David Rudnick on "borderline impossible" process of designing Arsenal typeface

I don't know that I got anything out of this other than that it took a long time. I think there is an interesting article to be written on this. Like, what were the concrete requirements? Why were those the requirements? Maybe show how one letter evolved over time as the project went on, and explain why.

But instead the article is effectively the Gravitational Pull of Pepsi[0].

[0] https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell...

MyFonts (I'm not affiliated to it) has a visual search for fonts, and searching for this design yields 94 results that are not identical but collectively share the same patterns. Now, fonts are horrible when it comes to licensing. Like, in this case, a font I picked has a 2M page view limit per month and you pay $660/year for that highest tier, so I get why a company would find a custom font a reasonable decision, visually and/or financially. But 4.5 years is absurd.

Is it me or are typeface designers some of the most pretentious people in tech? And that's a really high bar.

Never thought I'd see my team on HN but I really love the changes Arsenal has done. I remember only 10 years ago, we were super corporate and quite trend chasing (with our captain Aubameyang et al. doing reaction videos and sweg sweg) and you could really tell the messaging was supposed to be sanitised and generic. I noticed esp. when Arteta got in, we started to actually have an identity of our own with the typefaces and a brand new song and all the focus on our history etc.

Forget the typeface you can't even get the website with this monstrosity of cookie selection panel.

Speaking of ludicrous displays, it kinda looks like Fraktur.

Not as readable as the old typeface (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_F.C.#/media/File:Arsen...)

edit: Wikipedia has a whole section on the crests and typefaces: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_F.C.#Crest

It's nice that he got work for four years, I guess

White on red, with a stripe of red through the white.

Obviously a Spurs supporter.

Whatever typeface they're using on this website is kind of awful. It's got totally random weights on different parts of the letters. Look at the bottom of the e for example.

"The ask was this: How do you make a typeface for when Arsenal shows up in culture? For those moments when football leaves the frenetic energy of the match, when it then collides and harmonises with the worlds of fashion, art, music and more."

Arsenal fans are insufferable.

COYG!