Airbnb's new typeface • Hacker News Board

Re: Airbnb's new typeface

#21

Post by invalidusernam3 » Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:38 PM UTC

"We have specific business needs around brand distinction, legibility, and scalability, that no available typefaces were addressing"

The font looks almost identical to a lot of other sans fonts.

Re: Airbnb's new typeface

#22

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:39 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb's new typeface

#23

Post by baal232 » Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:39 PM UTC

I liken this to a hotel that decides to make their own lightbulbs. Or a department store that produces it's own bespoke cash registers.

You can't argue that typography is so vital to their business that this is a useful allocation of resources. Obviously, design is important to any company that markets itself in some way. But not every company designs their own typeface (although it seems like it, lately.)

Some are saying it's important for AirBnB to have their own distinct look, and that requires a custom typeface. BS. Plenty of successful companies managed to create a distinct brand identity using helvetica.

https://99designs.com/blog/creative-inspiration/famous-logos...

Some are saying it's cheaper to make your own typeface than to license one. Really? There are no cheaper typefaces that look suitable? (I'm not saying this is impossible. I'm genuinely curious. Is that how bad it is?)

We have open source typography. Are none of those fonts suitable for their purpose? Can any of them be improved by the designers at AirBnB? That sounds like it would be cheaper than starting from scratch.

I care about beautiful typography as much as the next web designer / marketer / start up-whatever. But I also know how a business runs. And this seems like something the business should not focus on. Tell me I'm wrong.

Re: Airbnb's new typeface

#24

Post by kossae » Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:40 PM UTC

huac wrote: post #7

iblo66 wrote: post #3

I find it profoundly stupid for Airbnb to have their own typeface. It's like they have lots of designers around and have to keep them busy with something. Well at least they did not give them the usual entertainment for bored designers: redesigning stuff that does not need a redesign.

Creating a typeface which you own is cheaper than licensing a third-party typeface, at scale.

This is likely the reason. I forget the article/post, but I recall reading about this on HN a while back. Basically the licensing for fonts across all platforms can become very costly, so developing a typeface in house becomes an appealing choice once your designs are in front of X number of people (commercial/web/print/etc).

Re: Airbnb's new typeface

#25

Post by aristocles » Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:44 PM UTC

This font is the definition of frivolous corporate idiocy.

Re: Airbnb's new typeface

#26

Post by baal232 » Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:46 PM UTC

enra wrote: post #20

One of the people involved in the project and answering questions in the article. Happy to answer more questions. We talk about reasoning for Cereal in the article and in my case study too[1]. In large organizations, you often have tens or hundreds of designers, support multiple platforms (ios, android, web(mac, windows, linux) and do ad campaigns around the world. When it comes to typefaces, there really isn't any u…

> If you use different fonts on each platform, the design will be slightly different

Oh no, the fonts will look different on different devices! Better commission a custom font.

Back in the day, we just accepted that was how the web worked.

Jokes aside, I see why you'd want consistency across devices and print. But what's wrong with using an open source typeface, or modifying one for your purposes?

> and other brands can easily buy the same things.

Why do you think a unique font is essential for branding? Some well known fonts are in use by many companies.

Re: Airbnb's new typeface

#27

Post by brailsafe » Tue, May 15, 2018, 7:49 PM UTC

invalidusernam3 wrote: post #21

"We have specific business needs around brand distinction, legibility, and scalability, that no available typefaces were addressing" The font looks almost identical to a lot of other sans fonts.

The difference between a fontset that looks similar and a fontset that solves for all the business requirements can be vast. Cereal appears to be extremely versatile and distinct in a few key areas. You don't need a custom font to distinguish your brand from others, but you probably do if you're going to be using that one typeface for every damn thing in every damn scenario.