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Fontier

Brand identity · Construction & system · 2026

A typeface search engine you talk to in plain words. Describe the feeling, and Fontier ranks thousands of typefaces by how closely their glyphs match.

The name

Fontier comes from frontier, with font written into it. One letter short of the word, seven letters long, and it starts with the F the mark draws.

The mark

Because the name comes from frontier, the F is drawn to look a little like a waving flag, or a border line. Four bars step across an edge, each one unit high and 1.618 times longer than the last.

The bars are also lines of text, the abstract kind that stand for a paragraph in an alignment icon. A mark for a typeface tool, drawn in the shorthand for type.

It also had to survive a browser tab. The logo spends most of its life at 16 to 30 pixels high.

Construction

One unit, u, is the height of a bar. The square block is exactly one unit, and it is the measure placed in each corner to set the margin. Switch the layers on and off.

Fontier logo construction sheet The F mark drawn as four rectangles on a golden-ratio grid, with a one-unit clear space marked by unit squares in the corners and five lettered notes. 1u1/φφ²1u 1u1u A B C D E
Point at a block to read it
Grid unit
1u = bar height
Proportion
φ = 1.618
Primary ratio
1.447 : 1
Clear space
1u, all sides
Ink
Half of the box
  • A
    Corner contact. Two blocks meet at a point with no width. There are two of these, both ringed.
  • B
    The unit. A 1u square, the same height as every bar.
  • C
    The gap. 0.618u, the unit divided by the golden ratio. Unit plus gap is the length of the foot.
  • D
    Top bar. 4.236u long, 1.618 times the middle bar. It overhangs the middle bar by exactly one unit.
  • E
    Clear space. One unit block in each corner. Nothing else enters the dotted box.

One ratio

Line the four blocks up from the left and each is 1.618 times the one before it. The same ratio, turned around, is the gap.

1φ = 1.618φ² = 2.618φ³ = 4.236 unit blockfootmiddle bartop bar
Each length × 1.618 = the next · and 1 + 1.618 = 2.618, 1.618 + 2.618 = 4.236

Margins and padding

The same unit block measures the space around the mark wherever it sits. Drop it in the corner and the margin is set.

Icon tile · 1u left and right, centred top to bottom
Placement · 1u in from any edge, 1u to the next element
72
54
36
18
12
Actual size, in pixels · bars snapped to 5, 8, 13 and 21 · 18 is the working minimum, 12 the floor

How it is built

01

Geometric foundation

Four rectangles, all one unit high. Their lengths are 1, 1.618, 2.618 and 4.236 units: each bar is the golden ratio times the one before.

The mark is 5.236u wide and 3.618u tall, and the ink covers exactly half of that box.

02

Optical adjustments

There are no curves, so nothing overshoots. The middle bar drops 0.618u, not a full unit, which gives the F its stepped, flag-like wave.

The golden ratio never lands on a whole pixel, so on screen it becomes its Fibonacci neighbours: a gap of 3, then bars of 5, 8, 13 and 21.

03

Clear space and minimum size

Keep one unit clear on every side. In a square icon, one unit left and right and centre the rest.

On screen the edges are sharp when the height is a multiple of 18 pixels. Below 12 pixels the gap closes and the corner contacts fuse. In print, 6mm high.

In use

Fontier's own two colours, a near-black and a warm grey, and the mark at the sizes it meets in real life. Drawn mock-ups, not photographs.

Fontier fontier.xyz
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