Why custom type matters
Typography is one of the few parts of a brand that is present almost everywhere.
Logos come and go. Campaigns change. Images change. But type carries the brand’s voice every day — across websites, packaging, advertising, publications, interfaces, signage and everything in between.
When a brand uses an off-the-shelf typeface, that voice is shared. Other companies can use exactly the same forms, proportions and character. That is not necessarily a problem, but for brands looking to build stronger recognition, it can be a missed opportunity.
A custom typeface allows the typography to grow directly from the identity itself — its personality, history, audience, values and the way it needs to communicate. The real value is not simply having something unique. It is having something recognisable.
Over time, the shapes, rhythm and character of the type become familiar. The brand can begin to feel like itself even before the logo appears. And because the typeface is designed around the way the organisation actually works, it can also solve practical problems: different weights, languages, digital environments, editorial use, motion, signage or whatever the identity requires.
The typeface stops being something added to the brand. It becomes part of the brand.
What S6 can do
There are different ways to arrive at a custom typeface.
Sometimes an existing S6 family already has the right foundations. In that case, we can adapt it for the identity — redrawing characters, changing proportions, developing new weights or styles, or introducing details that make the typeface much more specific to the brand.
For other projects, the right answer is to start from nothing.
In that case, the typeface is developed around the identity from the beginning: its structure, proportions, personality and family are created specifically for the way the brand needs to speak.
The Kitchen and Field are good examples of how different those outcomes can be.
The Kitchen needed a more expressive typographic character, something that could move naturally from the identity into the physical experience of the brand.
Field called for something quieter and more controlled, where proportion, spacing and restraint carry much of the identity.
That difference matters.
Custom type should not make every client look like S6. It should make every client look more like themselves.
Much of our commissioned type work is developed within confidential branding projects. We understand how important commercial privacy is, and we treat that trust as part of the relationship with every client.
