Typeface Design for Boreal
One typeface, from fine print to Boeing 737 fuselage
Boreal is a sans serif typeface originally commissioned as a custom face for Canadian airline Air Inuit. It functions as the airline's logo font and spans applications from small-print disclaimers and route maps to in-flight magazine headlines and large-scale aircraft liveries on Boeing 737s. The family includes five weights with italics and a dingbat set. Its Latin and Inuktitut character sets were developed concurrently, making it one of few commercial typefaces to offer integrated support for both scripts.
Set in Boreal
Insights
- Latin and Inuktitut character sets were designed concurrently for Air Inuit, targeting the Inuit languages of Northern Quebec (Nunavik)—an uncommon approach in commercial type development.
- The brief required a single family to perform across extreme scale variation: tiny disclaimers, complex route maps, magazine headlines, and full aircraft liveries.
- Five weights with italics plus a dingbat set—including circled index numbers, arrows, and basic geometric shapes—extend the family's range.
1 / 5Swipe
Keep exploring
Related cases
