Custom Typefaces
Alongside our retail library, we design custom typefaces for brands, institutions, and agencies. Recent work includes ServiceNow Sans, a corporate type system built for ServiceNow as part of the brand redesign led by Instrument.
What we design
- Custom typeface families for brands and institutions
- Corporate type systems across sans, serif, and mono
- Variable fonts for digital products and interfaces
- Bespoke logos, wordmarks, and lettering
- Extensions of existing typefaces — weights, italics, additional scripts
- Exclusive and semi-exclusive licences of our retail typefaces
- Type direction and technical font consulting
How a commission works
Every project starts with a conversation about what the type actually has to do — where it will be set, in which languages, next to what else. From there we sketch a small number of directions, narrow to one, and draw it out: masters, italics, spacing, and the character set the brief needs. Production, kerning, and mastering are handled with long-standing specialists, so the files you receive are tested and ready for production. Delivery includes the fonts in every format you need, the source files where agreed, and documentation for the people who will use them.
A typical family runs three to nine months depending on scope. Smaller pieces — a wordmark, a display cut, an extension of an existing family — are usually a matter of weeks. We work on a fixed project fee agreed up front, with the copyright and licence terms written to fit how you actually plan to use the type.
Why commission a typeface
A custom typeface is the one brand asset that cannot be copied off the shelf. It removes recurring licence fees across large teams, it is drawn for the exact media you publish in, and it carries a brand further than a colour or a layout grid ever does. For products it also solves problems retail type is not built for: tabular figures that line up in your tables, an interface weight tuned to your rendering, an icon set drawn on the same skeleton as the letters.
Selected work
ServiceNow Sans — custom corporate typeface, 2025
A bespoke corporate typeface for ServiceNow, art directed by Instrument. A geometric sans in text, display, and mono cuts, 813 characters, covering more than 200 languages.
Start a project
Tell us what you are working on — the brief, the timeline, and where the type has to live. Even a rough outline is enough for us to say what it would take.