Industry: Design

Bloyd

Placard reinterpreted with hand-carved warmth

Bloyd is a grotesque type family by Alexander Rütten and Olivia Wood, released in 2025 through Blaze Type. Its design draws from Monotype's 1937 poster typeface Placard, blending geometric mid-century influences with the spirit of hand-carved lettering. Tapered strokes, subtly flared terminals, and squared inner counters set against warmer outer curves give the family a relaxed, quirky character. The 40-style system spans three widths and eight weights, shifting in tone from loud and emphatic in heavy compressed settings to calm and rational in lighter and normal-width styles.

Set in Bloyd

Insights

Squared inner counters contrast deliberately with rounded outer curves to create fine optical tension within individual letterforms.
The italic is set at a moderately steep 10° angle.
Narrow subfamilies with a large x-height and short ascenders and descenders can be packed tightly for forceful headline setting.
The family ships as a variable font across 40 styles — three widths, eight weights, Roman and Italic — covering 876 glyphs with OpenType alternates.