At ATC, we approach every type solution with precision, ensuring that form and function work in harmony. Whether designing a fully custom typeface or refining an existing one, our focus is on crafting letterforms that enhance brand storytelling while maintaining technical excellence.
Custom typography offers a unique advantage—distinction. A bespoke typeface reinforces brand recognition, setting it apart in a crowded visual landscape. From subtle refinements to bold typographic statements, we tailor type to embody a brand’s essence, creating a lasting visual signature.
Beyond aesthetics, we engineer type for performance. Every curve, weight, and spacing adjustment is optimized for clarity and adaptability across print and digital mediums. We consider factors like screen rendering, variable font technology, and multilingual support to ensure seamless functionality in every application.
At its core, typography is an essential tool of communication. It speaks before words are read, influences perception, and creates an emotional connection. With ATC, brands don’t just use type—they own it.
Custom typefaces are bespoke fonts crafted to embody a brand’s unique identity and values. Unlike retail fonts, they are designed to align seamlessly with a brand’s visual language, ensuring distinction and consistency. Whether built from scratch or refined from existing designs, these typefaces convey specific brand attributes—professionalism, warmth, innovation, or luxury.
Developed through close collaboration between typographers, designers, and stakeholders, custom typefaces are tailored in every detail, from letterforms and weights to stylistic nuances. Beyond aesthetics, they offer functional benefits such as enhanced readability and optimized performance across digital and print platforms. Investing in a custom typeface establishes a distinct typographic voice, strengthening brand recognition and cohesion across all touchpoints.
Type direction is the strategic guidance of typography within a design project, shaping its visual and emotional impact much like art direction informs overall aesthetics. A type director defines a cohesive typographic approach that aligns with brand identity, messaging, and project goals—considering font selection, hierarchy, scale, and spacing.
Beyond choosing fonts, type direction integrates typography as a core design element, influencing mood, readability, and engagement. Type directors work closely with designers, typographers, and brand teams to ensure typography reinforces tone and storytelling while maintaining consistency across all media.
By taking a holistic approach, type direction ensures type is intentional, on-brand, and a powerful tool for visual communication.
Design modifications and additions in typography refine and expand an existing typeface to meet specific aesthetic, functional, or technical needs. Adjustments may involve refining letterforms, weights, or stylistic details to align with a brand’s identity or enhance readability across different mediums. Modifications can also optimize a typeface for digital environments, cultural adaptations, or specialized applications.
Expanding a type family through additional styles—such as italics, bold weights, or condensed versions—enhances versatility while maintaining consistency. This process may also include creating glyphs for multilingual support, custom symbols, or unique brand elements. By extending a typeface’s capabilities, brands gain a cohesive, adaptable typographic solution that ensures clarity, expression, and seamless integration across all communication platforms.
Language extension in typography expands a typeface’s character set to support additional languages and writing systems, ensuring broader, more inclusive communication. This involves designing new glyphs—letters, accents, and diacritics—that align with the typeface’s original style while meeting the linguistic and typographic standards of each language.
For multinational brands, a cohesive typographic identity across diverse linguistic audiences is essential. Extending a typeface requires deep research and expertise to maintain readability, cultural sensitivity, and structural integrity, especially for non-Latin scripts like Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, or complex scripts such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. By supporting multiple languages, a typeface gains greater versatility and reach, allowing brands to communicate consistently across global markets.
Logomark creation is the art of designing a distinct symbol that encapsulates a brand’s identity without relying on text. A strong logomark distills the essence of a brand into a simple, memorable graphic that communicates its values and personality at a glance. Unlike a full logo, which may combine text and imagery, a logomark stands alone—ideal for applications where brevity and recognition are crucial, such as app icons and social media profiles.
Creating a successful logomark requires in-depth research and thoughtful design. Factors like symbolism, geometric balance, scalability, and versatility ensure it remains effective across all sizes and media. A well-crafted logomark is timeless, unique, and instantly recognizable, serving as a powerful visual shorthand that reinforces brand identity and strengthens recall.
ATC specializes in Font Engineering and Typeface Design, partnering with innovative agencies, designers, and brands to deliver precise, high-quality solutions.
We help assess your needs, ensuring the best approach to meet your brief efficiently and cost-effectively. Our goal is to make a meaningful impact, providing exceptional results that elevate your brand through expertly crafted typography.
Font engineering is the technical and creative process of developing, refining, and optimizing fonts for seamless performance across digital and print environments. This involves precise adjustments to structure, spacing, hinting, and behavior to ensure consistent visual quality and readability across varying screen resolutions and sizes.
Using specialized software like FontLab and Glyphs, engineers fine-tune kerning, adjust weights, and align characters with the designer’s vision. For web and app usage, they optimize file formats such as WOFF and variable fonts to enhance performance while maintaining design flexibility.
A deep understanding of Unicode and character encoding is essential to support multilingual typography and special symbols. Beyond aesthetics, font engineering enhances functionality, incorporating OpenType features (ligatures, alternates), accessibility for screen readers, and scalability for responsive layouts. By bridging design and digital performance, font engineering ensures fonts are both visually striking and technically robust, reinforcing brand consistency across all platforms.
Font mastering is the final phase of font development, where fonts are refined, formatted, and optimized for release and distribution. This process involves perfecting the technical aspects of the font, such as spacing, kerning, and hinting, to ensure consistent appearance and performance across different platforms and devices. Mastering also includes generating and testing different font file formats, like TTF, OTF, and WOFF, to meet the requirements of both print and digital environments.
In addition to technical refinement, font mastering addresses compliance with industry standards, ensuring compatibility with various operating systems and applications. Engineers and typographers meticulously check for any inconsistencies in glyph shapes, character alignment, and OpenType feature behavior to ensure a seamless user experience. By fine-tuning these details, font mastering guarantees that the font functions smoothly in real-world use, supporting brand integrity and usability across diverse media.
Font production is the process of transforming a typeface design into a fully functional, usable font that can be installed and displayed across digital and print platforms. This stage involves digitizing each character, setting spacing and kerning, and ensuring alignment for consistency throughout the typeface. Specialized software like Glyphs or FontLab is used to convert the design into an operable file that meets industry standards.
The process also includes creating and testing various font weights, styles, and formats to address both design and technical needs. Font production ensures encoding for multiple languages, configuring OpenType features (e.g., ligatures, alternates), and conducting quality checks to guarantee legibility and aesthetic cohesion. By balancing functionality with design, font production ensures that the typeface performs seamlessly across different devices and applications, maintaining consistency and usability across all media.
Variable fonts are a technology that enables a single file to contain multiple variations of a typeface, such as weight, width, and slant. Unlike traditional fonts, which require separate files for each style (e.g., bold, italic, condensed), variable fonts use one flexible file that can adjust its properties dynamically. This is achieved through axes of variation, which can be controlled via CSS, allowing designers to customize typography without loading multiple files, resulting in faster load times and more design flexibility.
Variable fonts enhance responsiveness in digital design, adapting smoothly to different screen sizes, resolutions, and contexts. Designers have greater control over typography, making precise adjustments to align with brand guidelines or visual preferences. Beyond efficiency, variable fonts offer expanded creative possibilities, enabling typefaces to seamlessly fit diverse visual themes—making them an essential tool for modern web and app design.
Whether you have questions about Font Engineering, Font Design, or other typographic support for branding or design projects we can help. If your foundry needs a helping hand, we can assist as well. Contact us at info@avondaletypeco.com