in some signage as a “decorative element.” Most wayfinding signage is in the new Metrolinx standard of ClearviewADA.

The Union station signage shown is from the 2014 renovation and expansion. The Eglinton station signage is original to 1954 and is a lighter weight used this way only in one other station. The exit sign is also a first use from 1954. The St Andrew station and “PLEASE HOLD HANDRAIL” sign are from the first line extension in 1963.

See also the Toronto Transit Commission Signage and Wayfinding Standards (2023).

“Så er det heller ikke sjovere…” is a responsibility campaign launched by Tuborg. The campaign isaimed at young Danes, encouraging more moderate and respectful drinking. Under the long-standing slogan “Drik Med Respekt” (“Drink with respect”), the campaign targets binge drinking by humorously highlighting the many Danish expressions for being drunk, suggesting that extreme drinking isn’t actually more fun. Rolled out across multiple platforms and supported by partnerships and influencers, the campaign positions Tuborg as taking responsibility for shaping a healthier alcohol culture where it’s okay to drink less—or not at all—without social pressure.

To accompany the creation of the Établissement public national du Mont-Saint-Michel, Graphéine designed a visual identity intended to give a clear and lasting form to a previously fragmented governance. The challenge was to move beyond the saturated “postcard” imagery of the Mont while preserving immediate legibility for a site welcoming over 2.5 million visitors each year. Rather than adding another figurative symbol, the project is built around a typographic logotype conceived as an image in itself, where the name becomes the place. This choice places typography at the very heart of the identity, not as a simple graphic layer but as a true narrative foundation.

Within this framework, Blaze Type was commissioned to develop an original typeface based on the drawing of the logotype. Its references draw on the medieval scripts found at the Mont – Carolingian and Gothic – reinterpreted through a resolutely contemporary language. The verticality of the letters echoes the upward thrust of the abbey, while certain forms subtly recall ancient manuscripts without ever slipping into decorative quotation. Blaze Type’s work thus seeks a balance between historical heritage and modern efficiency, resulting in a typeface that is expressive, readable, and capable of structuring the entire identity.

Beyond its design, this typeface plays a central role throughout the visual system. Deployed in several weights and conceived to stretch vertically, it extends into use what makes the logotype distinctive: a form of writing designed to rise, to converse with the architecture, and to open the gaze toward the landscape of the bay. Typography thus becomes far more than a functional tool: it sets the tone, establishes a restrained elegance, and connects the heritage of Mont-Saint-Michel with a contemporary graphic vision. A collaboration that aptly illustrates the strategic role a foundry like Blaze Type can play today in shaping public identities.

The typeface’s scope with five weights and three widths, or heights

Glyph set with stylistic alternates

Emcee Studios – stylized as emcee – is a lifestyle and fashion platform built for discovery. Their mission statement is “social commerce powered by people”. The branding was designed with Richard Turley and Echo Wu of FOOD. Focal Maxi was originally commissioned as the workhorse typeface in their new brand system, across web and app and some in store. Focal Maxi works along a custom headline typeface based off the logo that is sparsely used. 

Skimpies – women who work as bartenders while wearing bikinis or lingerie – have been a big part of pub culture in Western Australia since the 1970s. Catering to a clientele of locals and itinerant mining industry workers, skimpies serve up entertainment, human connection, and drinks in some of the most geographically isolated communities in Australia.

Taken between 2021 and 2023 by M Ellen Burns in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, these photos portray these women both on and off duty, with candid images of skimpies at work paired with personal portraits and interviews. Burns collected the images of these women with their full consent and created space for them to speak about their own experiences, this project provides a glimpse of a world rarely visible to outsiders.

SPAN® worked closely with photographer, author and now publisher M Ellen Burns, gaining incredible insights into this fascinating culture across the border in Western Australia. These insights formed the creative framework for a multi-faceted design process.

SKIMPIES has been consciously edited into two parts based on the idea of “day and night”. It begins with white-wall portraits captured while the women are off duty, emphasising the importance of their personal stories. We then take the readers onto the low-light-environment at the bars and venues where skimpies are at work with outpouring energy and interacting with those who walk through the doors. To heighten both the quiet confidence and the intense dynamism captured by Burns, matte and gloss varnishes were applied throughout the publication to create visual contrast. At the midpoint – between “day and night” – a curated selection of archival newspapers was inserted to provide historical context to the subject matter.

Connecting the personal stories to the intimate off duty portraiture, a bespoke display typeface – SKIMPIES – was drawn (by Wing Lau) with two main objectives. Firstly, to create a high contrast typographic interpretation with characteristics of the hi-vis-coloured lingerie, the tension and elasticity on the women’s bodies. Secondly, a display typeface that mirrors the studio portraits, typeset vertically, introducing the the women’s by their skimpy names.

To materialise the combined visual dynamics, we integrated a specific selection of coloured threads into an exposed spine with a hard-case Swiss-bound book construct. This subtle, tactile detail brings together colours distinctive to both the mining industry as well as this unique occupation called Skimpy.

In September 2025, Brian Saffer, Art Director at FT Weekend Magazine, reached out to me about the possibilities of using my typeface Sonic Waves. He was working on the cover design for an issue about a misophonia, a hatred of particular noises. Brian Saffer created an uppercase D and added a dot below the question mark, to increase readability.

At the release date of October 11th, an e-mail by a FT reader reached me, pointing out how a typeface I made for the love of music is now used for the opposite purpose. That is not unusual in type design, since we develop tools that are not finished products but will be applied for various purposes by their users.

Sonic Waves was created in 2008 for the online and offline exhibition Into Infinity organised by dublab. As an occasional DJ and designer for the web radio station, I took it on to combine these two practices into one. Inspired by the spectrographic images that Aphex Twin embedded in some of his tracks and waveform art shared in early 2000s IDM forums, I was researching the possibilities of drawing or shaping sound waves into letters. A Mac OS 9 audio software that I was still able to run on my PowerBook enabled me to achieve this. In the mode that made it possible to manipulate the waves, the proportions were horizontal stretched. The process to create the shapes I needed was to work with elliptic outlines on transparent paper that I laid on top of the screen as templates to fill in. The typeface was accompanied by sound files in scales C, C#, B, D and H. The font comprised lowercase letters only, since many uppercase letters would have been difficult, impossible or proportionally awkward to make. The middle line lays at the centre of the x-height. This creates many restrictions which already forced met to set the numbers in italic. Without that trick, 0 and 8 would be indistinguishable.

Opening spread for the article by Samantha Weinberg

The other typefaces used alongside Sonic Waves are all-caps Avenue Mono and the FT’s standard Financier Text.

A Mac OS 9 sound editor with the ability to draw sound waves manually

Audio type specimen: here’s what Sonic Waves sounds like.

Cercle is a themed magazine, with its 11th issue published in May 2023 dedicated to mythology. For the occasion, Ariel Martín Pérez designed a custom typeface named Luperca. The typeface, now published by Tunera Type Foundry, is inspired by Roman capitals, with contemporary calligraphic influences in some of the letters and various ligatures, alternate glyphs and nested characters. The five optical sizes of the typeface means that it could be used in several kinds of titles, quotes and subtitles.

Luperca can be downloaded for free on Tunera.

The standard typefaces used for the magazine are Wigrum by Production Type and ITC Spirit by Jovica Veljović.

Bruno Tomberg. Disaini leiutamine / Invention of Design was an extensive retrospective exhibition and monograph of Bruno Tomberg’s work at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design in Tallinn, curated by Kai Lobjakas. The exhibition offered an overview of Tomberg’s nearly six-decade-long career, exploring for the first time in greater depth his roles as both designer and educator. It also brought a wealth of previously unknown and unexhibited materials to the public.

Bruno Tomberg (1926–2021) was an interior architect, designer, artist and educator, recognised as a leading voice in Estonian design during its intense development from the early 1960s onward. Through his diverse creative, pedagogical and administrative activities, he embodies the story of Estonian applied art and design.

For this occasion, the display typeface Bruno 100 was created by Tüpokompanii. The font is based on Tomberg’s poster designs from the 1970s, strongly reflecting his style as a product and interior designer where diagonal lines and rhombic shapes were frequent motifs throughout his career. A fuzzy texture was added to the type in the graphic design (by Indrek Sirkel), and exhibition wall texts were roll-painted over stencils to achieve a fabric-like surface to echo the materiality of Tomberg’s textile work and rug designs. The accompanying typeface is Ladna.

While Bruno 100 was custom-made for this project, it can be licensed to the public, so feel free to reach out to Tüpokompanii if you’d like to use it.

Burghi is used in Adobe InDesign 2026 to illustrate the Flex Layout feature. The calendar numerals are from CoFo Kabeltouw. Adobe Clean is the typeface used for the interface typography.