Hi all,
Last year at Paradigms, out in the Moroccan desert, I met Chris and Will from Studio DRAMA, a type design studio. They make custom typefaces for brands, and they’ve done it for Heinz, KFC, and Michelob Ultra. Like most people at Paradigms, they are also genuinely rad people.
We get into why niching down was great for them, why every tech brand looks the same (but shouldn’t), an optimistic take on AI, and we learn many, many new words.
There are lessons in here for studios, freelancers, and a side of brand many CMOs overlook.
Enjoy!
Meet Studio DRAMA
Chris Nott and Will Richardson are the co-founders of Studio DRAMA, the world’s first custom type foundry.
William leads the studio’s creative vision. Building brands through distinctive typographic storytelling that challenges category conventions and amplifies identity at every scale. Under his direction, Studio DRAMA has developed award-winning custom typefaces for global names such as KFC, BBH and Snickers.
Chris leads the studio’s creative practice. Shaping brand identities through distinctive, typographic systems that bring strategy and storytelling into perfect alignment. Chris has overseen the creation of bespoke typefaces for global brands including Mozilla, Heinz and Vogue.
Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy
04:16 — A BRAND-LED TYPE FOUNDRY // Not a foundry, not an agency, somewhere in between.
08:52 — THE BRAVERY TO NICHE // For a year, they were everything to everyone. Learning to say no is what changed the business.
15:16 — MONTHS, NOT YEARS // Busting the myth that custom type takes two years and +$2M.
18:01 — THE SANS-DEMIC // How every brand ended up speaking in the same generic sans.
21:40 — TOUCH TYPE, NOT LOGO // Brands are scared to touch the logo. Type is the thing they can actually own.
23:36 — WHAT BRANDS GET WRONG // Why type design shouldn’t come at the end.
26:41 — WHO NEEDS A CUSTOM TYPEFACE? // Their answer: if you can make something distinctive and memorable, why wouldn’t you?
30:10 — THE NANDO’S EFFECT // Spot a sliver of a letter around the corner and you already know it’s Nando’s.
33:25 — TYPE AND LOGOS // The logo-font approach VS redrawing the wordmark and the typeface together so the whole system finally connects.
37:00 — SCRITALIC // The new word they had to invent to describe what they were even making.
38:42 — THE OPTIMIST’S CASE FOR AI // Where AI has a role. And a big upside for smaller studios.
42:50 — AI CAN’T DO THE CRAFT // It’s great at generic sans. Get ready to have to be different. And need humans for it.
44:28 — DRAMA WISDOM // The best advice for going out on your own.
49:14 — QUICK FIRE // Three things every brand should do, and the typographic elephant in the room.
Huge thanks to Chris and Will for coming on. It was so good to finally sit down with them. See their work at studio-drama.com. Follow along on Instagram.
That’s all, folx.
– Chris
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