Industry: Design

Align Family

Flatness as a design philosophy

Align is a variable serif family designed by Greg Gazdowicz that treats flatness as a central design concept. Inspired by everyday urban signage—where applied vinyl stretches and compresses while remaining legible—the family eliminates overshoots on round glyphs to produce a distinctive horizontal flatness. Soft rounded corners and blunt, bracketed serifs counterbalance this, while serifs progressively shrink and vanish at heavier weights.

Set in Align

Insights

Overshoots on round glyphs are shaved off to enforce a strict horizontal flatness, offset by soft rounded corners and blunt bracketed serifs.
Serifs taper progressively with weight, disappearing entirely at the heaviest end.
The design draws from applied vinyl urban signage, where letterforms stretch and compress while remaining legible.