![]() ![]() Williams says so far the most practical use case for the typeface has been as a way to test for font normalization. Right now, TTS uses Public Sans in its own internal documentation, websites, and design assets, though it’s being used on some federal sites already like. “I hope that I’m simply launching this craft, not necessarily steering it to its eventual destinations,” he says. He figures that over time, Public Sans will shift and morph given that it’s an open-source font. Eventually, Williams would like to release a variable version. “I like the lowercase ‘a,’ and found it quite amusing to see the effect of different curves on its appearance,” he says, “how the dejected penguin of a lowercase ‘a’ can look more or less jaunty depending on the carriage of its tummy.”Ĭurrently, Public Sans comes in nine weights, ranging from 100-900, in roman and italic. Even with the font’s determined practicality, Williams wanted to make sure Public Sans had some personality. To get there, Williams and his team replaced the rounded terminals on Libre Franklin with sharper edges that feel Hevetican in their precision. ![]() In the words of its designers, it was created with as “few quirks as possible.” The typeface is meant to be neutral, legible, and consistent like a system font. Like Libre Franklin, Public Sans has a friendly, but no-nonsense demeanor. Public Sans is a not-so-subtle homage to Libre Franklin, an open-source update from Impallari Type to Morris Fuller Benton’s 1912 Franklin Gothic. What are its distinguishing characteristics? The name nods to the fact that the typeface is free and open-source for the public. “I was able to experiment with type design when I was taking a break from other kinds of design work.” The typeface launched this spring with the rollout of USWDS 2.0. “Design work, at least for me, happens in fits and starts,” he explains. “We began work on primarily as a design exercise.”īecause Public Sans wasn’t pitched as a long-term project with a specific use case, Williams spent the next two years designing the typeface in his off-hours. “Libre Franklin was so close to our desired design that adapting it felt achievable,” he says. Something like Libre Franklin-only more modern. He recalls that his team was constantly on the lookout for a font that was simple, readable, and mostly traditional. The overall governmental design system still was (and is to this day) using Merriweather and Source Sans Pro as its default fonts, but Williams thought a custom typeface might come in handy internally or on projects his team was handling like. During his downtime, Williams, who is now a product lead on the USWDS project, began exploring what a custom typeface for the USWDS might look like. But funnily enough, designing a new typeface was never part of the plan.ĭuring this time, Dan Williams was a consultant with TTS, where he was helping with the initial USWDS roll out across websites like the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor (today, the USWDS is used by more than 200 government websites). The USWDS was an ambitious project created, in short, to usher in a more usable and modern era of government digital products. Web Design System (USWDS)-a library of code, tools, fonts, and best practices created to help designers across the government sector build reliable and consistent websites. Digital Service and the government’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) released the first version of the U.S. The seed for Public Sans was planted back in 2015 when the U.S. It is a typeface perfect for designers and brands that are looking for clarity and adaptability, without sacrificing the identity.ĭesigners: Maria Doreuli.Organization/Foundry: Technology Transformation Services Simplicity doesn’t need dozens of weights, widths and styles, so CoFo Sans comes in 7 individual and carefully drawn weights: Hairline, Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, Bold and Black. ![]() The strong squareness of the shapes and a trace of industrial functionality are mixed in the designer’s intuition, to make CoFo Sans unique. It’s simple and pure, and at the same time, you cannot escape the designer’s personal view. It’s a subtle mix of ideas, creating a solid base for a workhorse sans, without stripping away the character. It’s not purely geometric, or even based on a specific model. It is our perception of a perfect balance between simplicity and personality. CoFo Sans is based on the idea of harmony between rationality and emotion, and between Latin and Cyrillic. Simplicity in type design is the most difficult task, and yet there are so many sans serifs that are promoted as completely neutral and perfectly universal. CoFo Sans is a clean sans serif with a soul. ![]()
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