Daytona: More Than a Friendly Face

While efficient typographic communication was basic to its design brief, the Daytona™ typeface family was also drawn to be a friendly and approachable design. Its rounded corners, open counters and simple characters shapes invite reading and foster memorability. Jim Wasco first sketched many of the letters with traditional sans serif design traits such as “stroke tails” and “character spurs,” but he decided that Daytona would be a more affable design if shapes were distilled to their simplest forms.

While “geniality” was an important design consideration for Wasco, he also wanted a typeface that was legible and versatile. “I kept letter proportions narrow for economy of space,” he confirms, “and gave characters ample spacing for ease of readability.” Wasco also gave the cap I and J serif-like appendages, drew the R with a large bowl and short leg, and constructed the T with a slightly truncated crossbar to alleviate traditional spacing issues with these characters.

Wasco has many years of experience developing typefaces for digital use in everything from game consoles and e-readers to human/machine interface (HMI) devices. As a result of the design considerations Wasco incorporated into the Daytona family, it is also able to perform well in a wide variety of video and on screen environments.

When asked about the potential uses of Daytona, Wasco replied, “because of its high level of legibility, Daytona would be a good design for display usage in a user interface. This includes everything from automotive digital dashboards to mobile phones and GPS devices.” Wasco also drew a suite of condensed designs that are ideal for both print and on-screen applications where space is at a premium.

The new designs are available as desktop fonts from Fonts.com, as well as Web fonts through the Fonts.com Web Fonts service. As a special introductory offer, you can get all 18 fonts of the complete Daytona family for just $99. Be sure to pick up this great new release now!