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I want to give a bit more depth to Chirp, our new typeface.
Type, in 280 character doses, is the foundation of Twitter. In the history of the company we’ve either relied on someone else’s typeface, from SF Pro and Roboto, to Helvetica Neue in our brand.
Type, in 280 character doses, is the foundation of Twitter. In the history of the company we’ve either relied on someone else’s typeface, from SF Pro and Roboto, to Helvetica Neue in our brand.
Our key objective with this brand refresh is to improve how we convey emotion and imperfection. Regardless of whether you’re pro or anti Helvetica, I think we can all agree that it’s not up for the job.
So, that brings us to “Chirp”, our first ever proprietary typeface.
Development was no easy task as it had to cover a lot of ground for us. For everyday use it must be sharp and legible (with good density), but with personality and distinctiveness.
We also use it at scale for motion and OOH. Here it’s got to be the life of the party…fun and irreverent…but able to carry a serious tone when the subject calls.
Studies with Irradié led us to Grilli Type’s work. Grilli Type then brought us a beautiful balance between American Gothics and European Grotesques. Research into early hand cut examples gave us the quirkiness that amplified the display set.
Rounded tittles and punctuation introduce a humanist character. The result is a versatile, contemporary family (82 styles across Standard and Display!) with international sensibilities. It accomplishes exactly what we need and it has made itself the hero of our refresh.
From here we’ve begun development on Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. The intent is to bring the same sensibilities of the Latin cuts to our additional languages, in culturally relevant ways.
Do we eventually see Chirp as the typeface for the product? It's my personal desire, and the work on legibility, density and weight has already begun. There is more refining to do, more languages to build, but the hard work will be worth the benefit of having a holistic brand.
A big thanks to Noël Leu, Thierry Blancpain and the team at @grillitype. Also Alain and Laurent Vonck and the team at @AtelierIrradie. Thank you for being such incredible partners.
