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Typography
4 posts about Typography. Every summary links to the original.
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Has visual design fallen flat? - The Intercom Blog
The post surveys the flat design trend of 2013-2014, characterized by flat rectangles, minimal shadows, large photography, bold typography, and slick animations, inspired by iOS 7 and Material Design. It argues that while this minimalist style brings clarity, its ubiquity has created an aesthetic monoculture where many products look indistinguishable, making design a commodity. The author draws a parallel to Le Corbusier’s modernist architecture, warning that repeated simplicity can become lifeless, and cites Jane Jacobs on the value of organic diversity. He speculates that future design diversity may be driven by new technologies, cultural influences from a growing global online population, or a backlash against flatness. The post concludes that flat design may persist but will likely eventually give way to new styles, though it offers no definitive prediction.
Behind the design work of Building Intercom - The Intercom Blog
For the ‘Building Intercom’ event page, the design team aimed for an ‘unapologetically nerdy’ aesthetic to appeal to engineers without resorting to tired clichés. The author discovered the Hershey fonts, originally created in the 1960s by physicist A.V. Hershey, and revived them into functional font files using FontSelf and then Glyphs for weight variations. A small Python script automated placing outlines into a .glyphs file, and Paper.js enabled interactive vector animations. Testing revealed issues such as event details being overlooked, Paperscript’s JavaScript evaluators forbidden by Intercom’s security team, and poor mobile browser support for Paper.js. The project reinforced the value of taking meaningful risks in design and development, reminding the author that overcoming fear of consequences is part of the work.
How we redesigned our blog, Inside Intercom - The Intercom Blog
Intercom redesigned its blog, Inside Intercom, because the volume of articles, podcasts, books, and videos had outpaced the old design’s ability to help readers discover and consume content. The new homepage employs a magazine-like hierarchy on a solid grid, featuring a lead article with secondary and tertiary items, while podcasts now have their own category with an inline player for seamless listening. Two new categories for Startups and Marketing, along with reading enhancements like estimated reading times and progress bars and the removal of the pop-up newsletter signup, improve the user experience. Typography pairs Tiempos serif with Akkurat Pro sans-serif to create an editorial feel, and custom illustrations by a diverse range of artists plus hand-painted author portraits by Jon Stich add a personal touch. The redesign, led by designer Maria Gonzalez and developer Daniel Husar, aims to make content discovery simpler and reflects Intercom’s design-led culture.
How (and Why) We Refreshed Our Brand - The Intercom Blog
Intercom refreshed its brand after stress-testing the 2018 rebrand over several years, revealing scalability issues in illustration, color, typography, product visuals, and voice. The illustration style was difficult to replicate without a full-time illustrator, the mint-and-black color palette was constraining and at times appeared childish, and typography lacked personality. The team introduced thinner-lined illustrations with strategic usage guidelines, created a custom headline font called Honey complemented by Smile and Intercom Brand fonts, and reduced product abstraction to let the product itself do the heavy lifting. They defined voice characteristics as conversational, clear, confident, and delightful while avoiding goofy, oversimplified, flashy, or corporate tones to ensure consistent scaling. The year-long refresh was led by the internal Brand Studio, leveraging in-house talent across design, typography, and copywriting, and included an extensive brand audit.
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