This post was originally published on the Maido blog.

這篇文章最初發表在 Maido博客上 。

You might notice that we’ve had a little facelift at Maido. Or you might not — and that’s totally fine. What we launched at the end of last year was not really a redesign, but more of a re-align. An evolution rather than a revolution.

您可能會注意到，我們在Maido進行了一些改頭換面。 或者，您可能不這樣做-那就很好。 我們在去年年底推出的并不是真正的重新設計，而是更多的重新調整。 進化而不是革命。

Why the change? Maido has evolved over the last few years from working in the purely commercial world to partnering with commercial, NGO, and government organisations who are striving to positively change the world through design and technology. And it’s not only that we’re bringing our experience from both sides of the coin to our clients; we’ve also made some fundamental changes internally about how we evaluate which projects we take on, and how we feel driven by what we do as a team. And to reflect this revised approach to our work, we knew we had to update the way we talk about ourselves on our website, and choose two new typefaces and an accompanying logotype to solidify our redefined brand.

為什么要改變？ 在過去的幾年中，Maido已從在純粹的商業世界中發展到與商業，非政府組織和政府組織建立合作伙伴關系，后者正努力通過設計和技術積極地改變世界。 不僅是我們將硬幣兩面的經驗帶給了客戶； 我們還在內部進行了一些根本性的更改，例如我們如何評估所開展的項目以及我們如何以團隊合作為動力。 為了反映這種修改后的工作方式，我們知道我們必須更新在網站上談論自己的方式，并選擇兩種新的字體和相應的徽標來鞏固我們重新定義的品牌。

Our typographic updates were meant to be a relatively gentle next step, and the decision to root our brand’s new typography in the same world as our former one wasn’t just us not wanting to upset the apple cart; it was something that came out of the internal workshop we ran to determine the kind of message we wanted to convey. In short, we realised that we were actually already doing a lot of things right: Playfair Display, used for headings on our website and slide decks, did a good job of communicating the authority we have on the subjects we care about, and Circular did a good job of alluding to our young culture and start-up-y-ness (that’s a technical term for you there, by the way). And the unique pairing of the formal and informal type also spoke to the two worlds we operate within.

我們的版式更新本來是一個相對溫和的下一步，而決定將我們品牌的新版式植根于與以前的版本相同的世界，不僅意味著我們不想讓蘋果購物車不高興； 這是我們為確定要傳達的信息而舉辦的內部研討會的結果。 簡而言之，我們意識到我們實際上已經在做很多事情：Playfair Display，用于我們網站和幻燈片平臺的標題，在傳達我們對所關注主題的權威方面做得很好，而Circular做暗喻我們年輕的文化和剛起步的企業(這對您來說是一個技術術語)是一件好事。 正式和非正式類型的獨特搭配也談到了我們經營的兩個世界。

But those two particular typefaces are in use by a lot of brands and we wanted something more personal. So the hunt was on for two slightly less well-known faces that could continue doing the good work started by Playfair and Circular. Plus, we really had to do something about the Maido logotype being set in Nouvelle Vague — a DaFont hangover from the company’s very early days.

但是很多品牌都在使用這兩種特殊的字體，我們想要更個性化的東西。 因此，我們一直在尋找不那么知名的兩張面Kong，這些面Kong可以繼續完成Playfair和Circular的出色工作。 另外，我們真的必須對在Nouvelle Vague中設置的Maido徽標進行某些處理，這是公司成立初期的DaFont遺留物。

In a world that not only has thousands (millions?) of typefaces to choose from, but also has the vast majority available for free, how do you go about standing out from the crowd? One tactic I’ve employed a few times now is to limit my font searching to one platform or service, which helps frame the search within a manageable set of parameters, and — if the platform or service you’ve chosen isn’t not one of the ‘major’ font vendors — has the added bonus of surfacing typefaces that not every single other designer on the planet is using. For this reason, I decided to limit the search exclusively to Fontstand.

在一個不僅可以選擇數千種字體的世界中，還可以免費使用絕大多數字體的世界中，您如何脫穎而出？ 我現在采用的一種策略是將字體搜索限制在一個平臺或服務上，這有助于在一組可管理的參數范圍內進行搜索，并且-如果您選擇的平臺或服務不是一個“主要”字體供應商中的一員–擁有表面字體的額外好處，這種字體并非地球上每個其他設計師都在使用。 因此，我決定僅將搜索限制為Fontstand 。

With a pretty clear direction informed by the conclusions from our internal workshop, there were already a few restrictions in place, but at the same time I didn’t want to delve too deep into one particular direction from the get-go, and the first ‘typographic explorations’ workshop was presented to the entire Maido team with a few contrasting directions, intended to serve as both a sanity check and a test to ensure that we hadn’t accidentally ruled out wider options too soon. So what I showed in that session ranged from families such as Utile to wildcard choices such as Daisy.

內部研討會的結論為我們提供了一個非常明確的方向，已經有了一些限制，但是與此同時，我不想從一開始就深入研究一個特定的方向，而第一個“筆跡探索”研討會以一些相反的方向介紹給了整個Maido團隊，旨在同時進行健全性檢查和測試，以確保我們不會意外地排除更廣泛的選擇。 因此，我在那次會議中展示的內容從Utile之類的家庭到Daisy之類的通配符選擇。

You’ll notice from the specimens that many of the pairings are from the same type designer, or at least the same type foundry. This is another very deliberate ‘hack’ I often use when choosing and pairing typefaces; you’re simply more likely to find that there are natural characteristics that appear in typefaces from the same source, and hence a lot of that will-this-one-compliment-the-other-one hand-wringing is already done for you. It’s not always true, but in general it helps add a few more useful parameters when faced with the daunting search of finding not one but two typefaces.

您會從樣本中注意到，許多配對來自同一類型設計師，或者至少是同一類型鑄造廠。 這是我在選擇和配對字體時經常使用的另一個非常刻意的“ hack”。 您很可能會發現在同一來源的字體中出現了自然特征，因此，很多這一切-一件又一件，另一只手-已經為您完成。 并非總是如此，但是總的來說，當遇到尋找一個而不是兩個字體的艱巨搜索時，它有助于添加更多有用的參數。

The feedback from the team after that presentation was that although more exploration was needed, everyone tended to lean towards the combination of Grifo and Sul Sans, both designed by Rui Abreu for R-Typography. (I was a little sad to not use DSType’s Breve superfamily, which I’ve been saving in my typographic back pocket for a few years now, but I agreed with the team that it leaned too heavily towards formality, and using the face for both serif headline and sans-serif body wouldn’t work.)

演講后，團隊的反饋是，盡管需要更多的探索，但每個人都傾向于使用Rui Abreu為R-Typography設計的Grifo和Sul Sans的組合。 (我有點難過，不使用DSType的短音家族，我已經在我的排版后面的口袋已儲蓄了好幾年，但我的團隊一致認為，俯下身過于朝手續，并使用在臉上都襯線標題和sans-serif正文無效。)

With a few of these choices, I did some quick-and-dirty experiments, manipulating the ‘M’ to introduce a curve that directly referenced the ‘M’ of Nouvelle Vague and therefore paid homage to Maido’s history — a way of not deviating too wildly from our established brand. Regardless of our eventual choices, everyone agreed that this would be a nice touch for the final logotype.

通過這些選擇中的一些，我進行了一些簡單的實驗，操縱“ M”以引入一條曲線，該曲線直接引用了Nouvelle Vague的“ M”，因此向Maido的歷史致敬-一種不偏離的方式從我們的既有品牌瘋狂地發展。 不管我們最終選擇什么，每個人都同意這將是最終標識的不錯選擇。

After that initial presentation, I went away and researched more typefaces — again, sticking exclusively within the confines of Fontstand’s offerings — and specifically did a bit more experimenting with the ‘sister’ families of Grifo — Grifino and Grifilito — throwing options back and forth via our Slack channel. They’re essentially the same typeface, but condensed and compressed versions (or extra-condensed if that’s your naming bag). Personally, I love it when a typeface comes in a variety of widths as well as weights (or exists as a variable font — but that’s for another day). Yes, it adds way more parameters to the mix, but once you’ve pretty much settled on a face, it’s useful to have some minutiae to debate, especially when considering exactly which variation you’re going to use for a logo.

在最初的演示之后，我離開了，研究了更多的字體-再次，完全局限于Fontstand產品的范圍內-特別是對Grifo的“姐妹”家族Grifino和Grifilito進行了更多的試驗-通過我們的Slack頻道。 它們本質上是相同的字體，但是是壓縮和壓縮的版本(或者如果是您的命名包，則是壓縮的)。 就個人而言，當字體具有各種寬度和權重(或作為可變字體存在-但這又是一天)時，我會喜歡它。 是的，它為混合添加了更多的參數，但是一旦您將表情固定好了，就可以進行一些細微的討論，特別是在考慮要用于徽標的變體時，這很有用。

But then Cambon happened.

但是后來康邦發生了。

Harry (one of our designers) pointed the team towards a Dribbble shot that used a typeface called Cambon by a new and little-known foundry called General Type Studio, run by designer Stéphane Elbaz (who’s also Design Director of the rather excellent website The Outline). It piqued my interest — and changed everything.

哈里(我們的設計師之一)向團隊提出了Dribbble鏡頭，該鏡頭使用了由名不見經傳的新興鑄造廠General Type Studio所使用的Cambon字樣，該鑄造廠由設計師StéphaneElbaz (他還是相當出色的網站The Outline的設計總監)經營。 )。 它激起了我的興趣，并改變了一切。

Here was a face quite dramatically different from the ones we’d been experimenting with, and yet still ticked the boxes: authoritative, but a little quirky; steeped in history, but modern. I threw around a few specimens, and although the team were a little reticent at first, over time everyone came to love Cambon, especially when they saw it in action on our website.

這是一張與我們正在嘗試的面Kong截然不同的面Kong，但仍然打勾了：權威，但有點古怪； 歷史悠久，但現代。 我扔了一些標本，盡管團隊最初一度有些沉默寡言，但隨著時間的流逝，每個人都開始喜歡Cambon，尤其是當他們在我們的網站上看到它時。

At the time of writing, General Type Studio has released just four typefaces, but another of those — a sans called Mier — just so happened to fit the bill for our body text: contemporary, friendly, kind of cool, not too serious. Plus, I’d been agonising about whether we should use Sul Sans for our body type given its uncanny similarity to Circular — would people even notice we’d made a change at all?

在撰寫本文時，General Type Studio僅發布了四種字體，但其中的另一種字體(稱為Mier的Sans)恰好適合我們的正文文本：現代，友好，有點酷，不太認真。 另外，我一直在為是否應該將Sul Sans用作我們的體型而感到煩惱，因為它與通告非常相似-人們甚至會注意到我們已經做出了改變嗎？

So I presented the final options to the team, with a recommendation for the pairing of Cambon and Mier. Everyone agreed, and after some further debate on which weights to use, we settled on Mier B Book for our body typeface (the ‘B’ version most notably has a double-storey ‘a’, and curved tails on the ‘j’ and ‘t’), with the ExtraBold weight for emphasis. It’s a personal preference, but I tend to favour greater contrast between normal and emboldened text, and the weight difference between the Book and ExtraBold provides just that.

因此，我向團隊介紹了最終選擇，并提出了將Cambon和Mier搭配使用的建議。 每個人都同意，并且在進一步討論使用哪種砝碼后，我們選擇了Mier B Book作為我們的身體字體(“ B”版本最明顯的是雙層“ a”，并且在“ j”和't')，并以ExtraBold權重進行強調。 這是個人喜好，但我傾向于支持普通文本和加粗文本之間更大的對比度，而Book和ExtraBold之間的粗細差別正是這一點。

For our headline type, we chose Cambon Black, but, in a perfect demonstration that branding is a moving piece of work even after all the decisions have seemingly been made and the recommendations documented, we got the website ready for relaunch and realised that the Black weight of Cambon was just too heavy for some of our smaller headings. True, we could’ve changed the size, maybe switched out to Mier B, or even just given them a different treatment, but we decided that needed another weight to offer us a little more flexibility. After a fair bit of internal debate largely centered around deciding whether we should opt for the next weight down from Black to optically suggest the same weight when used at smaller sizes, or intentionally pick a lighter weight for a more conscious contrast, we opted for the latter and chose Cambon Book.

對于我們的標題類型，我們選擇了Cambon Black，但是在一個完美的例子中，即使在看似已做出所有決定并記錄了建議的情況下，品牌塑造也是一件令人感動的工作，我們已經準備好重新啟動該網站，并意識到，Black對于某些較小的標題，Cambon的重量實在太重了。 沒錯，我們可以更改大小，也許改用Mier B，甚至只是給他們不同的處理方式，但是我們決定需要另外的重量來為我們提供更多的靈活性。 在進行了一系列內部辯論之后，主要是決定是否應該選擇較小的重量來代替Black來減輕重量，還是故意選擇較輕的重量以進行更清晰的對比，我們選擇了后者并選擇了Cambon Book。

(Sidenote: font weight names are arbitrary, and in my experience the ‘Book’ weight of a typeface usually sits below the Regular as a lighter version; in Cambon and Mier, it’s actually heavier. It’s not right or wrong either way, but it’s worth remembering these naming quirks when substituting typographic candidates.)

(旁注：字體粗細名稱是任意的，根據我的經驗，字體的“書本”粗細通常比常規字體輕一些；在Cambon和Mier中，它實際上更重。無論哪種方式，對錯都不對，但實際上值得在替換印刷候選時記住這些命名怪癖。)

With our new typefaces chosen, and all arguments around the specifics of weights and styles settled, our branding work was done. Or was it? There was still the question of the logo, and actually it presented us with a problem: typing ‘Maido’ in Cambon Black somehow just didn’t have the same impact as it did when we were experimenting with some of the other contenders, largely because it’s not a particularly high-contrast face; i.e. the difference between the thin strokes and thick strokes is not that intense, or at least not nearly as much as a typeface such as Grifo, or our original typefaces Playfair Display and Nouvelle Vague.

選擇新字體后，圍繞權重和樣式細節的所有爭論都得到解決，我們的品牌工作就完成了。 還是嗎？ 徽標仍然存在問題，實際上它給我們帶來了一個問題：在Cambon Black中鍵入“ Maido”與在嘗試其他競爭者時所產生的影響不一樣。它不是特別高對比度的臉； 也就是說，細筆和粗筆之間的差異不是那么強烈，或者至少不比Grifo等字體或我們最初的Playfair Display和Nouvelle Vague字體大。

To tackle this, I decided to manipulate the outlines of the type to create a greater stroke contrast. Although a little fiddly, I was already editing the paths for our own unique touches for the logo. I’ve mentioned the swash-y ‘M’ to hint at maido’s past; along with that, I added a ball terminal to the ‘a’, which was derived from the dot of the ‘i’. For both the ball terminal and that dot, I adjusted the angle of the ovals slightly to match the slant of the ‘o’. The ascender of the ‘d’ and dot of the ‘i’ were extended a touch, and all glyphs were negatively tracked a little (with custom kerning between the ‘M’ and ‘a’, and ‘d’ and ‘o’), resulting in a tighter feel all round.

為了解決這個問題，我決定操縱字體的輪廓以創建更大的筆觸對比度。 盡管有點兒怪異，但我已經在編輯我們自己獨特的徽標路徑。 我已經提到了帶斜線的“ M”來暗示舞妓的過去。 隨之，我在'a'上添加了一個球形端子，該球形端子源自'i'的點。 對于球形端子和該點，我將橢圓的角度略微調整為與“ o”的傾斜度匹配。 'd'的上升點和'i'的點被擴展了一點，所有字形都被負向跟蹤(在'M'和'a'以及'd'和'o'之間的自定義字距調整) ，導致全方位的收緊感。

However, another long-standing gripe with Maido’s original logo was how the thinner stems of the characters disappeared when the logo was used in decks or as an avatar, so one final bit of work that needed to be done to finalise our new logotype was to create a version suitable for use at small sizes — a ‘body’ optical style, essentially. Ironically, this involved adding some of that stroke contrast back in, as well as loosening up again some of that spacing that had been tightened. As with different optical sizes with type, the aim was to create two versions of the logo that felt the same when used at their intended sizes, but would have some noticeable differences if you compared them at a big scale, like-for-like. Like most things in typesetting, it’s really all about bending the rules a little for some reader-friendly optical illusions.

但是，Maido原始徽標的另一個長期困擾就是當徽標在甲板上或化身中使用時，人物的細莖如何消失，因此，完成最終的工作是確定我們的新徽標是創建適合于小尺寸使用的版本-本質上是“主體”光學樣式。 具有諷刺意味的是，這涉及到重新添加一些筆觸對比度，以及再次放松一些已經收緊的間距。 與使用不同的光學尺寸的字體一樣，目標是創建兩個版本的徽標，這些徽標在按其預期的尺寸使用時感覺相同，但是如果按比例進行較大的比較，它們會有一些明顯的差異。 像排版中的大多數事情一樣， 對于某些讀者友好的光學錯覺來說 ，實際上是稍微彎曲規則 。

Typography aside, this was a good opportunity to give our website a fresh coat of paint, too. Some new content and imagery, some tidying-up (hello, new footer), and the integration of the blog into the website itself — but all with a focus on redefining who we are, with a renewed focus on our work in the social impact space. Again: evolution, not revolution.

除了排版，這也是向我們的網站提供新的涂層的好機會。 一些新的內容和圖像，一些整理的內容(您好，新的頁腳)，以及將博客集成到網站本身中的內容-但所有這些都專注于重新定義我們的身份，并重新關注了我們在社會影響力方面的工作空間。 再說一次：進化，而不是革命。

So, the new Maido brand (hopefully) feels refreshed, somewhat more usable, and more accurate for who we are today. We hope you like it. And it’s also the first step in a much deeper rebranding process: a soft relaunch to close out 2019 before we go all in with our, er, hard relaunch in 2020. Watch this space.

因此，新的Maido品牌(希望如此)對我們今天的人來說是煥然一新，更實用，更準確的。 我們希望您能喜歡。 而且，這也是更深層次的品牌重塑過程的第一步：在2019年進行軟重啟，然后在2020年進行艱難的重新啟動。

Since this post was first published, I’ve left Maido and am now looking for new work. Please feel free to get in touch if you’re interested in me doing something like this for your brand!

自從這篇文章首次發表以來，我已經離開了Maido，現在正在尋找新作品。 如果您對我有興趣為您的品牌做這樣的事情， 請隨時與我們 聯系 ！