Google Fonts adds Danfo, a tuscan serif font designed by Afrotype—a Lagos-based type studio—to its catalogue
Drawing inspiration from the iconic 'Danfo' buses of Lagos, Nigeria, Danfo is an improvement of Danfo Std, designed by Seyi Olusanya, the founder of Afrotype, in 2018.
Last week, Google Fonts announced the addition of Danfo, a tuscan serif font inspired by vinyl stickers on the ubiquitous Danfo buses of Lagos, designed by Afrotype—a Lagos-based type studio founded by Seyi Olusanya—to its robust catalogue of open-source fonts.
Drawing inspiration from the iconic 'Danfo' buses of Lagos, Nigeria, Danfo is an improvement of Danfo Std, designed by Olusanya in 2018. “With the help of Eyiyemi Adegbite, David Udoh, and Mirko Velimirovic, Danfo now features numbers, punctuation, symbols and language support for over 900 languages!” Afrotype noted in a post.
Combining design features from both traditions and uniting them in a contemporary family, Danfo's versatile system consists of eighty-four styles across six widths and seven weights. “The three main styles reflect different cut-out shapes inspired by the vinyl cut-out lettering of the public transportation buses in Lagos, Nigeria. Danfo covers all of the Google sub-saharan African character set,” Google Fonts noted.
Danfo, a tuscan slab serif, merges design elements from Western and local traditions and also serves as a documentation of Lagos’ vibrant visual culture. “This single-weight font features striking ornamental details through variable axes, demonstrating technical and construction ingenuity,” Afrotype shared.
Danfo is Afrotype’s second type collaboration with Google Fonts. Recall that last month, The Creatives Note reported Google Fonts’ addition of Tac One, a typeface by Afrotype inspired by the wordmark of Festac '77, one of the most significant festivals in Africa's post-colonial history, to its catalogue.
Read Also: Google Fonts adds Tac One—a typeface created by Nigerian design trio—to its catalogue
In March, The Creatives Note also reported that Google Fonts added Ojuju, a san-serif typeface of an afro-grotesque style, created by Chisaokwu Joboson, a Nigerian-based brand and type designer, and Madimi, a rounded-sans with a mixed geometric and organic design, created by Taurai Valerie Mtake, a Zimbabwean visual communicator and type designer, by Google Fonts’ to its catalogue of open-source fonts.
