Shantell Sans
A new open-source font, Shantell Sans, blends artistic handwriting with advanced typography, aiming to be a modern, accessible alternative to Comic Sans. Inspired by artist Shantell Martin's dyslexic experience, it offers playful yet professional versatility through unique variable axes. The story details the intricate design process, from initial concept to broad language support, highlighting the blend of artistic vision and technical execution.
The Lowdown
Shantell Sans is a distinctive new variable font developed by artist Shantell Martin and type designer Stephen Nixon, aiming to create an approachable yet sophisticated typeface reminiscent of Comic Sans's accessibility but with modern functionality. Born from Martin's personal journey with dyslexia and her desire to empower others with a fun, readable font, the project evolved into an open-source offering designed for widespread use.
- Inspiration & Purpose: Artist Shantell Martin, drawing from her experience as a dyslexic individual, sought to create a font that was playful, easy to read, and professionally usable, much like the universally recognized Comic Sans.
- Design Goals: The project aimed for everyday appeal based on felt-tip marker handwriting, ease of use with typical font proportions, broad usability and availability through open-source licensing and language support (Latin and Cyrillic), and enhanced readability through distinct character designs.
- Technical Innovation: Type designer Stephen Nixon incorporated advanced variable font technology, including unique axes for 'Weight,' 'Italic,' 'Informality,' 'Bounce,' and 'Spacing.' These allow for dynamic and animated text, bringing an experimental edge to typography.
- Design Process: The font was developed by tracing Shantell Martin's natural handwriting, carefully balancing its organic quirks with digital consistency. Attention was given to character differentiation and familiar single-story 'a' and 'g' forms.
- Cyrillic Expansion: Type designer Anya Danilova led the challenging task of extending Shantell Sans to support Cyrillic languages, translating the font's unique artistic spirit into new letterforms while consulting with native speakers to ensure authenticity and readability.
- Availability: Shantell Sans is freely available on Google Fonts, Google Docs, and GitHub, promoting its adoption across various applications and encouraging creative use.
The project underscores a thoughtful approach to type design, demonstrating how personal experience and artistic vision can merge with technical expertise to produce a font that is both innovative and universally accessible, inviting users to appreciate the often-overlooked complexity of typeface creation.