The Philadelphia Museum of Art, in collaboration with design studio Gretel, rebuilt its identity with the goal of putting the institution in direct conversation with the city that surrounds it. Typography is the primary device for achieving this. The type palette mainly works on two levels: outside-and-inside, or community-and-institution.

Inspired by Philadelphia’s rich visual texture of storefronts, street vendors, and murals, the vernacular type palette brings the voice of Philly into the museum and injects the identity system with contrast and spontaneity. The current library is curated (exemplified by the likes of Shatter, Cooper Black, and Balloon), but it is designed to continue growing over time. Each of these display typefaces can be used on various seasonal activations, or specifically assigned to exhibitions or departmental roles. ITC Pioneer was used for the recent exhibition The Time is Always Now, a survey of contemporary Black and African diasporic figurative art. Purple Haze is the designated typeface for PMA Members, and Megazoid is used for PMA Kids.

On the other hand, the institutional typographic voice serves an evergreen role: echoing the museum’s classical character while embodying Philadelphia’s industrial sensibility. The core typeface, Fairmount Serif—named for the Fairmount neighborhood—was custom-drawn by Ryan Bugden after a study of Philadelphia’s typographic history. Searching for a balance between the industrial structure of 1930s American sans-serifs and a classical features brought Hess Neobold forward as a key reference. Its designer Sol Hess attended PMSIA—the precursor to the museum—and later succeeded Frederic Goudy as Philadelphia-based Lanston Monotype’s type director. Fairmount Serif evolves the Hess Neobold model while incorporating more contemporaneous industrial cues. It remains relatively neutral alongside the museum’s broad palette of display faces while providing a distinct, authoritative voice of its own. Fairmount Serif was also used as a starting point in rendering the various institutional logos.

For the more workhorse level, Klarheit Grotesk serves as the museum’s body text typeface. It is set at small sizes across branding, materials, signage, and exhibition text.

See more images in Gretel’s case study.

Mockups of exhibition catalogs

Banners.

Seasonal program.

Monaako by Altiplano Typefaces for Pampa.

Tribe, the new Hoff sneaker collection (summer 2021) features typographic compositions on the soles designed by Naranjo-Etxeberria Studio with “fonts from typographers and foundries we admire”.

The fonts in use are Monaako by Altiplano Typefaces, bb-book A by Benoît Bodhuin, Estragon and ABC Pareto by Dinamo Typefaces, Arthemys by Morgane Vantorre, Zoo by Blaze Type, Romie by Margot Lévêque, Maestro by Canada Type, WT Zaft by Jacob Wise, GabyGaby by Alex Valentina/The Designers Foundry, Hypha by Hasan Halilov, Esimene by Andree Paat, and Euphoria (Comicraft) by Janik Sandbothe. The sans serif used for small text on each sole is Akzidenz-Grotesk [see comments].

bb-book A by Benoît Bodhuin for Kalahari.

Pareto by Dinamo for Rocky Mountains.

Estragon by Dinamo.

Arthemys by Morgane VanTorre for Rapa Nui.

Zoo by Blaze Type for Great Plains.

Romie by Margot Lévêque for Four Corners.

Maestro by Canada Type for Hela.

WT Zaft by Jacob Wise for Savana.

Hypha by Hasan Halilov for Ural.

GabyGaby by Alex Valentina for Black Mesa.

Esimene by Andree Paat for Sahara.

Euphoria by Janik Sandbothe for Papua.

The Hessen Design Competition is:

THE Hessian young talent design competition, which is particularly characterized by the fact that, in addition to the attractive award of prize money, it also supports the winners through mentoring over the long term. This gives the design talents the chance to get one step closer to the market launch of their products.

In a particulary well layered website, we find a nice use of Osmose (Blaze Type) for the titles and Roboto (Christian Robertson) for the texts. The festival’s monogram logo is set in ABC Pareto (Dinamo).

The current season of the Théâtre de Belleville in Paris runs from September 2018 to July 2019. The new visual identity was designed by Pierre Jeanneau and is built around five illustrations. Each visual is shown for a period of two months and comes with a typographic poster announcing the plays. The typefaces were chosen to create the best harmony with the respective illustrations. Each poster is printed in Pantone spot colors on 70×100 cm and 40×60 cm formats on matte offset paper. The program is designed as a concertina fold that can be divided into four different flyers, printed on both sides. The visual link between illustration and typography is strengthened by five unique color gradients for each period.

The five featured typefaces are Quick Marker (Out of the Dark) for September/October, Crack (Out of the Dark) for November/December, ABC Pareto Triangular (Dinamo) for January/February, Ohno Blazeface (OH no Type Co.) for March/April, and CoFo Chimera (Contrast Foundry) for May/June. They are paired with Sabre (Alias) for text. The logo of the Théâtre de Belleville uses Briem Script Ultra (Adobe).

The theater’s logo uses Briem Script Ultra.

I’m usually not a big fan of ATypI’s graphic identity, but for this year’s conference in Montréal, Julien Hébert is doing an incredible job using a bunch of fresh and amazing typefaces!

Julien Hébert says he chose Guillon as the principal typeface for this year’s conference because it was developed in Montréal by the very talented Feed Studio and Coppers and Brasses. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Montréal’s Expo 67, Guillon pays homage to the mid-century modernist grotesque, and is perfectly suited to the very heteroclite applications to come.

Julien Hébert: “The A17Mtl mark was created from scratch and meant to reflect this year’s theme: Atypique (atypical in French). I had fun with ink traps, making the mark look good at all sizes, as well as geometry, creating very satisfying alignments and fitting the mark in a perfect square.”

Joe182 is “a script face based on the authentic traces left by a thick chisel-tip marker”.

Here I should thanks Florian Hardwig who is your man when you need some ID help:

“The condensed broken script looks like Gandur Neue, with the ‘e’ taken from the small caps.”

[Correction: It’s simply Gandur Alte in all caps, see the comments.]

The call for early bird registration is enforced by the use of Minotaur Beef.

Triade is another local typeface, by Montréal-based foundry Coppers and Brasses. See its peculiar Backslant style in action here.

Rozza: “On the one hand prickly and dangerous, and on the other — pulsating beauty and passion.”

“Frauen Roman and Script share a common weight, x-height, and nib angle, and when used together behave as if the same unabash­edly German calligrapher penned them both in the same sitting.” — Sharp Type

Lettering done by Julien Hébert.

According to its designers, “Pareto is not even halfway finished with its time travel from Italo Western to Computed Type!”

More lettering by Julien Hébert.

The ring bound program cover feature one more lettering by Julien

Some spreads from the program, displaying typefaces already featured above and new additions by The Pyte Foundry: Umbra, Octango and Symptom (not visible here).

The Mini Schedule and the whole signage on the actual location were set in various styles of Sharp Grotesk.

Two great type scholars (Luc Devroye left, Stephen Coles right) in front of some of the posters Julien designed with its own letterings, at ATypI 2017 closing party.

With the basic understanding of the Ruhr area as a region for possibilities and feasibility, the KunstVereineRuhr created a concept for a residency, the so-called Ruhr Residence. Bearing the conceptual base for the corporate design, the project started with two residence programs, go and return. The typography, combining two different fonts for headlines, defines the visuals as a whole completed by key visuals picturing the leaving and the returning.

Art Direction & Design: KoeperHerfurth
Photography (Exhibition): Ida Andrae
Photography (Portraits): Roland Baege