3 minute read
ROBOTO SLAB
DESIGNER BIO Christian Robertson
Christian Robertson received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design at Brigham Young University and then went on to be the visual design director for Punchcut, an experience design company. After Punchcut, he started working at Google in 2010 and then created Roboto in 2011 and Roboto Slab in 2013.
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Robertson has also helped release the Ubuntu-Title typeface. He did this through his own type foundry called Betatype, located in San Francisco, California, which is where Robertson is also from.
Robertson is currently still working at Google as an Android Visual Designer and at Betatype. Christian Robertson also has a family and in his off time enjoys tending to his garden and tomato plants.
DESIGNER TIMELINE
2001 Graduates from Brigham Young University
2005 Visual Design Director at Punchcut
2010 Android Visual Designer at Google
2011 Creation of Roboto for Android operating system
2013 Release of Roboto Slab
2020 Robertson works at Google and Betatype, his type foundry.
Rbto Characteristics
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890
Roboto Slab is a neo-grotesque slab serif typeface that was originally created as a default typeface for Google. Because it is a slab serif, the serifs in this typeface are large and are about the same width as the rest of the letters. What makes this typeface unique to others is that its serifs have slight, diagonal brackets that connect the serifs to the rest of the letter. This component makes the typeface more welcoming and playful than other slab serif typefaces that have no brackets between their serifs.
The overall cap height of these letters is also very large, which means that if someone is designing with this typeface, they should choose a smaller point size than they would normally for subheads and headlines, for instance. Since Roboto Slab also has a large character and body width, this typeface should not be used for body copy because
Diagonal brackets
No serifs on crossbars or arms No serifs on tails
these heights, along with the large serifs, make this typeface difficult to read at a small scale.
Roboto Slab also carries no serif with its crossbars or arms, as seen in E, F, t, and f. The tail on the uppercase Q also contains no serif. This typeface also has very large counters and eyes and fairly small vertex spaces and crotch angles.
In terms of the overall sizing of Roboto Slab, the lowercase letters have a very high x-height, and small ascender and descender highs, compared to other slab serif typefaces. The thin, extra light and light weights should also only be used for large scale pieces and sizes because the stems and arms of these weights are very thin and most strokes could be considered hairline strokes.
ROBOTO SLAB WEIGHTS
Ascender X-height Cap-height Gpb
Descender
R R R R R R Thin Light Regular Medium Bold Black
Strokes taper when bowl meets stems Large bowls, counters, and eyes Small vertex and crotches
the story,
Utily Sans is a contemporary sans serif typeface hailing from the type foundry LatinoType. It is the collaboration between Argentinian type designer Alfonso García and Venezuelan type designer Rodrigo Fuenzalida, and was released in 2019. Utily Sans itself is based off of geometric forms much like Futura, but has a very notable inclination toward humanism.
The intention of Utily Sans was to be a versatile typeface that can work well for anything from editorial design to packaging, and both body and display text. It was also designed with the intention of being used for branding and identity that requires fluid design cohesion when dealing with varying media and print options. This is easily supported by its wide range of weights and OpenType options.
Utily Sans was born from the question,
