Industry: Design

Editorial Typeface Design for Bridge Text

More than optical sizing: letterforms fully redrawn for text

Bridge Text is a serif text typeface by Mona Franz, developed from her TypeMedia 2018 master project in The Hague under Erik van Blokland, Paul van der Laan, and Peter Verheul. It pairs with Bridge Head as a superfamily but distinguishes itself through genuinely redrawn letterforms—not merely optical scaling—intended for body-text sizes in editorial and corporate typographic ensembles. The family offers five weights with matching italics (10 styles total) and a variable font, with 830 glyphs covering more than 200 Latin languages.

Set in Bridge Text

Insights

Bridge Text and Bridge Head are separated by redrawn letterforms and simplified details, not just size-based optical adjustments—a deliberate structural distinction within the superfamily.
A two-cornered counter shape provides crisp texture at close range while resolving into a smooth, calm colour at normal reading distances.
Slightly narrow proportions, moderate stroke contrast, and an ample x-height are cited by the foundry as the basis for clarity and efficiency in longform setting.
The project originated as a TypeMedia 2018 master project, supervised by Erik van Blokland, Paul van der Laan, and Peter Verheul, and was released in 2019.