#07 Aeroko by Monotype
Q1: Where did the idea for the typeface come from? Did you set out to address a specific use or suite of the application? Was this a design you’d had in mind for a while?
Ans: Before Aeroko I had worked on a few elegant serif fonts, so I really wanted to switch and do something in the opposite direction: squarish and mechanical. We set up a clear brief: to design a typeface for the sports genre. The biggest challenge was to define what that actually means. What are the shapes that express high energy, power, agility, strength, flexibility? I started by sketching on paper and played around with the balance between squareness and roundness. I wanted to create something solid and boxy, but also expressive, with a human touch.
Q2: What should graphic communicators know about the typeface, or how will the family of fonts help them create better designs?
Ans: Aeroko’s underlining design principle is to fill up space as much as possible :) The x-height is extremely exaggerated and the extenders are short, so that words and lines have the same boxy appearance as each letterform. Put that together with the full range of weights and widths, you have a powerful and vivid type system that can be used in many ways.
Aeroko looks high-tech and mechanical at a first glance. But with a closer look you will notice all the little quirks, like the sharp cuts and the softly curved terminals, that make the typeface so distinctive.