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Design Category
Information design, 1996
Design firm
Interactive Bureau (New York, New York)
Collection
(1997) Design of Understanding 2
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The Font Bureau’s Internet website was designed to present and sell the company’s products (typefaces), and services (custom type design) to an audience ranging from curious novices seeking little more than entertainment to veteran design professionals requiring types “immediately!” In addition, the site was designed to function as an interface to the company’s confidential intranet activities.
With these goals, and the desire on the part of the Font Bureau to present itself online but once and concentrate forever after on content development, the information was presented to present few options on each page, to strongly segregate the content and navigation, and to allow for unlimited growth as the content of the site is enriched.
As the primary visual elements of the site are type-rich graphics, text, and type specimen, the strategy was to maintain the simplest interface in terms of typefaces, colors, and icons. Each page is designed with a framework based on the simple familiar form of highway signage, completing the image by using the Font Bureau’s Interstate typeface family.