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)

Albra by Ultra Kuhl and Visuelt by Colophon are used for the rebranding of Cutting Edge, an Australian company that turns cardboard into something special. The look is clean, practical, and built to match their hands-on way of working. Everything from structure to typography is stripped back to focus on what really matters: precision and clarity.

Summary from the design studio’s website:

DSR Branding repositioned Cutting Edge as a modern, full-service packaging partner. The rebrand introduced a new name, the tagline Display Greatness, and a visual identity that blends precision with craftsmanship. A custom wordmark with chamfered corners, an icon inspired by fold lines and tool grids, and authentic photo and video content brought the brand to life across print, digital, and physical touchpoints.

The brief for this project was to design a welcome pack for the opening of the new Material Source Studio in Manchester, UK, an inspirational hub to serve the North West’s architecture and design community.

The inspiration behind the format was to create a ‘material board’ of sustainable papers. One that would welcome and intrigue people enough to want to touch and engage with it. Blending together different colours, textures, sustainable paper materials and print finishes to provide a sensory experience. The outer white sleeve not only served functionally to hold all the separate material sheets inside, but it also folded out to form the letter M for Material Source. Laura Jane Boast of Conscious Made took lead on designing the bespoke format, paper specification and print management, including colour pairing of the papers.

The brand typefaces, Visuelt and Aperçu Mono, were used at different sizes throughout the welcome pack. And without the need for photography, the type was then able to take centre stage to establish a contemporary and minimalistic layout.

This project wouldn't have been possible without this incredible team:
– Laura Jane Boast of Conscious Made on format, paper specification, and print management
– Graeme Stephenson of Know Creative on design
– Laura Connelly of Bob On Content on creative copy
– Sustainable Paper from Fenner Paper
– Digital printing from WithPrint

The visual identity of the Universidad Internacional de Valencia (VIU) uses Periódico (Emtype Foundry) and Visuelt (Colophon).

From Wikipedia:

The Valencian International University (VIU) is a private university in Spain with an international remit. It was founded by the regional government of Valencia in 2008. 70% of it was later acquired by the Planeta publishing house. The university is officially recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Education. It is headquartered in Valencia, Spain. VIU is a distance synchronous learning institution. The teaching and learning is conducted exclusively online, with students receiving real-time classes through their computer or device via interactive video conferences which are streamed directly from campus. Nonetheless, lessons are recorded for off-time viewing by pupils. The teacher/pupil relationship is interactive, personalized and analogous to that of a physical campus. Some programs do require partial in-person attendance, such as the school experience component of teacher training programs.

Swedish studio Amanda & Erik designed an exhibition about local architecture, entitled En annan landsbygd (“Another countryside”) and presented at the Rian designmuseum in Falkenberg, Sweden. The display typeface is Trabis (A is for…, 2019). It’s paired with the sans-serif Visuelt and Relative Mono (both designed by The Entente for Colophon) [identified by Akira Yoshino, see comments].

Canadian creative studio Caserne designed the September 2018 catalogue of Montreal-based wine importation company La Régie.

They reproduced the shapes of various bottles at their real size and used them as graphic elements for the chapters, paired with pictures of food directly inspired by Portugal, the theme of the catalogue.