Custom
Typeface

A custom typeface for the world’s most ‘hyped’ technology: AI.

Developed in conjunction with Luke & Jody at Pentagram London, we designed a variable type system as a key storytelling tool. In 2021, Cohere approached Pentagram with a challenge – to create a visual identity that could bring language AI (also known as natural language processing or NLP) out of the realm of bleeding-edge, experimental tech and into today’s business needs.

Centred on the concept of ‘new nature’, the brand identity introduced the fluidity and imperfections of nature to the rationality and efficiency of computing. As language is the central element of Cohere’s DNA, it was only natural that the brand expresses itself through a custom typeface.

Cohere’s new custom typeface included headline, outline, text and mono styles, with the former sharing a faux mono style in reference to the digital, code-centric world the brand is part of. Keeping key elements characteristic of a typewriter typeface (serifed /i, /j and /r), they have more balanced proportions than their monospace counterparts, relating directly to the human (language) and organic side of Cohere’s world. Doubling down on this relation to natural human language, the typefaces show slightly rounded corners, offering them warmth at small and large scales.

We programmed the Headline version to feature characters with Voronoi cell cuts automatically dispersed through the characters as you type, alongside a variable version that allows precise control over the weight, number and placement of cuts. Our time axis allows the animation of the appearance and disappearance, as well as the movement of said cuts, showing the font at the middle point between the living cells and machinery.

Custom Typeface
Year: 2022
Client: Cohere

Agency: Pentagram
Team:  NaN (Luke Prowse, Jean-Baptiste Morizot, Florian Runge), Pentagram (Jody Hudson-Powell, Luke Powell, Ceri Stock, Helena Postigomatey, Jonathan Quaade, Amy Joycey, Lou Hisbergue)
Images: Pentagram