Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) is the nineteenth installment in the Call of Duty series, being another reboot and the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). Unlike the first reboot, Modern Warfare 2 references the original trilogy’s aesthetics in its visual design with bright greens and a return to squared sans-serifs, all while still keeping the contemporary look first established in Modern Warfare (2019).

This is the last entry to feature Call of Duty’s old franchise logo in Impact, this time without any modifications to the typeface. Eurostile Extended Bold is used with wider spacing.

Stratum 2 is the primary user interface font used on most text, big and small. It is complemented with DIN Next Condensed as the secondary typeface, used more inconspicuously and mainly on short text. Blender appears only in the form of computer text, such as when viewing through the camera of an airplane. Futura, similar to the first game, is used for massive introductory text in cutscenes. Last but not least there’s Noto Sans, mainly used for multilingual purposes.

Game logo

Campaign level select. Stratum 2 is used quite liberally here. DIN Next can also be seen here.

The iconic title card at the start of every mission, set in Stratum 2

A typical situation in campaign mode. Note the usage of Noto Sans specifically used for the button prompts.

Blender used on the terminal UI. Stratum 2 is also used, albeit minimally.

Futura Book used in the start of Chapter 5

Multiplayer select screen

Modifying a weapon

Beginning of a Search and Destroy match

Winning a round in Search and Destroy. DIN Next is used for the numbers and team names.

From Steam:

Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the dark future of Night City — a dangerous megalopolis obsessed with power, glamor, and ceaseless body modification.

Cyberpunk 2077’s branding perfectly encapsulates its own universe. A rapidly deteriorating, dangerous future only masked by its hypnotically bright neon lights. This is expressed through heavy usage of glitch effects, neon colors and a healthy dose of squared sans-serifs.

Most the entire in-game user interface is set in Rajdhani using the Regular, Medium, Semi-Bold and Bold weight. Fittingly, Indian Type Foundry described the typeface as having an appearance that is "technical or even futuristic." Orbitron is used as a secondary typeface on non-important text.

The game websites are set using Refinery and Blender. The former is used for headlines while the latter is used for both headlines and long text. Blender, Rajdhani and Orbitron are also used diegetically in the game's world, reserved for physical digital screens and holograms. Either Night City's designers are obsessed with these typefaces or its the standard in 2077.

The in-game HUD displaying ammo, health and mission objectives.

Quest log

Stats screen

Pause menu

Orbitron used on small, decorative text

Main website page. Refinery is displayed in its full glory here.

Patch notes for the game’s most recent update, set in Blender

A wild Rajdhani and Blender rears its head on the traffic signs.

Legendary sketch show Saturday Night Live debuted a new look and title sequence for the premiere of its 48th season on October 1st, 2022. As it has been the case since 1995, Emily Oberman led the team at Pentagram to create this new design for the show, working closely with photographer Mary Ellen Matthews and director Mike Diva to bring this new identity to life on the screen.

This makeover comes in the midst of a huge change in the show as eight of their twenty-one cast members depart, allowing for the start of another era in SNL's lengthy history.

The logo itself is set in a custom version of Nik Thoenen's Blender, given the name of Blender Bass-o-Matic SNL. As the show approaches its fiftieth season, its style "pays tribute to the original typography in a way that sharp-eyed fans will appreciate" by bringing back the lowercase "n" from the show's first logo, then set in Futura Display. Pentagram picked Blender as the basis of this new identity as it is "a blend of different types of letterforms––some curved, some sharp––which felt related to the structure of SNL itself and its many diverse players." [Pentagram]

However, the font is not alone. Combined with Blender, the cast names are shown in Mark Simonson’s Grad – this pairing of the bold and modern Blender with the stylish and elegant Grad conveys what both Pentagram and Lorne Michaels envision for this new era of Saturday Night Live - something fresh, bold and exciting.

Also, borrowing from their last major design change in 2014, the logo's flexible nature provides ample opportunities for photographer Mary Ellen Matthews to place the host and musical guest within the frame that the words provide.

Saturday Night Live bumper, “Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar” (October 1st, 2022)

Saturday Night Live bumper, “Miles Teller/Kendrick Lamar” (October 1st, 2022)

Ike Zimmerman’s Some People Are Decent, all set in ITC Bernase Roman.

Fictional book covers designed by Teddy Blanks (CHIPS) for Listen Up Philip, a movie that refers to the late Philip Roth, who repeatedly published with pseudonyms during his career. See also this post about the movie poster and David Haglund’s feature for Slate, and make sure to head over to the CHIPS website to watch some movie excerpts (with a lot more book covers) in their case story.

Listen Up Philip is a dark comedy about a young writer named Philip (Jason Schwartzman), his photographer girlfriend Ashley (Elisabeth Moss) and Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce), the respected older author who becomes his mentor. CHIPS worked closely with director Alex Ross Perry to design believable (and subtly satirical) book covers not only for Philip’s relatively recent releases, but for Zimmerman’s entire back catalog.

The style of each book conforms to design trends and tropes of the era it was supposed to have been published, using typefaces that would have been widely available at the time. The covers feature prominently in several key scenes.

–– CHIPS

Airbrushed lettering and Futura on Ike Zimmerman’s Audit. Blanks: “Audit is a direct rip-off of the first edition cover of Martin Amis’s Money, which I love.”

Madness & Women, set in Pistilli Roman (or Didoni or Eloquent?)

Tightly spaced caps from Letraset’s Compacta Light are used for The Cinch — A Very Easy Novel and The Shrug — A Very Passive Novel (below).

Blanks: “The Cinch and The Shrug are both attempts at Raymond Chandler-esque detective novels featuring the same private eye character. I loved the idea that Zimmerman, for all his literary clout, harbored a secret desire to write popular genre fiction, but couldn’t quite cut it because he was too pretentious or whatever. I also loved the idea that they would have the same exact cover, as if the publisher had decided to market them like a Sue Grafton series.”

Ike Zimmerman’s A Hero’s Home, featuring Futura caps with the Os substituted by orbs. Probably inspired by this cover for First Flights to the Moon (1970)?

Necessity Never Rest, in 1970s classic ITC Korinna, with period-typical tight letter- and linespacing.

Details from Madness & Women and Hoffman’s Ghost, Color Wheel Books hardcover edition, in Bauer Bodoni Black Condensed.

Ike Zimmerman for CWB Paperbacks, referencing Penguin Modern Classics? Text set in New Century Schoolbook.

Ashley Kane reading another, newer edition of Madness & Women, with a cover in a yet unidentified typeface.

The jacket for Ample Profanity uses all-caps Helvetica Bold.

Blanks: “I, Zimmerman apes the cover of Roth’s autobiography, The Facts, which is designed by Milton Glaser, though I didn’t get the font quite right.” It uses (compressed) ITC Cheltenham.

Blanks: “A Woman’s Point of View is from 1988, which is right around the time everyone was switching to digital type, and for whatever reason, there’s a style of cover from around then that is self-consciously “classic”—small type centered on the page, an evocative vintage illustration, muddy, muted colors.”

Too Much Everything, in a light italic cut from Archer.

Blanks: “Bad Eating is Zimmerman’s most recent novel, from 2008, and I was going for a bright colors, big sans-serif type [Interstate Bold], extremely cropped photo, Chip Kidd-ish kind of thing, or almost a slight nod to a Jonathan Franzen cover.”

Philip Lewis Friedman’s Join The Street Parade, in outlined Gill Sans caps.

This cover for Obidant is set in caps from Knockout (probably the No. 47 weight). Blanks: “… the cover for Philip’s new book, Obidant, with its giant type in the clouds, was absolutely meant as a reference to Infinite Jest.”

Philip Lewis Friedman’s Obidant, a novel published with six different covers that look more like non-fiction. From top left to bottom right: Bembo, a bold condensed Bodoni, Futura Maxi, Caslon 224 (with its compressed f), ITC Franklin Gothic ExtraCompressed, and Bodoni Egyptian.

From the end titles: When the Chips Are Down. Collected stories by Ike Zimmerman, in Palisade Graphic (or Fast Freddy NF?).The title was chosen in reference to Blanks’ design studio CHIPS. Credits in Cabernet.

From the end titles: Josh Fawn’s The Exploding Head Trick, 1990s. Cover in Cholla Sans.

From the end titles: Yvette Dussart, The First Anarchist, set in Poetica.

From the end titles: Philip Lewis Friedman, Join The Street Parade. The font is Blender.

A Daughter’s Point of View by Melanie Zimmerman. Cover in Bembo.

Ashley Kane’s photo book Liberty. Cover set in Univers Bold.

“The best gyms in the world” — Men’s Health

Founded in 2015, WIT Fitness had grown quickly from their physical and digital stores in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, to establishing flagship gym/retail facilities in London and across North America. Fluoro were commissioned to create a brand identity, digital strategy and design language that would assist in forging their position as the world’s leading training hub specialist.

Working closely with the team at WIT, we created a graphic system that uses typographic messaging, grids and patterns that reflect the brands’ urban appeal and city influence. This created a contemporary, fresh and bold aesthetic conveying movement and athleticism. We developed and implemented this design strategy across all parts of the user journey – WIT retail & training websites, social channels and in-store digital systems – an ecosystem designed to showcase the entire portfolio of retail brands, stores and services.

The results were clear: higher sales conversion, a unique and ownable brand aesthetic, building awareness with new and existing consumers, improved community engagement, new partner-brand launches, product launches, and pro-athlete events. In 2018 WIT’s position as the worlds leading training hub was cemented as global fitness mega-brands: Nike, Reebok and Crossfit selected WIT, St Pauls as the platform for their global product launches.

This is the official Kinski Bible featuring his estate (private photos, scripts and discoverings), a project initiated by his wife and son. Klaus Kinski was an acclaimed German actor, father of the most-loved Nastassja Kinski. Kinski Vermächtnis, by author Peter Geyer and art director OA Krimmel of i-dbuero, is an absolutely beautiful book (of huge proportions) which received rave reviews upon its publication. The book implements PF Encore Sans as its main typeface supported by Kondolar.

Nik Thoenen’s Blender in applied vinyl on a gallery window, West Broadway (Soho), New York.

The design of this book follows its content, a study on Minimal art. The cover – with its ample white space and small title, which has been shifted to the edges – illustrates the interpretation of Minimalism as an art of the staged blank space. The industrial and cold look typical of Minimal art is emphasised by the use of technical-looking elements, such as the fluorescent red of the font, the coloured edges and the disproportionately large initials on the pages separating the individual chapters.

Author:
Lars Mextorf

Design:
Cedric Vilim
Volker Pook