Font Design Trends 2025: What Will Be Remembered?

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Last year was a time of experimentation, while 2025 has brought organization to these innovations. In this article, experts in the field of type design and typographic research analyzed and reflected on the trends that shaped the visual language of typography this year.

Type.today Magazine

— Last year, studios tried to introduce a rather naive ban on the use of fonts for training artificial intelligence into licenses, but now their interest has shifted to issues of machine learning.

In As part of the ECAL research program, Kai Bernau, Wayne Daly, Raphaela Haefliger, and Alice Savoie studied how type designers and engineers apply neural networks and machine learning technologies in their professional work. The I Love Typography project held an online conference dedicated to the interaction of artificial intelligence and typefaces. In addition, many other designers actively discussed the fonts that FontLab creator Yuri Yarmola created with ChatGPT on social media.

Among the fonts released this year, I especially like several examples, and, I admit, I'm a little biased. These are Backslanted by CSTM Fonts, Repose by Philipp Neumeier, and Lufta by Arina Shokareva.

Specialist in graphic and font design. An active member of the ESH Gruppa team, as well as Bolditalic studio, where he served as art director for the SovModno project.

The trend for universal grotesques appears to be gaining popularity, but the emphasis is shifting to a variety of details that give the neutral typeface expressiveness and character.

Denim, developed by Display Type Foundry, is a grotesque typeface with slightly squared oval shapes. However, the most interesting feature of the INK typeface is the subtle curves within the letters, which give the typeface a distinctly technical character. Meanwhile, MM Sign from Mockup Maison creates an effect inside the letters that resembles vinyl film cracked by the sun's rays.

Dinamo's ABC Pelikan font aligns uppercase and lowercase letters on the same line, giving it a modernist character. Pika, developed by Byurobookv, is also an interesting experiment with unicase. In this font, Cyrillic ascenders and descenders remain within the line, while having an expressive and smooth form.

Lit by Bolditalic is a font with intentionally varied character widths, which creates an unusual rhythm and adds a playful touch in the spirit of Art Deco. Nox by ESH Gruppa is a hotel typeface that transforms geometric shapes into display type by connecting letters with a single line, a nod to Arabic calligraphy.

Font and graphic designer with the fa-fa-fa.xyz project. He is a curator at the HSE School of Art and Design and Bang Bang Education.

Fonts continue to evolve with unflagging interest. The number of new projects, including student initiatives, is constantly increasing. New typographic studios are opening in the field of Cyrillic, and existing ones continue to develop - albeit not very quickly, but with steady progress. In the last two or three years, projects like Bolditalic, Byurobookv, and my studio have appeared on the market.

Custom typefaces have become a core element of visual identity for major brands. A striking example is the typeface created by Anna Khorash for the Flowwow service. On the one hand, there's a trend toward an increase in neutral corporate typefaces, which are becoming increasingly similar to one another. On the other hand, there's a growing diversity of expressive and display designs. Branding agencies such as Shuka, Ony, and Esh regularly develop fonts for various projects.

Every day, the need for decentralization and the development of specialized solutions—tools that effectively cope with specific tasks—is becoming increasingly obvious. The need is shifting from the search for a universal approach to the creation of customized tools. A font, in this context, is a customized tool: not a universal multi-tool, but a specialized tool designed for a specific task where traditional solutions prove insufficient.

Recent branding changes, such as the update of the Pechorin bakery and café, clearly demonstrate current trends. While just a few years ago, strict logos in geometric shapes dominated design, making many brands look similar and lacking character, now even large companies are emphasizing uniqueness, expanding their range of visual solutions. Perhaps in the future, this trend towards individuality will give way to a new stage characterized by calmer and more laconic fonts, but for now, the desire for expressiveness remains in the foreground.

Font designer, teacher and jury member at the Sreda design festival.

2025 has already pleased us with many new font releases, and I celebrate this in October, which is the most productive period for the release of new works.

It is pleasant to realize that paper font catalogs are becoming popular again. However, design studios do not set themselves the goal of reflecting the entire range of fonts on the pages. Instead, they focus on presenting font families and embodying their studio's philosophy and unique style in their work.

This opens up ample opportunities for experimentation with the form and structure of the catalog. My favorites include the Contrast Foundry catalog, which is designed like a children's toy book with elements representing burger ingredients, and the Specimen 2 Dinamo, which unwinds into a large poster reminiscent of the game Twister.

In the world of fonts, there are a number of stable trends that persist over a long period of time. However, fresh and unique developments regularly emerge in each of these areas.

Large typographic companies create extensive superfamilies of fonts, consisting of hundreds of variants—from very narrow and light to extremely wide and bold, including additional axes for slant and roundness.

Grilli Type's GT Standard, which offers 336 different weights, and NaN SuperX fall into this category.

These style families feature a smooth transition between the various variants, allowing for specific combinations of characteristics to be chosen. However, combining all the styles requires a compromise. As a result, extreme styles tend to be less expressive, while intermediate options do not always function flawlessly.

It is interesting to see how different studios approach the issue of navigation and structuring styles within the same family.

Every year, more and more design studios are beginning to collaborate with colleagues from other countries to create fonts that support additional languages. Typotheque, a studio specializing in the research and development of non-Latin scripts, has become a prominent figure in this field, but the number of local studios working with new alphabets is growing. For example, in 2025, the CoFo Sans font, which supports Arabic, was released. The TypeToday platform also featured works by German designer Philipp Neumeier—the Opague and Repose fonts, which also include Cyrillic support. Additionally, NaN Serf Sans now supports Cyrillic, Greek, Thai, and Arabic alphabets.

The timeless genre is about reimagining traditional typefaces and finding fresh takes on familiar shapes.

I was struck by the play on words in the title and the mastery of traditional forms demonstrated in Ishar Hawkins' monospaced release of Garamono, produced by WiseType. The italics were particularly impressive.

It should be emphasized that the releases of Commercial Type are distinguished by consistency and harmony, possessing a distinct character and unobtrusive uniqueness. Examples of this include the austere Control typeface and Tom Boullée's sophisticated reimagining of the Dutch serif Jargon.

Another significant event in the world of typography is associated with the release of the Place font, designed by the French designer and calligrapher Julien Priet. This wide and sophisticated antiqua font, with pronounced contrast and Gothic capital letters, attracts attention with its unique proportions. Place was the first representative of this trend in font design.

Also worth noting is the unique font developed for Rolling Stone, which includes decorated capital letters from Commercial Type and Julien Priez. Transforming traditional cursive capital letterforms into a more upright style gives them a modern edge while retaining elements of nostalgia, creating a completely new visual experience.

ABC Honeymoon is a unique interpretation of traditional English copperplate fonts popular in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Paragraf is a rational classic from Typeji, a high-waisted antique model characterized by clean, straight lines and a bright with pronounced details.

Created by Olga Kovalenko, Raffine is a stylish, high-contrast typeface inspired by the title sequences of silent films from 1919. Its variety in width and rhythmic complexity of the original are evident not only in Latin script, but also adapt perfectly to Cyrillic.

HAL Gap is a variable font with a unique set of styles covering sizes from XXS to XXL. Its developers drew inspiration from the 1977 Friedrich Poppl typeface called Leporello.

There is an impression that in display fonts, exaggerated ink The traps characteristic of Whyte's work have given way to smoother, rounded endings, as well as sagging in the areas where strokes connect.

Significant releases include Daria Cohen's work Only Sans, as well as Radek's RL Horizon Lukasievich and NaN Archy.

Variable fonts allow for precise weight selection within traditional font collections. However, I believe it's equally important that they are also being adapted for use in dynamic formats. Examples of such fonts include Electric Blue, Silver Coil, and Purple Haze, all designed by Font Spectrum. These fonts were created with animation in mind, and it is in motion that their features are most evident.

One of the significant events in the world of typography in 2025 was the emergence of a new platform called Contemporary Type. It is designed for publishing fonts created by independent designers and small studios.

A designer specializing in fonts and graphics.

— One of the most encouraging phenomena in recent years is the manifestation of the so-called typographic rebellion. Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest among graphic designers in creating their own fonts. Many branding agencies have begun to develop fonts not only for their own projects, but also for the purpose of their subsequent sale. This desire of many people to try their hand at typography is truly optimistic. The more creative individuals involved in this process, the more diverse the visual environment becomes.

While working on the Lufta project, I became familiar with the concept of modular fonts. This trend has been known for a long time, but it is in recent years that we have seen a significant increase in experimentation in this area.

The process of creating fonts and using them in design is truly exciting. It resembles a game in which you need to assemble symbols from a limited number of elements. That's the charm: even those who have no experience in drawing fonts can achieve impressive and original results. For example, Fedi Abroskin's master classes have yielded many interesting ideas and discoveries.

Currently, not only the modules themselves are being researched, but programming is also being introduced, which leads to the emergence of a variety of options. Interest in grids is growing: new modules are being developed on their basis, or existing systems are being supplemented with new elements. There's an online resource called Grid Type that allows you to create stencil fonts by choosing a grid and customizing various characteristics.

The court ruled that the activities of Meta Platforms Inc. related to the sale of its products, namely the social networks Facebook and Instagram, are subject to prohibition in the Russian Federation. The reason for this was an accusation of extremist activity.

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