Freelance UnlockedBrand manual

Typography

Most of what we make is words, and the way we set them gives them a tone of voice. Ours is warm, clear and confident, the same qualities we write with.

Typeface

DM Sans is our institutional typeface, used for headlines, text, labels and buttons in print, on screen and on merchandise. It is a geometric sans, free under the SIL Open Font License.

The wordmark is drawn in Outfit and never used to set text. FUN can develop its own typography, including different typefaces for headlines and practical information, as set out on Visual identity. The treatments below describe institutional typography.

  • Regular
  • Medium
  • SemiBold
  • Bold
  • Black
DM Sans in its five weights.

Headlines

The headline does most of the work of making a piece ours. Set it in the institutional typeface’s bold weight, as big as the format allows, in sentence case and left-aligned. Full stops are welcome. No all-caps headlines and no serif accents. Keep the lines short, with generous space around them.

Highlight what matters

To make our big headlines feel less authoritative, always highlight a phrase in a second brand colour or give it a thick underline. The underline should go about as low as the font’s descender, and use a bright colour. Use only one of the two treatments, according to the design’s needs.

Conference roll-up
Event poster
Digital announcement

Hierarchy

A layout reads in levels. Headlines lead, text informs and small print stays out of the way. Make the step between levels big enough to see at a glance, and if two levels look alike, merge them.

Upcoming event

Independent minds. Stronger together.

Practical knowledge for independent professionals.

Freelancers come together here to improve their professional lives.

Doors open at 9:00. Bring your ticket on your phone.

One layout, five levels. Each step is clearly bigger or quieter than the next.

Typesetting

Leading and tracking are set relative to the type size, so they hold in print, in social and on slides. Large type is set tight and small type loose. Leave kerning to the font, and adjust it by hand only on very large headlines.

  • Headline
    Bold
    Leading 95–110%
    Tracking −2%
  • Text
    Regular
    Leading 150%
    Tracking 0
  • Label
    Medium
    Leading 120%
    Tracking +8%
Leading is the space between lines, tracking the space between letters. Shaded bands mark each line.

Incorrect usage

Don’t alter the type. Avoid these treatments.

  • Don’t set headlines in all caps.

  • Don’t write text in mixed typefaces. One face keeps every piece recognisably ours.

  • Don’t use more than two colours.

  • Don’t outline, stretch or add effects.

  • Don’t centre long text. The eye loses the start of each line.

Resources