The Northern Block

Founded in 2006 by Jonathan Hill, The Northern Block is a collaborative type foundry internationally recognised for producing modernist fonts for brands, creatives and makers. The Northern Block's highly skilled and enthusiastic global team, designs and develops award-winning retail and custom typefaces, and is pushing forward the design of non-latin scripts, including Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew.

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Loew Variable brings a new adaptable approach to type design in response to genuinely understanding how creatives use Loew. In collaboration with world-leading brands, The Northern Block has realised Loew’s place within the market and how designers use Loew to evolve and develop the typeface for Loew Variable; to offer a brilliant typeface that gives flexibility to creative professionals. For a more in-depth look at Loew Variable, please visit loewvariable.com

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Vitro is a rectangular sans serif with a pinch of grotesque. The solid technical appearance has been achieved through careful optical adjustment, resulting in a modern and stylish font that stands out in the crowd. Vitro is suitable for a wide range of branding purposes, including brochures, logos, packaging, posters, signage, websites etc.,

Details include nine weights with italics and over 450 characters per style. Opentype features consist of digital numerals, numerators, denominators, tabular, fractions and language support covering Western, South and Central Europe—remastered to version 2.0 for enhanced OpenType features and usability. 

Available from: The Northern Block

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On first font name terms.

The Northern Block's latest work Waldo, a heavyweight display face with a dose of stencil effect, was initially released under Aldo back in 2009. Inspiration for the design came from a 1970's film poster for The Battle for the Planet of the Apes. In the film, the ant-hero, a gorilla leader named 'Aldo', is where the name derives. It's no coincidence that Jonathan met 'Aldo', not the original actor, but some guy in costume making money selling photos on the beach at Great Yarmouth in the summer of 1979. It left a significant impression on him that would help to open a gateway into his creative ideas.

The Aldo typeface made no impact on the original release, dubbed as over-styled and just plane retro with no sales potential. The company received a letter from another designer saying they already own Aldo's name to rub salt into the wounds. Could you please take it off the market? The Northern Block amiably removed the typeface from the market on the principles of first font name published first. It seems that the whole concept was a non-starter, but setting up a type foundry also had the same roadblocks, so what can this teach us. A typeface, no matter how misunderstood or out of luck can find a way out. 

Forward to 2014 in downtown Toyko, Roppongi Hills, to be precise. Jonathan came across a posse of in crowds wearing Bathing Ape clobber; that was it, the inspiration for Aldo to rise again under a new guise but with nearly six more years of type design expertise under the hood. Hello Waldo, a patient and more meticulous display typeface looking for a new set of users.

Available From - The Northern Block

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Always Remember to Syke Yourself Up

It’s strange to think that Syke, one of The Northern Block’s most objectively impressive typefaces, hadn’t until this year achieved a single desktop sale. Originally – and, as founder Jonathan Hill admits, perhaps naively – this font began life through an ill-fated ‘experiment in independence’. To determine the appeal of anonymity, the Syke typeface was made distinctive in design, and rendered purchasable solely through The Northern Block’s website. Jonathan, as usual, is frank about the outcome. ‘Turns out, a typeface always has to earn its reputation before it becomes exclusive’, he explains, adding that Syke’s re-release onto third-party distribution networks, loaded with regular and italic free-weights on top, ‘is finally generating the attention this typeface deserves.’ 

Looking back at Syke’s initial release in 2016, Jonathan reveals that ‘[we] did get one substantial sale through The Northern Block from a corporate investment company.’ But he adds that given the amount of time and energy expended on Syke’s design, this was a disappointing result. Building upon what Jonathan appreciates as ‘the guiding mantra of Google Fonts’ – who deem good typography an exercise in readability and adaptability – The Northern Block’s aim for Syke was to provide wide-ranging functionality. It was intended to give desktop users and digital media hacks something of an edge: exercising a legible flair that wasn’t quite as exhausted as Helvetica. Jonathan openly admits that ‘one sale just didn’t satisfy [us]’, and that strategic overhaul would be necessary.

While Syke’s new-found success is clearly worth celebrating, Jonathan is keen to stress that, more importantly, the experience drove home hard-truths for The Northern Block. For one thing, it became undeniable for Jonathan and his team that distribution networks have an immense role in advertising small foundries’ diverse, geometric creations. Platforms such as MyFonts, FontSpring and YouWorkForThem often have monthly viewing statistics in the millions. Though their monopoly status can be challenging for small-scale companies striving for that all-important independence, ignoring their market dominance can be equally fatal. 

‘So, we took it all in good faith’, Jonathan tells me, ‘and learned from it.’ It wasn’t all bad news. That singular sale - for wholly unexpected, investment-related purposes – had verified at least one of The Northern Block’s typographic hunches: that there were, indeed, always customers on the hunt for something definitively niche. But it was the commercial sustainability of an exclusive approach which the experiment firmly discredited. ‘I got the sense that exclusivity was sort of an elitist understanding of the type-industry’, Jonathan says: ‘it spoke to this idea that we, as a company, wanted to be in control of all the processes. It wiped out the spontaneity and the shared-responsibility that comes with wider distribution. I’ve realised that the market goes against that sort of thing.’ 

Of course, that’s not to say there isn’t a time and place for exclusivity. Some of The Northern Block’s typefaces are found on their website alone; but these, Jonathan assures me, are fonts which have ‘real clout’ - fonts which have earned their stripes. Take Eund: this typeface was only made exclusive after its adoption by Disney for Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ merchandise copy. When a typeface is in this privileged position, exclusivity becomes a powerful weapon: one that makes sense to yield. ‘These are the exceptions to the rule’, Jonathan explains. ‘It’s something we’ve only realised through brazen trial and error.’ 

I ask Jonathan, then, if he’s depressed about any of this. Are small foundries, like The Northern Block, concerned that their businesses rely – to a large extent - on third-party distributors? Is there something disheartening about realising that visibility can often come at the price of individual control? His reply is unequivocal: ‘no, not at all. We work to a strategy that maximises what these networks can do for us. Clout-based working is the way to go. These networks, hopefully, are simply stepping stones. If not, we adapt. We keep doing what we love, and we trust that the right customer will pay the price.’ Pardon the pun, but it seems The Northern Block are actually pretty psyched with the way things are going - as they should be!

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The Northern Block X Nowhere Exhibition

The Northern Block were invited to attend the ‘Nowhere’ exhibition held at Custom Lane inEdinburgh. The exhibition was created by Blueroom Collection, who are Edinburgh based andspecials in graphic design, design education and their associated creative practises. The show featured popular type families by The Northern Block, including Typold, Stolzl Display, Loew and collaborative type family Ovink by Sofie Beier. It featured experimental visualcommunication in typography experiential design usingthese typefaces and were showcased ina range of media, including editorial work, digital prints and vinyl installations. We had Kateinterview Creative Director of Blueroom Collective, Chris Hughes to find out more:

What was the concept behind the ‘Nowhere’ exhibition?

All our work has a political angle. We felt the ‘Citizens of Nowhere’ ideology, and Brexit in general, was something that was worth exploring and commenting upon.

How did you first come across The Northern Block?

As a collective with a minimalist approach, we want our projects to have a certain kind of visual cohesion. So using fonts from a single foundry seemed like a good idea. I’d seen a nice project that used Hapna Mono, and Typold had just been released, and we picked up on these via social media. 

What was it about The Northern Block that made you to reach out to us?

We liked your modernist approach to type design, and your geographical location.

Why did you specifically choose the following typefaces; Typold, Stolzl Display, Scriber, Loew and Ovink?

We like geometric sans serifs, but were really bored with Avenir, Gotham and Montserrat, so Typold and Loew felt fresh.Stolzl Display was ideal for the vinyl cutting due to its great angles, and Ovink had some nice curves in the ends and a loose, soft feel. We were also looking for a font that could be broken up into separate pieces with an industrial feel, and still retain some legibility, and Scriber worked perfectly. We drew up a shortlist and those won out. Everyone in the group has different things they want to work with in terms of typefaces.These fonts felt robust.

All four of these typefaces are very different to the other, how do they fit the theme of the exhibition?

We have found that once you choose the font to fit the concept, the connection to the theme naturally emerges during the execution.

How did you incorporate these typefaces into the exhibition?

We each took a different typeface and developed those into the work, using the font’s best attributes to push the concept. Scriber’s stencil cuts were ideal for being broken up into discrete pieces, Typold’s Swiss attributes made it perfect for working exclusively in lowercase, and the softness in Ovink worked for the more minimal copy pieces.Stolzl was perfect for the vinyl lettering, and the M was our favourite glyph. Loew is just a great powerful design, great for single glyphs and editorial work. We used the space in Custom lane to assign work in each font a certain location.

(ps  FYI Scriber was used on '34.8%' by Rumana Sayed. 34.8% is the percentage of women in the UK who have attained boardroom level in the private sector, and Rumana wanted a way to show how the statistic reflected a broken aspect of the system).

The opening night had a brilliant turn out. How did you feel with the overall outcome of the exhibition and how it was received?

We exhibited in Berlin in May, but unfortunately not all of us could get to that show. It was a success though, and contributed to us winning the Designer Award at the Sunday Herald Scottish Culture Awards, so our profile had been raised considerably.  Edinburgh has a sizeable design community and designers love looking at type.The venue helped as well - Leith is the centre for the creative community in Edinburgh. The work was shortlisted at the Creative Edinburgh Awards.

How was the feedback overall from those who visited the exhibition?

We had a great response, and the most common feedback was about what can be done with just type and no colour, and how connected everything was visually.

Why do you think that is?

Nobody else is doing it in quite this way, it isn’t as easy as it looks. 

Do you have any other plans to use The Northern Block typefaces in the future?

Our new project includes designing a broadsheet newspaper - so we need a decent serif for the body copy and will be looking at Northern Block for that.

Do you have anymore exhibitions coming up in the future?

We've just moved into a new studio which has its own event space, so we'll be running our own shows, including an opening event probably in early May. We are also planning to make the space available to other visual artists for talks, exhibitions and networking events.

We were delighted with the overall outcome of the exhibition and to have our work featured in such a creative way. It was great to see such a big turnout of the opening night and seeing so many of you appreciating our typefaces as much as our designers have enjoyed creating them. We would like to thank Blueroom Collective for the opportunity to display our work in such an interesting way.

To view the exhibition, please click here.

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Why Use A Font Subscription?

Font subscription services are a new alternative to downloading and licensing fonts. There are a number of companies out there that have different price plans catered to the specific needs of the designer. The fonts available are usually aimed at desktop, web and print for however you desire; freelance and personal projects, client pitches, creating websites and many more. It is all about finding the one that best fits you and your work. This gives you the freedom to use the available fonts wherever you like by providing easier browsing and syncing options to your devices and offers variety by releasing new fonts often.

There are many options now for customers to download fonts these days; buying outright from foundries and distributors, trialling, downloading free fonts, you get the idea. However, over the course of the last few years, subscription services seem to be becoming more popular for technological companies with the likes of Spotify, Microsoft, Apple Music, Netflix and even Xbox to name but a few offering such services. So it comes as no surprise that naturally the font industry would follow suit, with many font distributors taking this route. An example of this is Adobe Typekit who The Northern Block have been a part of for over a year now. So what does using font subscription services mean to the type industry and designers? Are they the way forward? I spoke with Ariadne from Adobe to find out more: 

Hello Ariadne, first of all could you explain to those who may not know, what is Adobe Typekit?

Typekit is a subscription service for fonts which users can sync to their computer or use on a website. Instead of licensing individual fonts, our full library of fonts can be accessed through an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Beyond this, we also have a collection of fonts on Typekit Marketplace which are available for purchase.

They originally were separate entities. How did the relationship between Adobe and Typekit begin?

Adobe joined Typekit as a foundry partner in 2010 (see this blog post). It was a great move for Adobe to get some of the Adobe type library in the hands of web developers. The relationship developed and Typekit was acquired by Adobe in 2011, when it was purely a web font service. We have since added the ability to sync fonts and use them on all desktop apps. The Typekit library is included in the Creative Cloud subscription and is now integrated with Adobe apps. 

Originally, fonts were distributed as physical products — do you think subscription fonts have changed the dynamic in the font industry and for the better?

Many industries have adopted the subscription model as a natural way to adapt to the modern workflow and cloud-based solutions. The software industry is no different. In its transition to Creative Cloud, Adobe was able to provide updates on an ongoing basis to its customers — instead of waiting for the next boxed release. This applies to fonts as well. If one of our foundry partners informs us of an update to a font, we can update it on Typekit.com and it will be available for our customers instantly. Type designers appreciate this, and the accessibility of fonts within a subscription widens their audience. 

What are the benefits of a font subscription for the customer?

In the case of Typekit, the customer is getting a large library of fonts along with their Creative Cloud subscription. The value is huge compared to the cost of purchasing these fonts individually. With this toolkit at their disposal, customers can experiment and find the font they need without additional purchases.

A big concern in the industry is font piracy. Is there a protection element within Typekit to prevent this from happening?

Typekit fonts are not downloaded in the traditional sense. When a font is synced, it shows up seamlessly in all desktop applications, but the user does not have access to the font file. When a font is used for web, it is hosted through Typekit and bundled in a kit. In both cases, the user is not handling the actual font file. This mitigates misuse, and has proven to be reassuring to our foundry partners.

Why did you decide to work with The Northern Block? When choosing typefaces to be included in Typekit, what is the driving forces or criteria needed when making the final decision and selection?

We are very selective with our additions, and have created a submission review committee for this purpose. When we get a new inquiry, we spend time looking at each font file closely and focus on these factors: Do we find the design pleasing? Does this design offer something unique in our library? Does the typeface have a good character set, with attention given to accented characters? Does the typeface make good use of OpenType features? Once we go through this process for each font, we make a decision about the foundry as a whole.

We were happy to include fonts from The Northern Block as you have developed a well-rounded collection with the modern graphic designer in mind.

Thank you for the kind words. And lastly, where do you see subscription fonts going in the future?

In the future, I see this as the primary way for individuals and agencies to get the fonts they need. There have been many subscription services popping up in the last few years, and this seems to be the new way forward rather than a trend. I imagine that more and more foundries will choose to distribute their fonts this way. 

The use of a font subscription will allow you to spread the cost of buying a font, have access to a broad range of font libraries without the big price tag and have the freedom to experiment with designs before potentially choosing to buy the fonts you like outright.  

Do you think font subscriptions are the way forward? Please email us with your feedback to [email protected]

A special thank you to Ariadne from Adobe for answering my questions.

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Oyko - A typeface that puts the grid back in the grid.

It doesn't seem that long ago I was battling for supremacy on the Atari 2600 trying to defend the earth from an alien invasion, or avoid demolition in an asteroid field. Those early days of 8-bit computer games seem a galaxy away from the cutting edge video game interfaces of today. What my friends and I didn't grasp back then is that those initial experiences of computer gaming would become incredibly useful nearly three decades later producing typefaces used by some of the world's leading video game titles.

My latest design Oyko which is Tokyo spelled backward with the 'T' removed is a no-nonsense grid-based typeface that follows the 90 and 45-degree rules much like Wim Crowell Gridnik but has plenty of the type designers craft to take it off the grid and make it readable in smaller point sizes.

The design is sharper and tougher than it's predecessors such as Borda and Metral and is better suited for more high impact first person interfaces. The type family is made up of five purposefully designed weights that do what they are intended to do within immersive gaming content.

For further details, please visit: Behance

Written by Jonathan Hill

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Kylo Sans - Type Family

Don't you just love the word 'Obi-Wan Kenobi'? Not only does it sound seductively brilliant when mentioned by Princess Leia in Star Wars but it looks fantastic written out in our latest typeface Kylo Sans. Despite the name coming from the most recent dark side Jedi Kylo Ren the inspiration for the type design originates from a similar source to Obi-Wan Kenobi. George Lucas took the name 'Kenobi' from a character in Yojimbo a film by Akira Kurosawa. The Japanese film director has had a significant influence on my type design work going to a more expressive and dynamic style reflected in designs Kuro and Itoya. I did originally look close at Meta by Erik Spiekermann for clues in a more rational construction, but the Eastern force was strong within Kylo, and the design became more striking with a square curvature, sharper angles, and a free spirit.

Kylo Sans is part one of a complex type system expect in the future a more dynamic alternative that may best be suited to the dark side.

For further details and to buy Kylo Sans please visit http://www.thenorthernblock.co.uk/fonts/kylo-sans

Written by Jonathan Hill 

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The Northern Block team having lunch at Close House Golf Club & Hotel.

via- instagram/northernblock : https://www.instagram.com/northernblock/

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Halcom featured in @Hiiibrand Hiii Typography 2015 Competition http://www.hiiibrand.com/competion.php?act=lwmd&id=24 

Halcom is a modern sans serif typeface inspired by the historic geometric’s of the 1920’s, specifically Futura. The design is not a simple pastiche of what went before this is much more than that. It is a close investigation to how Futura inspired other type designs like Avenir and helped push the boundary of what is a modern typeface of its generation. Overlaying perfect geometric shapes careful adjustment is made for each character and each corner to a point of balance between pure mathematics and optical correctness. -via The Northern Block Website

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Fantastic news! We are happy to announce Halcom by Jonathan Hill has received a Silver Award in the Hiiibrand Typography 2015: Latin Typeface category !

To Read More about Halcom, visit us at: http://thenorthernblock.co.uk/fonts/halcom/

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New Feature! Like to 'Try Before You Buy'? We have now introduced trial fonts to our website.To request a trial font completely free of charge visit us here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1BTzrQJ0FkjPxAhjG8sou-g_yj7lpDvLhtW6EHzFWx_U/viewform?c=0&w=1

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In homage to Star Wars, our Eund font was recently featured on the packaging for Star Wars: The Black Series Collectibles view more details at http://thenorthernblock.co.uk/fonts/eund/  & of course: #MayTheFourthBeWithYou

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Got a favourite font of ours? 50% Off Our Entire Font Library @YouWorkForThem Don't Miss Out! 

https://www.youworkforthem.com/designer/94/the-northern-block

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Hoxton North came out of the concept to create something distinctly British, drawing on modernist influences such as Edward Johnston's typeface for the London Underground and Gill Sans.

A humanistic san serif typeface with a British modern quality. Open forms with subtle contrast promote good readability across a wide range of media in both print and screen. The compact letterforms give it a strong lateral dynamic that is space efficient across design layouts. Details include 620 characters, seven weights with true italics, small caps, manually edited kerning and Opentype features. View more at The Northern Block & Behance

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We’ve been featured! YouWorkForThem has interviewed The Northern Block’s founder, Jonathan Hill. See the full interview at YouWorkForThem’s Blog

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Our Modum font has been featured in PAGE Magazine Issue 04.2016 for “Alternative choices to using Times New Roman”.

Big thanks for featuring us!

View Modum on our website at The Northern Block