Marbles Award winning typographic experiment
Manchester design agency Superfried had created several brandmarks, and editorial typographic designs for the respected New York based magazine Fast Company – FCLA Brand Identity . WCI Brand Identity . Grill Brand Identity . MCP Brand Identity . World Changing Ideas Spread. Whilst developing bespoke, typographic designs for a numeral-based title page, the proposed creative solution was relegated from the design process. The original proposal – see last 100 visual – was based on 3D numerals with an organic, hollow centre, inadvertently reminiscent in style of a Barbara Hepworth sculpture. This typographic design still had potential, so I decided to use it as the starting point for a new personal design project. I stripped everything back to flat 2D lettering and started to develop a complete set of numerals.
As the bespoke typography developed, the internal forms within the body and counters of the numbers became more intricate and a reminiscence of the internal patterns of classic marbles emerged. This was a perfect name for the typography project. Consequently, the characters to spell Marbles were created, which inevitably led to the design of the complete alphabet.
The free-flowing paths allowed for design experimentation across a variety of graphic design styles. The first design experiment formed the basis for my Max Richter – Dream 3 sleeve submission to Secret 7" 2016.
With Marbles now the project's designated name, it would be remiss not to experiment in C4D to create actual graphical representations of marbles. The simplest numbers – 7, 8, and 9 were tested. The results were surprisingly powerful and truly connected to the project name.
Further design experimentation with flat colour led to interesting results – obscure geometric forms tessellating like a brain teaser puzzle.
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Fast forward to 2023 and the Marbles project has been revisited! Working with renowned type foundry F37 – also based in Manchester – Marbles has now been developed into two typefaces featuring four styles as part of their collaborative F37x series. To read more about the project, here is the F37® x Superfried® case study. You can purchase the Marbles typeface family via the F37 website.
Project services
- Bespoke Typography
- 3D Typography
- Photoshop
- Illustration
- Art Direction
- Typography
Testimonials . Press . Awards
The project has been featured on various design sites including the new typography section of the Creative Review blog, Behance, HOW, Type Worship, TypeRoom, Creativepool, Dsgn News and Riensche. It has also been featured in Computer Arts magazine [Aug/2016 – article shown] and PRINT Magazine [Fall 2016].
A charity design submission for Secret 7", based on the Marbles bespoke typographic design was also featured in internationally renowned graphic design publication IdN Magazine [IdN v23n3].
In addition to the positive press this typographic design project was also awarded best of Typography in the 2017 Creativepool Annual design awards.
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The Marbles project has been revisited in 2023 and developed into a complete typeface family in collaboration with type foundry F37. For more detials visit the F37® x Superfried® case study or purchase the typefaces directly via the F37 website.
Since the launch, the Marbles typefaces have been well received with a feature on Creative Boom and selected as one of Design Week's Top 5 favourite typefaces of 2023.