There cannot be that many corporations on the earth which have a devoted typographer, however Spotify is considered one of them. I used to be fortunate sufficient to satisfy Bianca Berning, Spotify’s employees typographer at Frontify’s convention, Paradigms, in Morocco lately, after we caught up after her speak.We spoke about all the things from her first steps in typography to adapting kind for various cultures and her recommendation for budding kind designers.For extra from Paradigms 2025, see my chat with Koto’s James Greenfield.
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Bianca BerningSocial Hyperlinks NavigationStaff typographer, SpotifyBianca is a designer specialising in typography, kind design, and sort know-how. Presently, she is a employees typographer engaged on Encore, Spotify’s design system, the place she drives innovation in typography in cross-platform product experiences. Earlier than becoming a member of Spotify, Bianca led artistic path on model typefaces and complicated kind techniques for international corporations like Amazon, BBC, FedEx, Certainly, and Google whereas at Dalton Maag.How did you get into typography?I did my communication design diploma in Germany, with a give attention to typography. Again then, it was nearly textual content structure for print. I made this large newspaper as a part of my dissertation, and I struggled with the sort. I used to be attempting to select a font that will work for my challenge, and I reached out to foundries and was similar to, ‘can I take advantage of this in my dissertation’? A number of foundries are cool about these kinds of requests.However the one which I actually, actually wished, they got here again and stated, ‘No, you actually gotta pay a full licence’. I used to be similar to, ‘okay, I’ll pay the license, however can I modify a number of the letters to be able to make it swimsuit my challenge even higher?’. And so they shut me down. That intrigued me. It made me wish to perceive how kind is made. So I went to the UK after my dissertation, and I did my Grasp’s in typeface design. The intention was all the time to return to graphic design and simply be that one that is aware of a bit bit extra about kind design. I by no means made my approach again. I obtained sucked in. I joined Dalton Maag proper out of college, and stayed there for over a decade, making model typefaces for many large corporations, after which I ended up with Spotify wanting on the identical type of issues, however from the opposite aspect.
(Picture credit score: Paradigms)How essential is kind to Spotify?Necessary sufficient to rent a typographer. I do know that the crew behind Spotify’s design system, Encore, cares hundreds. For many corporations, typography is a aspect challenge. So usually, design techniques designers or product designers who know a bit bit about typography would deal with typographic bugs on the aspect. Their day job is constructing UIs, so if a bug pops up, they repair it as greatest as they will or attain out to an exterior foundry to deal with it.At Spotify, they realised that typography should not be a aspect projectAnd I believe at Spotify, they realised that it should not be a aspect challenge in upkeep mode. Textual content is in all places and it’s essential sufficient to get somebody in that may do all of this upkeep, the entire bug fixing stuff, but in addition look into innovation. Somebody who can have a look at how we are able to use kind within the product a bit bit extra deliberately? How can we be a bit bit extra excellent? How can we be good at typography?My line supervisor, Juli Sombat, was the one which made the case for my place. It didn’t exist earlier than 2022 after I arrived.. And he or she and her supervisor are very, very effectively educated in typography, and to date they haven’t regretted hiring a typographer, so far as I do know. I believe there’s an appreciation for this stage of typographic care in numerous pockets inside Spotify, however particularly within the UI half.How do you guarantee that the sort that you just use is culturally related?We’ve obtained loads happening. We’re in 192 markets, and we localise the product in 74 languages. And most of these languages are actually coated by our customized fonts that we rolled out final 12 months.That was an enormous collaboration between totally different groups inside Spotify and an exterior kind foundry, Dinamo. All of us got here collectively and labored out a short that we felt hit the spot and mirrored the vibrancy and creativity of the Spotify neighborhood. And we’ll proceed to place this stage of care into each language and each script we assist.Has AI modified the way in which that you just work?It’s helped a bit bit, however principally within the background. Working with kind and typography within the sort of context that I am working in, it made a few of my processes loads simpler. So for instance, after we replace a font, it is as a rule as a result of we discovered a bug within the font. Think about we discovered that our lowercase ‘i’ is lacking its tittle and we make an replace to the font and wish to roll it out, there’s this entire course of that I am going by way of to be able to guarantee that the one change that we make to the font is the one which was meant and we don’t break anything. That was once fairly a handbook course of.I’m not a programmer or developer in any respect, however AI helped me construct a instrument the place I can pull within the previous font and the brand new one and it does a lot of the work for me. I get a visible comparability, I get overlays, after which I get a technical aspect by aspect that claims, ‘these items modified within the new file. Did you imply to do that?’It is extra just like the background processes, the tedious duties, that I am attempting to make use of AI forThis instrument is a WIP but it surely already not solely quickens my very own processes, but it surely’s additionally meant to help my colleagues if I am ever away for an extended time and so they may want to select up my work. None of them essentially have my stage of expertise in kind or working with fonts.So for his or her profit, I hooked it up with ChatGPT, and prompted it to clarify in plain language what these adjustments are to allow them to make a judgment on whether or not that was meant or not with out having to learn a ton of actually wordy specs about font codecs. So it is extra just like the background processes, the tedious duties, that I am attempting to make use of AI for, and on this case, it helped me each construct the instrument, and I take advantage of it to provide extra context to the findings in case any person else wants to make use of it.Each day design information, critiques, how-tos and extra, as picked by the editors.Do you have got a favourite font? I get this query loads. I like a font with a objective. Occasions New Roman is an efficient instance, it was designed for newspaper design, and I believe it really works brilliantly in newspaper print however feels totally misplaced practically in all places else. I respect the thought that went into it and the design choices that they made to be able to significantly swimsuit newspaper print. What recommendation would you give to those that wish to get into kind?Exit and have a look at as many issues as attainable. Even when they’re not associated to kind in any respect. I really feel like I get my largest inspiration simply being out and about indicators on buildings, or absorbing totally different cultures.It is advisable take up as many issues as possibleMorocco is simply so visually inspiring to me, as a result of I see stuff that I do not see if I stroll round London, for instance, and I believe that’s much more essential than simply sitting in entrance of your laptop attempting to reinvent the wheel.It is advisable let issues sink in and take up as many various issues as attainable. That’s what results in much more innovation in kind than one other reinvention of Helvetica.Discover out extra about Spotify and Paradigms.
