Building Type Systems for Brands and Teams .
What you'll be working through
A single designer making type decisions is manageable. A team of six people each choosing fonts and sizes independently is not. This course is about building a shared language around type — one that works across roles and tools.
Where most brand guidelines fall short
Many brand documents list two approved fonts and call it a system. What they leave out is the logic: when to use each weight, how to handle long-form copy versus UI labels, what to do when the primary font is unavailable.
The gap between guidelines and practice
Guidelines that designers understand but developers cannot implement create inconsistency at the production stage. A useful type system needs to be readable by everyone who touches it.
- Defining a type scale with a consistent ratio
- Writing type rules that make sense to developers and copywriters
- Handling responsive type across screen sizes
- Documenting exceptions without creating confusion
- Auditing existing materials and identifying drift
Participants bring their own brand or an existing client project to workshop sessions. Feedback is specific to what you are actually building.
Who this suits
Senior designers, brand strategists, and in-house design leads managing consistency across marketing, product, and communications teams.
Program structure
What the program covers .
-
Session 1 — Auditing what exists: identifying inconsistency, categorising problems by type and severity
-
Session 2 — Building a scale: ratios, named levels, use-case definitions
-
Session 3 — Writing the rules: documentation formats, variable definitions, edge case handling
-
Session 4 — Cross-functional application: handing off to developers, briefing copywriters, reviewing output
-
Session 5 — Live workshop: participant systems reviewed and refined as a group