About Fontsmith
Fontsmith is a leading boutique type foundry with a complete font design and production service. Founded in 1997 by Jason Smith and known for creating fonts with a distinctively human character, Fontsmith is a truly international team of designers working from a studio in central London.
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Fontsmith is a type design company based in London. Our international team of designers are driven by an independent, bespoke attitude to font creation. We pride ourselves on our deep understanding of form, craft and detail and how these impact on communication in all its visual forms.
We’ve developed a strong library of beautiful fonts, which we own and licence to designers, advertisers and brands. And, we’re constantly crafting and adding new fonts to keep our body of work fresh and relevant.
We’ve also developed a powerful service offer, centred around good design and custom licensing that helps us deliver exactly what our clients need.
Design
A significant proportion of our work is the design of bespoke fonts for companies and brands across a huge number of sectors. We have earned a strong reputation in this area because we commit serious time to R&D, to ensure that we stay ahead of design movements and technological advances. This foundation keeps our work on target, on brand and gives our fonts real longevity.
We also work on logo design for some of our clients who want to tap in to our practiced visual finesse and knowledge of the specific dynamics of letterforms.
Design is at the very heart of what we do, which is probably why many of our clients are design and branding consultancies.
Technology
Technology has brought a positive change for us and the industries we serve. But the core principles remain - fonts must be legible, communicate well, have personality, articulate ideas and above all, be totally unique.
The huge growth in information simply means that we need more variety and a greater choice. All this makes it more difficult for brands to differentiate. But these are the things that fire us up. The need to constantly invent and re-invent and the march of technology are the forces that motivate and shape what we do.
All this is delivered with a practical, flexible approach to licensing that is designed to make things simple and cost-effective for our clients.
Clients & Awards
Awards
- Lost & Foundry (Creative Circle Gold 2019)
- European Design Awards, Silver (FS Neruda 2019)
- European Design Awards, Bronze (FS Irwin 2018)
- Print Typography and Lettering Award (FS Siena 2017)
- Red Dot Award (FS Brabo 2016)
- Red Dot Award (FS Untitled playground 2016)
- European Design Award, Gold (FS Brabo 2016)
- Creative Pool Annual (FS Millbank 2016)
- Tipos Latinos (FS Brabo 2016)
- D&AD (FS Millbank 2015)
- Red Dot Award (FS Millbank 2015)
- D&AD, In Book Awards (Channel 4 2004, FS Me 2009 & FS Emeric 2014)
- Red Dot Award (FS Emeric 2014)
- ISTD Award (FS Emeric 2014)
- European Design Award, Bronze (FS Emeric 2013)
- Tipos Latinos (FS Jack 2012 & FS Pimlico 2012)
- DBA Design Effectiveness Award, Silver (10 Years In Type)
Selected Clients
- BBC
- Channel 4
- ITV
- Mencap
- Nike
- Post Office
- RNIB
- Saudi Aramco
- Sky
- Northern Ireland
- Telefonica
- Xerox
Agencies
- 4Creative
- Design Bridge
- Dixon Baxi
- ITV Creative
- Landor Associates
- M&C Saatchi
- ManvsMachine
- Rudd Studio
- Red Bee Media
- Rufus Leonard
- The Partners
- Thompson Brand Partners
- Transport Design Consultancy
