Changes to Campus Typography Standards
A few months ago, SMB surveyed campus designers to learn if our current typography standards were meeting their needs and to understand how the various brand fonts were being used. For the most part, the feedback we got was very positive. However, we did uncover a couple of typefaces that were underperforming and should be replaced.
Source Serif Pro presented some accessibility issues on web, and our condensed font, Fjalla One, was found to be too condensed and posed some issues with legibility. Fjalla One also has only one weight, limiting its usefulness in design.
As a result of our research, we have replaced Source Serif Pro with Georgia and Fjalla One with Open Sans Condensed.
Georgia was designed based on the letterforms of Garamond but has been optimized for the digital world. Though it has a smaller family of weights, it is a clear and legible serif that will serve the University for years to come.
Open Sans Condensed provides more weights – Regular, Italic and Bold – and is less condensed, allowing it to be used more frequently. It is also optimized for legibility across print and digital mediums. Open Sans does have a full family of fonts; however, we will only be utilizing the condensed weights of this typeface
Along with the new typefaces, our typography page now provides more defined brand standards. We’ve outlined where each font should be used, shown multiple examples of each font in action, provided type pairing samples, and defined a list of replacement fonts. We understand that sometimes brand fonts are not available in certain programs. Only use replacement fonts in these instances.
Also on the typography page, you’ll find some guidance for leading and tracking, type as a graphic element, web fonts, athletics typography and more!
If you have any questions or want more insight, please reach out to marketing@illinois.edu.