3 ms·
Going to ask a tangential question. Is there something that happened in the typography world a few years ago that has resulted in what feels like a cambrian ex
by atonse 5y ago
Going to ask a tangential question.
Is there something that happened in the typography world a few years ago that has resulted in what feels like a cambrian explosion of custom typefaces attached to companies?
Ubiquitous WebFont support? Better font tooling? Higher amount of talented typeface consultants? Perhaps all of the above resulting in it costing a lot less to create your own typeface? Would love to know.
Or maybe it's just everyone drowning in VC money and needing places to spend it?
- mark-r 5y agoProbably all of the above, plus one: at a certain scale it costs less to have your own font than to license someone else's. I'm not aware of a VC-backed company that has joined the trend, do you have an example?
- sheepybloke 5y agoIt's the cost. Licensing of fonts can be quite expensive. For example, if you are a big multinational and you get a site license for a font for marketing, you're looking at a couple million a year minimum. On the other side, if you hire a firm to design a font, it's a one time payment of a couple hundred thousand, plus you own the rights in perpetuity. It makes a lot of sense to just take the time and make a font that works for you and to which you own the rights when you look at the economics. [https://www.arun.is/blog/custom-typefaces/#why-go-custom https://www.arun.is/blog/custom-typefaces/#why-go-custom]