Type resources for designers and brand owners

Featured article.

Putting AI to work: The magic of typeface pairing.

Have you ever cooked a meal at home and been delighted to find the perfect ingredient to complement your recipe? Maybe you forgot you had cilantro, crushed peanuts, or lemon juice, and it’s just the thing you needed to elevate your dish.

What’s new.

Monotype’s company desktop license empowers cloud access to brand fonts.

Long gone are the days of zipping up folders of font files and sharing them across your organization, or even messier, embedding fonts in documents in the cloud in hopes that the design remains intact. We recently announced an expanded set of licensing rights which allows all employees within an organization to access Commercial Production Fonts in their desktop environments. 

Creative Characters S2 E8: Andrew Krivine and Michael Worthington.

This week we’re welcoming Andrew Krivine, author and punk rock collector, alongside Michael Worthington, faculty at CalArts and co-founder of Counterspace. The creative duo is here to tell the tale of how they co-created the largest exhibition of punk and new wave graphics ever shown on the West Coast.   

Monotype x Limerick.

Over the past four years, we’ve been lucky to forge a reciprocal partnership with the Limerick School of Art & Design / TUS in Ireland. Both Creative Type Directors Tom Foley and Emilios Theofanous have now participated in workshops and modules at the leading fine art, design and creative media school. This year’s students were asked to write a message platform for one typeface and build a marketing plan and design assets to promote it in digital or print media.  

Font resources for brands.

8 Common mistakes to avoid when choosing brand fonts.

When you’re a designer, it’s thrilling to create a new brand or update an existing one. You get to be creative! Strategic! You get a chance to make your mark!

In addition to deciding on a color palette and imagery style, you get to choose foundational typefaces for your brand. But font selection should not be based on looks alone.

How an increased focus on digital transformation has changed customer branding expectations.

Today’s designers are faced with a multitude of new challenges when it comes to designing for a digital world. Customers expect constant communication, have short attention spans, and expect brands to keep up with emerging technology. Learn about the branding challenges to advance your digital strategy and forge ahead.

What creative leaders need to consider in a brand refresh.

You’re at your desk reviewing your emails, and getting ready to kickstart a new design project tomorrow. You’ve read over the project brief, and you have a team call coming up to go over the project guidelines. It’s an exciting challenge, but you’re not sure where to begin.
 

Get inspired.

Creative Characters S3 E3: Getting into the ‘heavy stuff’ with Aaron James Draplin.

We are thrilled to have Aaron Draplin on the podcast this week and to dig into the “heavy stuff” with him – existential musings on life and building a career, the importance of hanging on to your inner kid, and the “weird little spot” he’s in as he approaches 50 turns around the sun.

7 Typographic rebrands that worked wonders.

Today’s brands must keep up with a fast-paced digital world and navigate a “new normal” that’s still emerging from the worst of the pandemic. The last few years shifted everyone’s digital expectations, how brands operate, and in some cases, impacted their business models. Moreover, issues like biodiversity, sustainability, diversity and equity, and brand activism are all booming. So how does this all impact brand building? These macro shifts are greatly influencing how companies position themselves, the services they offer, and how they communicate with their customers.

Font expertise from the Monotype Studio.

Typography terms and definitions.

From alternates to X-height, this list of typography terms and definitions covers just about everything you’d want to know about fonts and typography.

What are font superfamilies and why do we need them?

Font superfamilies are vast collections of type that can meet a multitude of needs without compromising on consistency. But what defines a superfamily, exactly?

What’s in a letterform?

A letter is more than the sum of its parts, but sometimes it helps to know what those parts are called. And it may not surprise you to learn that in a field as meticulous as typography, every little piece of a letter has a name.

All resources.

Creative Characters S4 E2: Talking type that melts in your heart (not in your hand) with Steffi Marti.

This week, host Charles Nix sits down with Steffi Marti, the Global Head of Brand Identity and Design for Mars Snacking. Tune in to hear more.

Publishing meets product: Monotype Fonts X United Prime Educational Publishing

Eager to gain access to a large library of fonts without having to worry about licensing issues, Hong Kong based United Prime Educational Publishing turned to Monotype Fonts. See how it helped them streamline their operations.

 

Creative Characters S4 E1: Behind the 2024 Type Trends report with Jordan Bell and Damien Collot.

Join Type Designer Jordan Bell and Creative Type Director Damien Collot as they discuss their experiences curating this year’s Type Trends report. Enjoy!

Fonts & Accessibility

With more companies focusing on DE&I initiatives, it’s essential to include people with disabilities in those policies. One easily overlooked aspect of this is the accessibility of your digital properties for people with various visual abilities. This article will outline how digital accessibility practices and DEI policies are interconnected, and how fonts contribute to a digital experience that is accessible to all.

Do people really ‘need’ typography? (Hint: Yes, they do).

Type is everywhere all the time, from mundane signage to extraordinary examples of cutting-edge design. In some cases, people might think type doesn’t matter, but our own Charles Nix has a different theory.

[Webinar] Exploring typography's emotional influence: A global look.

In the world of design and marketing, every detail matters. Color, messaging, and layout are all essential, but did you know typeface choice alone can boost positive consumer response by up to 13%?  

Creative Characters S3 E20: Studios we love: the stories of ArrowType, Type Salon, and Blaze Type.

We’re closing out 2023 by spotlighting three amazing type studios from different corners of the world - and three of our favorite hosts. Listen to the full episode for more.

Key learnings from Brand Talks London.

Brand Talks recently touched down in London at the Vinyl Factory. Read on for some of our favorite highlights from the inspirational evening.

CaseCo: A Case for Variable Fonts.

Variable fonts have been around for a few years now and are very well supported. But how much do we know about all the ways they can benefit a brand and its audience? We’ll take a look at how CaseCo, an admittedly fictitious company, has incorporated them throughout their brand identity and web experience: from brand voice and fidelity, to more expressive typographic choices, to being more accessible to more people across more devices — and even some benefits for website engineering and infrastructure teams. Even if only one or two of these use cases make sense for your work — variable fonts are ready to make a huge impact for your organization.