The visible voice of brands

?Five burning questions for Zeynep Akay, creative director at Dalton Maag.

An image may speak a thousand words, but typography speaks every written word in the world. Everywhere we look, brands are using media from billboards and brochures to commercials and online marketing to get their messages across. The written word is their visible voice and typography their language.

Choosing the right typeface to carry brand communication should not be taken lightly. There are many experts in the field, and the type designers at Dalton Maag in London are some of the best in the business. We caught up with their Creative Director, Zeynep Akay, for a chat about type design and the power of typography in brand communication.

Q1. What in your mind is the most exciting thing about type design?

I have always been a big lover of fonts. What intrigues and drives me is the sort of curiosity or the challenge of finding the right formula, the right combination of features and attributes of letterforms that fit a particular brief, a particular usage scenario, a particular demand and a particular design environment. There are hundreds of thousands of typefaces out there. What makes one the right one? I really like the effort, the kind of problem solving that goes into finding the answer to that question.

“I like the idea that you can surprise viewers or draw them in simply by the aesthetics and the functionality of typefaces. That’s really powerful.”

Also, I like the potential of typefaces to tell stories and change moods. You can pair a typeface complementarily with a message or designed environment, or you can choose something completely out of the box and in stark contrast to that environment. Either way, you're using typography to pique the interest of the viewer or the reader, compelling them to stop for a second and pay attention to what is communicated, what the design environment is putting forward. I like the idea that you can surprise viewers or draw them in simply by the aesthetics and the functionality of typefaces. That's really powerful.

I often say that type is the form that written language takes. In a lot of ways, it forms the foundation of communication, and in design systems where there isn't a lot of other graphic components or elements, it’s the only vehicle for a brand or a company to embody itself and its image and put it to the viewer. Type is this pervasive hidden ingredient that's all around us.

Q2. How do you see changes in the world impacting type design?

Advanced technology has had a huge impact on how typefaces are designed. Technology tries to streamline the flow of information and that flow often takes the shape of typography. The use of

typefaces in different settings and contexts is also impacted - from printed pages to digital screens to AR, VR and beyond.

Social, political and economic changes also influence type design. From around the 90s, we've been in a cycle of nostalgia that brings certain design movements or aesthetics of past eras back into the contemporary sphere and therefore into typography, where we try to combine the contemporary context with a nod to the past.

Also, you can look at what's coming back into style in fashion and then make a pretty educated guess about what's going to be in style in visual art and design. For some time now, we've seen a revival of both mid-century modern design - obviously Denmark is a huge power player in that - but also in the colorful geometric shapes and objects of the 80s and the 90s. It all influences the style of typography and the visual elements around it.

Is there a trend in type design you hope dies?

Yes! I don't often have a strong distaste for any particular type-trend. But right now, there is a particularly persistent trend for what I call melty serifs - high contrast serif typefaces where some or all parts of the letterforms are wavy, as if they have been warmed with a heat lamp and are melting, hence why I call them melty serifs. Aesthetically, they fall into the more superficial side of things rather than having a strong foundation with links to the past or grounded in future thinking. They're very ubiquitous and I worry that they’re going to age too quickly and will need to be replaced.

Q3. What is the biggest misconception you come across?

That getting a custom typeface is expensive. It’s simply not true. However, a custom typeface is not for everybody. It depends on the usage context, the number of fonts needed – regular, bold, extra bold, extra light and so on - and on the number of languages that needs to be covered.

“For those who commission a custom typeface, the cost is definitely justified by the benefits that they get.”

If a company needs only to set legal text and they need particular characters that they can't find in other commercial typefaces, you can make something work with a few modifications to an off-the-shelf typeface without needing to spring for a custom typeface, especially if the client is not particularly interested in undergoing the creative and conceptual process of coming up with a new design from scratch.

But for those who commission a custom typeface, the cost is definitely justified by the benefits that they get. We work on a variety of custom typeface projects from small ones, where a client is able to get the result they want for the price that’s affordable and reasonable for them, to the big, all-encompassing type projects for larger multinational corporations. There's something for everyone.

And you know, there are no secrets or hidden truths. At Dalton Maag, we go to great effort to dispel any misconceptions or any kind of air of exclusivity. Everybody we are collaborating with, whether their background is design or administration, whether they have experience with the type design process or not, should feel qualified to ask questions or give feedback or simply state their opinion or their preference for one typeface over the other. That's the environment we strive to create.

Q4. Licensed versus custom typefaces? What’s your pitch?

When you communicate with your audience, you want the message to remain in their minds, so why not take the little extra effort and make a considered decision on how that message looks? Why not engage in the process of coming up with something that works for you and only for you, instead of something that someone else, even your competitors, can use in exactly the same way that you are.

A considered type-solution can improve a lot in the way a company publishes and conceives its message. For larger clients with complicated structures, it’s rare that a commercial typeface satisfies all their needs. It might work for them when it comes to the aesthetics of their brand, but it may not be as functional as they need it to be when it comes to using it in their app, for example, in a context that's more demanding on the font's legibility and readability.

Also, depending on the size of the company or its plans for future growth, licensing a commercial typeface can be a quite hefty bill that keeps adding up. Therefore, it can be a huge relief to have a custom typeface, not least because the design and the functionality is suited specifically to the company’s usage and personality, but also because it's a one-time expense, and they will never be asked to renegotiate a contract or have to add to the bill because app downloads increase or the amount of servers that hold the fonts go up.

Q5. Any examples of brands where the typeface has a big impact on the identity?

Airbnb is a good example. Around the company’s 10 year anniversary, the team wanted to unite the brand typographically, to reshape their type system to different scales of usage. We captured the round, soft, young, friendly, helpful look that Airbnb embodies in the rest of their visual identity. And we made it work in the technically demanding aspect of typesetting in their app - very small sizes with a lot of long text. It's a hard challenge to accomplish. When you want a typeface that speaks loudly and expressively about the brand, it's usually designated for big sizes - posters, billboards, big headlines, video, etc. But when you take that typeface and decrease its point size and use it small, then you find that some things don't work so well. Maybe the spacing is not well suited for readability, maybe some of its features or details are too distracting to make reading comfortable and content absorption efficient. That was the challenge with Airbnb, and I think we managed it well.?

As so eloquently explained by Zeynep, typography carries a huge part of a brand’s visual expression. It sets the tone and mood, adding personality, recognition, emotion and clarity to a brand's identity and messaging. The careful selection and consistent use of typography in brand application significantly contribute to a brands ability to connect with its audience and therefore to its overall success.

Reach out to our Creative Director, Mike Collinge, for a chat about the role of typography in enhancing your brand communication - [email protected] or +45 22 71 48 33