Typeface Design — Kern Grotesque

A custom grotesque typeface designed for a technology company's rebrand, covering four weights with matching italics.

Background

The client had been using a popular geometric sans that felt increasingly generic as it spread across the tech industry. They wanted something that felt contemporary but owned — a typeface that couldn't be mistaken for anyone else's.

Design Decisions

Kern Grotesque is rooted in the grotesque tradition — ink traps, slightly uneven stroke weights, a double-storey 'g' — but modernized for screen-first use. The x-height is tall, improving legibility at small sizes. The apertures are open, preventing ambiguity between similar characters.

The italic is a true italic rather than an oblique, with calligraphic roots visible in the 'a', 'f', and 'k'. This gives the italic genuine personality without disrupting the family's overall rationalism.

Delivery

Four weights (Light, Regular, Medium, Bold) with matching italics across Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic character sets. OpenType features include case-sensitive punctuation, lining and old-style figures, discretionary ligatures, and fractions.