A Year of Bold Font Releases, Partnerships, and Global Achievements: The Northern Block’s 2024 in Review.
Compiling a year’s worth of company statistics, accomplishments, and team achievements is always exciting yet challenging. 2024 has been a whirlwind year for our small, independent foundry, and we’ve had many ups and downs over the last twelve months. Nevertheless, we persevered and pushed our limits, exploring new directions and ending the year with the release of Nurom Next, one of our most demanding (but exhilarating) multi-script type families.
Since January, The Northern Block has released nine incredible typefaces, including our first to support the Hebrew script. We continued strengthening our partnership with Monotype, recently adding six new type families across their platforms, and integrated our first typeface into the Canva font library. We collaborated with Riyadh Air’s branding team to create a bespoke typeface for Saudi Arabia’s new national airline, using Loew Next Arabic as a foundation. Angusta won its second award within a year of being released, this time at the Hiiibrand International Design Awards. Several typefaces have been featured in leading creative publications, including Slanted’s Yearbook of Type and The World’s Best Typography Annual by the Type Directors Club. Our team has also had notable achievements this year. In May, our Senior Type Designer, Tasos, was appointed as a Greek Script Specialist at the GRANSHAN Design Competition, and our Head of Brand, Donna, recently accepted an Associate Lecturer role at Northumbria University.
Font Releases
The Northern Block began the new year with the release of Zabawa, a playful handwritten typeface meticulously crafted using only a pointed brush, and our first collaborative project with Polish type designer, Joanna Angulska. The typeface undoubtedly made its mark, with Creative Boom featuring Zabawa as one of ‘The best new typefaces from leading foundries and designers’.
In the Spring, the foundry added three upgraded products to the font library. First up was Facto, a sleek and modern sans-serif with variable support; Planer followed shortly after, with its design inspired by VAG Rounded. Jonathan Hill’s mythical Markus Low was also published in April. Based on Swiss designer Markus Low’s award-winning 1965 serif typeface, Basilea, the typeface pays respect to the classical Romanesque forms, without being overwhelmed by history. Instead, it steers toward a contemporary aesthetic with a great stroke contrast, producing graceful, fluid lines. The outcome is a modern display serif with subtle chisel-like details.
In May, Mynor-B carved out a unique identity in type design, with Bounty Hunters, Creative Boom and The Brand Identity all featuring the typeface. Inspired by the Japanese art of Kintsugi, Mynor-B celebrates imperfections and introduces expressive elements into the letterforms, echoing the beauty found in repaired pottery. This philosophy inspired Mynor-B’s departure from the strict geometric style of its predecessor, Mynor, towards a more organic and imperfect design approach.
The Helvetica-inspired Heltar was unveiled in August. The typeface strikes a balance between homage and innovation, celebrating the excellence of Helvetica, while also signalling a departure and evolution from it. By incorporating ink-traps into the design, they are reimagined as stylistic elements that give the typeface its deft, mechanistic quality, making it stand out as a typeface designed to ignite the imagination of the futurists.
October’s library additions included Gelder Sans, a sans-serif typeface inspired by the iconic Frutiger, and the 90-style superfamily, Neogram, a modern neo-grotesque rooted in Swiss design principles. The latest version of Neogram introduces two new widths, SemiCondensed and Wide, expanding the type family’s versatility alongside the existing Normal, Condensed, and Expanded widths.
We closed the year strongly with the release of Nurom Next, a multilingual sans-serif and The Northern Block’s first type family to include the Hebrew script. The work to bring a historic script like Hebrew into the typeface, is a kind that demands respect and cultural sensitivity. It took Senior Type Designer, Tasos Varipatis, two months of intensive work, and the support of Hebrew Consultant, Liron Lavi Turkenich, to get it right, and apply that respect to every detail. Ten years in the making, Nurom Next is a true collaboration, shaped by an international team.
A bespoke Arabic typeface for Saudi Arabia’s new national airline
Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s new national carrier, required a bespoke typeface to support its innovative brand identity. The Northern Block was commissioned by Riyadh’s branding team, who chose Loew Next Arabic as a foundation. Still, they sought a series of customisations to tailor the typeface to their unique requirements.
As a global airline, Riyadh Air’s typography needed to embody elegance, modernity, and functionality, while seamlessly serving diverse applications such as UX/UI, wayfinding, and printed materials. The result was a fully customised and exclusive typeface that embodies Riyadh Air’s vision. By reworking and repositioning Arabic diacritics, condensing proportions, and achieving proportional harmony, the typeface has elevated the brand’s typography to a new standard of functionality and beauty.
The refined Arabic design blends modernity with cultural authenticity, while the Latin script complements it with precision and clarity. Together, the two scripts form a cohesive typographic system capable of meeting the demands of a global airline brand. This bespoke solution highlights the value of a tailored approach, ensuring that the typography not only meets, but exceeds the client’s expectations across all applications. Full case study coming soon.
Canva integrates Loew Next Arabic into its design platform
The Northern Block is delighted to have Loew Next Arabic integrated into Canva—one of the world’s leading design platforms. Introduced by Monotype as part of their classic range of typefaces, alongside icons like Helvetica and Gotham, Loew Next Arabic offers designers the tools to create visually stunning, multilingual content.
Through Monotype’s effortless integration of our font into the Canva library, we’re enabling users worldwide to embrace high-quality typography that supports multilingual design. This collaboration underscores the power of intelligent partnerships in enhancing creativity and accessibility for everyone.
Our premium foundry partnership with Monotype strengthens
Our ongoing partnership with Monotype extends beyond Canva. As a premium foundry partner, The Northern Block is among the leading world-class designers in type design. Customers can easily license our retail fonts via MyFonts, with the latest additions to the platform including Cagney, the award-winning Fagun, Hubsch, Leida, Mynor-B, and Paradroid Mono Soft.
Continuing to push boundaries and explore new font technology solutions, Monotype Fonts’ intuitive font manager provides instant access to 124 of The Northern Block’s typefaces through a ‘one-click sync’ app, offering seamless font prototyping, management, and licensing.
Publication Features
Slanted’s Yearbook of Type #7
Angusta, Fagun, Hubsch, and Zabawa are among 180 typefaces featured in the 7th edition of the Yearbook of Type, published by Slanted. Each typeface is demonstrated across three pages, offering a comprehensive overview of its characteristics. The publication provides a unique perspective on typography, including 206 type designers and 108 foundries from 29 countries.
Fagun published in The World’s Best Typography Annual
The Type Directors Club featured Jonathan Hill’s Fagun typeface in their 44th Annual, which hit the shelves in January. The highly respected publication showcases ‘The World’s Best Typography’, including around 750 award-winning projects from the TDC69 Competition, of which Fagun received the prestigious ‘Certificate of Typographic Excellence’.
Angusta featured in Communication Arts Typography Annual
Communication Arts featured Tasos Varipatis’ award-winning Angusta typeface in the January/February 2024 Typography Annual. Over 25,000 copies were distributed worldwide, presenting the winning projects from the 14th Annual Typography Competition. From 1,262 submitted entries, Angusta was one of sixteen successful typography projects to win an award.
Typodarium 2024 desk calendar
Over the past twelve months, the Typodarium desk calendar has promoted six of The Northern Block’s typefaces. With a fresh new typeface each day, Fagun was first in the spotlight on March 6, Loew Variable followed on April 30, Tondu on May 18, Leida on July 4, Mekon on September 23, and lastly, Paradroid Mono Soft on December 9, 2024. The calendar features 366 typefaces created by 292 type designers from 34 countries.
In Other News
Donna appointed Associate Lecturer role at Northumbria University
In April, Northumbria University invited our Head of Brand, Donna Wearmouth, to provide one-to-one crit sessions to first-year students of the Graphic Design course. Throughout November and December, Donna resumed her role as Associate Lecturer, assisting final-year groups with ongoing projects and providing degree show and industry guidance, before students progress into their final semester.
Success for Angusta at the Hiiibrand International Awards
In August, our Angusta typeface won its second award within a year of being released. Tasos’ debut release with The Northern Block earned a winning spot in the Typography Design category at the 14th Hiiibrand International Brand and Communication Design Awards. This year’s competition attracted 1,198 submissions from over 40 countries, with renowned type designer, Erik Spiekermann, on the panel of six design experts.
Tasos joined the jury team at GRANSHAN Design Competition
In May, our Senior Type Designer, Tasos Varipatis, was appointed as a Greek Script Specialist at GRANSHAN. This professional type design competition prides itself on celebrating the diversity and richness of typographic scripts that underpin global communication. Tasos was part of a team of over 60 global experts, and this year, the competition welcomed entries across ten distinct script groups.
Supply Family Foundry Partner
Earlier this year, The Northern Block partnered with Supply Family to distribute a handpicked selection of our fonts, including the recently upgraded Neogram typeface. Supply Family is a professional marketplace for designers, offering high quality typefaces with easy and accessible licensing for Desktop, Web, ePub and Mobile Apps.
Looking forward…
This year has encouraged our team to make 2025 unforgettable. With several projects already underway, we plan to add considerable additions to our library over the next twelve months. Existing typefaces will be elevated to their ‘Next’ phase, including Loew Next Devanagari—our first typeface to support the Hindi script. Our research into multi-script work will advance throughout 2025. The type design team are already delving into the craftsmanship of early 20th-century American lettering through a revival script project, and experimental fonts will continue to be a part of our release schedule, through playful display typefaces and contemporary stencil designs.
As we start to wind down for the Christmas break, we want to say a big thank you to our amazing team and collaborators, and all of you—our customers and clients. Here’s to more exciting projects together in the new year!