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Draft:Sofia Pro

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  • Comment: Medium, random blogs, Twitter, and YouTube are not reliable sources. Multiple paragraphs in the article are completely unsourced. C F A 💬 04:22, 4 August 2024 (UTC)
  • Comment: The only in-depth coverage appears to be the Papier Direkt article. asilvering (talk) 02:03, 12 April 2024 (UTC)
  • Comment: Some outstanding {{citation needed}} maintenance tags. Further, does "In the Mélenchon presidential campaign" deserve it's own section? It is the same size paragraph as the use cases listed in the ones before it. microbiologyMarcus [petri dish·growths] 14:37, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
Sofia Pro
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationGeometric
Designer(s)Olivier Gourvat
FoundryMostardesign Type Foundry
Date created200-2009
Glyphs1519
VariationsSofia Pro Condensed
Sofia Pro Soft
Sofia Rough
Lyft Pro
LLB Sofia Pro
Websitehttps://www.motyfo.com

Sofia Pro[a] is a sans-serif typeface designed by French type designer Olivier Gourvat[1][2] of Mostardesign Type Foundry in 2008 and 2009. The typeface family contains sixteen weights: Ultra Light, Extra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Semi Bold, Bold, and Black, with corresponding italic versions. Designed for professional use, Sofia Pro is a large family with two widths, sixteen weights and a rounded version.

Companies that notably use the font are Pepsi, Warner Bros.,Tim Hortons, Museum of Sydney, ABC, Wayfair and formerly in the logos of Museum of Sydney, Meridian Credit Union, Monday and Paris International Agricultural Show.

Creation and style

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Based on geometric shapes with a slightly contrasted stroke, Sofia Pro can be classified as a geometric sans-serif according to the Vox-Atypi classification, or as a humanist typeface according to the Thibaudeau classification. This typeface family is inspired by characters of the same classification as Futura, created in the 1920s-1930s by Renner, or the ITC Avant Garde designed in 1970 by Herb Lubalin.

The main characteristic of this typeface from other geometric sans-serifs lies in the less pronounced rhythm of the uppercase letters. They have been designed with a more homogeneous and regular witdth, giving words a less pronounced rhythm than other geometric typefaces. Another aesthetic feature that sets it apart from other geometric sans-serifs is the wide apertures of letters, which is much more pronounced, giving the typeface a modern appearance and distinguishing it from other existing geometric typefaces.

Less common in geometric typefaces, a slightly higher x-height makes the readability of lowercase letters more evident when reading long paragraphs.

Published under the name Sofia, the typeface family was officially released on December 2009, by the current Mostardesign Type Foundry. Spacing and kerning were executed by Igino Marini of the iKern company.

In 2012, Gourvat released the OpenType version of Sofia Pro[3], making modifications to numerous glyphs as well as adding the Black weight. The following year, he also created the condensed version. In 2014, a version with rounded terminals, Sofia Soft, was added.

Perception of Sofia Pro in the graphic design industry

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Although Sofia Pro, designed by Olivier Gourvat, evokes the aesthetic of Futura, it stands out with its own identity and originality, rather than merely imitating it. Gourvat's innovative approach in creating Sofia Pro is widely appreciated in the graphic design industry, which values the enhancement of typographic heritage over mere replication attempts. This appreciation underscores the positive impact of Sofia Pro, offering a contemporary and distinctive typographic solution.

Sofia Pro is perceived very favorably by professionals in the graphic design industry for several reasons. Its readability, modernity, and versatility make it a popular choice for a variety of design projects, from print materials to digital interfaces. Designers particularly appreciate its balance between neutrality and warmth, allowing Sofia Pro to integrate seamlessly into a wide range of visual contexts without overshadowing the main message.

Established typographic professionals, such as MyFonts and Monotype, have repeatedly recognized Sofia Pro for its readability and modernity. The font owes its popularity to its widespread use by numerous international companies in their communication efforts.

Notable Usage

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Here are some notable examples identified by the foundry:

Sofia Pro was employed in the presentation of the 85th Oscars ceremony, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and hosted by Seth MacFarlane. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC. Various weights, including the Ultra Light weight, were used for the title in the television broadcast's graphics package, as well as for posters and presentation panels featuring the nominated artists.

A customized version of Sofia Pro, Lyft Pro, was created for Lyft in 2017. Lyft Pro includes an additional Heavy weight with modified glyphs. Lyft utilizes this customized version as its main font on its mobile application, website, and for its advertising communication on billboards.

Sofia Pro was also used in the TikTok mobile application developed by ByteDance between 2016 and 2022. for its communication on its mobile application and its advertising billboards. The brand used Sofia Pro as the primary font for titles, subtitles, text, and captions, utilizing both Sofia Pro Soft in combination with the regular version. During 2023, TikTok replaced Sofia Pro with a font specially designed for its application called TikTok Sans. The reception of this new font remains divided.[4]

Since 2017, the Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons has embraced Sofia Pro for its new visual identity, designed by the London-based agency Turner Duckworth. This typeface is used on its website, mobile application, signage, packaging, advertising billboards, and digital communication.[5]

In 2018, Pepsi also utilized the Sofia Pro font family for its official partnership with the UEFA Champions League. This global campaign, supported by the hashtag #loveitliveit, brought together five of the world's top players (Leo Messi, Marcelo, Toni Kroos, Carli Lloyd, and Dele Alli) through visuals featuring photos of the players integrated with the slogan "Love it, Live it", prominently displayed in large capital letters using the Sofia Pro Black font. Pepsi further extended this campaign by employing Sofia Pro on its packaging and limited edition cans, and aired a commercial featuring the same slogan in multiple countries.

In 2020, The Museum of Sydney used Sofia Pro and Sofia Pro Soft for its exterior signage, wayfinding, and indoor exhibition panels, as well as for the Sydney Living Museum logo.[6]

In 2022, Sofia Pro was also chosen as the primary typeface for the visual identity of the Paris International Agricultural Show. This new brand identity relies on Sofia Pro to give the agricultural show's brand a more contemporary feel. The typeface is also featured in its logo.

During the 2022 French presidential elections, Jean-Luc Mélenchon used the Sofia Pro font for his official campaign posters as well as for his campaign website. Designed with Sofia Pro as the primary font, the slogan "Another world is possible," which supports the rhetoric developed by Mélenchon, is deliberately written in lowercase letters to convey a message of closeness and counter the revolutionary image often associated with him. Some French media outlets, such as BFMTV[7] and Ouest France[8], analyzed the poster, describing it as one of calming and a departure from previous posters.

In 2024, a customized version of Sofia Pro, called LLB Sofia Pro, was created for the rebranding of the National Bank of Liechtenstein. LLB Sofia Pro includes specific variations of lowercase letters. It is used as the main font on their mobile application, website, and throughout their entire IT system.

Variants and languages

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Overview of styles for Sofia Pro regular width

Variants

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The Sofia Pro typeface family consists of 3 variants: the regular version, the condensed version with narrower proportions, and the Soft version. The spacing and kerning of these 3 versions were executed by Igino Marini.

  • Sofia Pro Condensed (2013) - The condensed version of Sofia Pro features tighter character spacing intended to save space in editorial design work. The weights of this typeface family are identical to the regular version.
  • Sofia Pro Soft (2014) - This variant is designed with soft edges, giving it a rounded appearance and a more naive style compared to the regular version. This typeface family includes 8 weights: Light, Regular, Medium, and Bold, with corresponding italic versions. Sofia Pro Soft appears in the book 'Typology - A typographic palette'[9] with other fonts by the same author, such as Archeron Pro, Metronic Slab, Strato Pro and Marlon Pro. It showcases the diversity of typeface design in France.
  • Sofia Rough (2015) - Based on Sofia Pro, Sofia Rough is a multifaceted font family with differents eroded variations. Sofia Rough contains sixteen fonts and two eroded sub families.

Languages

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Sofia Pro covers 223 languages including Extended Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and Vietnamese. It contains 1519 glyphs with Mac OS Roman, Windows 1252 encoding characters.

Notes

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  1. ^ Occasionally written as Sophia or simply Sofia.

References

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  1. ^ Middendorp, Jan (14 November 2014). "My:Creative characters. The faces behind the fonts - Issue#87". MyFonts. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  2. ^ Devroye, Luc (15 April 2024). "Luc Devroye - Mostar Design". Luc Devroye. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  3. ^ "Free font freitag - Sofia Pro". Papier Direkt. 2 December 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  4. ^ Cavender, Elena (17 May 2023). "No, you're not imagining it: TikTok changed its font". Mashable. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  5. ^ Maynard, Maxime (12 August 2022). "Tim Hortons logo and branding". Fonts in use. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  6. ^ Gosling, Emily (19 April 2013). "Frost finds the key to Sydney Living Museums rebrand". Design Week. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  7. ^ Vasque, Perrine (15 March 2022). "Présidentielle: la nouvelle affiche officielle de campagne de Jean-Luc Mélenchon" (in French). Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  8. ^ Benech, Emile (17 March 2022). "Que révèlent les affiches des candidats à l'élection présidentielle ?". Ouest France (in French). Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  9. ^ Lallaizon, Pierre-Yann (4 December 2020). Typologie - Un nuancier typographique (fonderies françaises) [Typology - A typographic palette (french foundries)]. France: Recto Verso. p. 328. ISBN 978-2-9574956-0-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

Bibliography

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