Custom typeface
A family drawn for a single organisation and not licensed elsewhere. Built around the languages, sizes, and media the brand actually sets in, rather than adapted from something that already exists.
Custom type
Type drawn for one organisation, to a brief, and produced to the same standard as a retail release.
01 / Scope
What gets drawn
Logotype and wordmark
Letterforms drawn for one word. Delivered as vector artwork with the alternates, lockups, and spacing notes an identity needs to stay consistent across the people who will use it.
Extension and production
Weights, italics, or additional coverage added to a family already in use, matched to the existing drawing. Also spacing, kerning, OpenType, and mastering for type drawn elsewhere.
02 / Process
How it runs
Brief
What the type has to do, where it will be set, which languages it has to cover, and what it has to sit next to. Scope, schedule, and licence are agreed here, before any drawing.
Direction
A small set of drawn candidates at real sizes in real settings, not adjectives. One direction is chosen and the rest are put down.
Drawing
The chosen direction taken to a full character set across the agreed weights, reviewed in running text rather than in isolated words.
Production
Spacing, kerning, OpenType features, interpolation, and mastering. Proofed on screen and in print, and tested across the applications the client works in.
Delivery
Final files, documentation, and licence. Source files are handed over where the agreement calls for it.
What you receive
- Variable and static fonts (WOFF2, OTF, TTF)
- Full character set covering the languages agreed in the brief
- Kerning, OpenType features, and hinting as specified
- A specimen PDF documenting the family
- Source files where the agreement includes them
- A written licence covering the agreed use
Licensing
Custom work is normally licensed to the commissioning organisation in perpetuity, for the uses set out in the brief. Exclusivity, later release as a retail family, and coverage for subsidiaries or agencies are all decided before the project starts rather than after it.