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New Research on the Emotional Impact of Type Finds the Fonts Brands Use Can Impact Consumers' Response, Perception and Trust
WOBURN, Mass., May 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Monotype today released new research demonstrating the emotional impact of type on consumers. This is the first study of its kind to understand how fonts drive experiences, associations and emotional response to brands and messages. Monotype partnered with applied neuroscience company Neurons to test three contrasting typefaces and found that typeface choice alone plays a significant role in how people feel—boosting their positive response by up to 13%. "Why Fonts Make Us Feel" explores the emotional impact of type. "This study tested our biggest assumptions about consumers' emotional response to type and  confirmed everything the broader design community has believed about type for decades—that it measurably affects consumers recognition of, confidence in, and recollection of brands," said James Fooks-Bale, Monotype senior brand director. "Even in the absence of color, logo, movement or any other traditional element of visual identity, typography plays a crucial role in conveying trust, sincerity, and reliability—brand marketers, agencies, and creatives should take note." For the study, Monotype and Neurons surveyed 400 people using three kinds of stimuli: single words, a sentence using those words, and a sentence with the words including a brand. Each of these was set in three typefaces – FS Jack, a humanist sans; Gilroy, a geometric sans; and Cotford, a languid serif. While these types look similar to brands consumers have seen, they were not associated with actual brands to avoid pre-existing associations. Respondents rated the combinations using a range of emotional metrics – such as how sincere, memorable, trustworthy or confident they felt. Consumer research findings:
Type Makes Brand Messaging Memorable
Setting "quality" in Cotford Display Regular sparked a 13% increase in people's judgement of relevance, a 10% increase in how memorable it was and a 9% increase in trustworthiness. The Cotford serif has long associations with the world of fashion and luxury, meaning people's subconscious reaction is driven by years of cultural association. The research showed Cotford Display Regular boosted people's positive perceptions of the word 'quality.' FS Jack Regular created a 9%, 7% and 3% increase in how innovative, prominent, and unique a single word is perceived to be. While a sans serif, FS Jack Regular has a double-story "a" and "g," which is considered a more humanist way of constructing letters, potentially impacting consumers' response to the typeface. Results back the assumption that letters closer to calligraphy may prompt a deeper, instinctive emotional reaction. Type Makes Consumers Feel Secure
FS Jack Regular boosted people's sense of confidence by up to 12%. By setting "trust" in FS Jack Regular, the research showed significant increases in the level of sincerity and honesty respondents attributed to the word. This again demonstrates how a typeface with strong roots in calligraphy can elicit an immediate sense of trust in the reader. Gilroy Bold, which is used by a long list of household brands, showed a 5% increase in how honest respondents felt a slogan was. Results underscore that geometric sans serifs have become visual shorthand for reliability and success. Type Gives Brands a Competitive Edge
A slogan in Gilroy Bold showed a 12% increase in prominence and a 5% increase in competitor standout. Despite the prevalence of geometric sans serifs, respondents still felt that Gilroy Bold made for a more prominent slogan. Statements set in the typeface tracked increases in competitor standout, uniqueness and innovation. The bold weight is likely to be a contributing factor, as well as the prevalence of this style of typeface, particularly in the tech and startup worlds. The report introduces several key findings, and the authors also point out that the potential to uncover more through sentiment testing is vast, and future research will explore the emotional impact of type even further. "This study shows that we have emotional relationships with type and our brains have a significant response to letter shape. The results in this study far exceed the typical 0-5% positive response to typeface," commented Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy, founder and CEO of Neurons. "The importance of branding has never been more evident, but these responses are typically unconscious, making them hard to measure with traditional means. Here, the ability of applied neuroscience to uncover cognitive responses that help brands and creatives build high impact messages and experiences is clear." "Our work with Neurons reinforces type's powerful effect on people. Simple shapes of a letter—what many take for granted—can spark a cognitive and emotional reaction, leading to a subconscious judgement around a brand's honesty, sincerity or innovation," added Phil Garnham, senior creative type director at Monotype. "On the flip side, brands that take type for granted and employ a poorly chosen typeface risk alienating their customers, negatively impacting the bottom line." On May 24 at 1 p.m. BST and May 25 at 1 p.m. EST, Monotype will host a webinar detailing the data and analysis. Participating expert panelists will be Mike Storm, chief operating officer, Neurons; James Fooks-Bale, senior brand director, Monotype; and Phil Garnham, senior creative type director, Monotype. To register, visit: https://www.monotype.com/resources/webinars/neurons . To access the full study, "Why Fonts Make Us Feel," visit: https://www.monotype.com/neurons . About Monotype
Monotype creates brands that matter with type, technology, and expertise. The company partners with leading foundries to deliver the broadest inventory of high-quality typefaces in the world. Further information is available at www.monotype.com . Monotype is a trademark of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2022 Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. All rights reserved. SOURCE Monotype

07:15 EDT
Monotype Study Shows Typeface Choice Can Boost Positive Consumer Response by Up to 13%

Shorai™ Sans is a geometric sans serif that retains subtle nuances, and nearly unlimited applicability in a broad range of uses, from publishing and advertising to websites and tech. News provided by
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WOBURN, Mass., March 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Monotype today announced the launch of Shorai Sans , signifying a new era of legibility in Japanese type. Shorai Sans is the second Japanese typeface from Monotype, following Tazugane Gothic, and is an easy-to-use typeface that optimizes the balance between Japanese and European text and character spacing. The result has elegance, character, and expression, and meets the needs and expectations of designers in a modern world. Shorai Sans. Down to the Essence. Shorai balances the subtlety of traditional hand-drawn brushstrokes with clean, geometric outlines. An intellectual-looking sans serif, Shorai's simplified letterforms and vast weight ranges provide creatives with a holistic branding solution. Shorai Sans was designed as a companion typeface to Avenir® Next, built to work harmoniously in modern global designs, while preserving the essence of Japanese handwriting. Shorai goes beyond existing Japanese sans serifs to provide a wide spectrum of expression and personality for designers to play with. Designed by Yukihiro Nakamura, Akira Kobayashi, Ryota Doi, and the Monotype Studio, Shorai Sans is opening new horizons in Japanese typography. "We pushed to make the Heavy weight significantly heavier than an average Japanese sans serif, and we pared each form down to its essence which revealed a true simplicity. This is what we have now – it is a sans serif for a new generation," says Monotype's Creative Type Director Akira Kobayashi. Type designer Ryota Doi adds, "Yukihiro Nakamura's ideas are always surprising and exciting. Shorai Sans is a typeface that has evolved over generations. It's straightforward but still elegantly reflects handwritten traits - Shorai presents itself as a Japanese typeface for the future with its robust simplicity and a human touch." Following the successful launch of Tazugane Gothic in January 2017, the demand for sans serif typefaces in the Japanese market has steadily increased - especially within the automotive industry which requires typefaces that exude solidity and confidence. This is where Shorai will find its place in the future, while offering many options for technology and telecom brands. Pricing and Availability. Individual cuts of the Shorai family are available now for $179 or €199 each. The complete Shorai Sans-Family Pack is available for $999 or €1099. Individual variable typefaces are available for $999 or €1099. Shorai Sans  is available as part of the Monotype Fonts  subscription and for purchase through MyFonts.com  until April 08, 2022 with an introductory offer of 60% off the complete Family Pack. For more information about the typeface, read the font story  on our site. About Monotype
Monotype creates brands that matter with type, technology, and expertise. The company partners with leading foundries to deliver the broadest inventory of high-quality typefaces in the world. Further information is available at www.monotype.com . Monotype is a trademark of Monotype Imaging Inc. registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be registered in certain other jurisdictions. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2022 Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. All rights reserved. SOURCE Monotype

08:44 ET
Monotype Studio Introduces Shorai Sans, Opening New Horizons In Japanese Typography

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Monotype and Adobe announced a new initiative to give creative professionals easier access to the typefaces they need to design modern brands and experiences. Beginning immediately, Adobe Originals, fonts designed by the company’s in-house type foundry, can now be licensed through Monotype Fonts – an on-demand service featuring the world’s best fonts, type designers, and foundries – as well as to the broader creative community through e-commerce sites like MyFonts. By licensing Adobe Originals through Monotype’s channels, brands will have a streamlined process to manage enterprise font licenses. This partnership will lower risk, increase efficiency, and most importantly, give creative teams the freedom to do what they do best: design meaningful brands. In a world increasingly defined by remote collaboration, removing barriers to creativity is paramount for brands looking to compete. With this expanded partnership, brands will have many more licensing options for popular designs like Minion, Myriad, Acumin, and others. Two companies with a shared mission. Typography has always been important, from designing brand identities to defining culture. Today, however, with a growing set of connected devices, and global communities coming closer together, access to typography and creative assets that perform across environments is critical. Related Posts
The Adobe Originals program started in 1989 as an in-house type foundry at Adobe, brought together to create original typefaces of exemplary design quality, technical fidelity, and aesthetic longevity. Today the Type team’s mission is to conduct original research and development for type at Adobe, making sophisticated and even experimental typefaces that explore the possibilities of design and technology. Typefaces released as Adobe Originals — fully-featured families and smaller “Concept” projects alike — are the result of years of work and study, regarded as industry standards for the ambition and quality of their development. Monotype is the world’s largest foundry, with decades of combined experience across its Studio team. In recent years, the company has released digital updates to iconic designs like Helvetica Now, Futura Now, and Avenir Next World, among many others. Beyond the massive library of type, with tens of thousands of unique fonts, Monotype has also focused on partnering with other foundries to help make fonts simple for the creative community: simple to license, simple to discover, and simple to use. This partnership follows others between Monotype and notable foundries such as House Industries, Fontfabric, The Northern Block, and more. “Adobe’s mission, ‘Creativity for All’, speaks to the need for increased availability of design assets, technology, and opportunity within the creative community,” said Michael Matteo, SVP, Global Channels & Alliances at Monotype. “We are thrilled to deepen our partnership with Adobe, elevating the role of typography while delivering more value to brands, agencies, and creative professionals around the world.”
“Monotype has valuable expertise and experience, backed by a team that is equipped to put the right licenses for Adobe Originals in the hands of the brands and designers that need them,” said Brent Getlin, Adobe. “As one of our exclusive resellers, it will give enterprises easy access to expanded licensing beyond what’s available through the Adobe Fonts service.”

Monotype and Adobe Announce New Partnership That Will Make Fonts Available to Brands and Creative Professionals

To outsiders, it seemed like a straightforward sale. On Sept 15, Monotype, the world’s largest font seller, acquired Hoefler&Co (H&Co), a New York-based foundry perhaps best known for a font called Gotham, famously used by Barack Obama’s 2008 US presidential campaign. With the deal, Monotype acquired the intellectual property rights to the studio’s entire library of typefaces, along with the highly desirable URL typography.com, and a team of designers and support staff. H&Co’s name might ring a bell for those who saw the episode of the Netflix series Abstract featuring its founder, Jonathan Hoefler. And lawyers and graphic design nerds may recall the 2014 million-dollar legal battle (and settlement ) between Hoefler and his former business partner Tobias Frere-Jones—still the most publicized controversy in the relatively mellow world of digital font-making. Now, the acquisition of H&Co by an industry giant with private-equity owners is lighting up the industry, and raising existential concerns for others in the field. H&Co was a bastion of independent type design, a practice that was as innovative as it was profitable amid competition from giants like Monotype and Adobe Fonts, as well as the proliferation of free typefaces on Google Fonts. To see H&Co gobbled up by Monotype was a great blow felt by solo practitioners and small studios, who worry that a profit-driven corporation is increasingly dictating the terms and conditions of how their work is priced and distributed. Courtesy of Monotype
Some of Hoefler&Co’s typefaces used in logos
Charles Nix, a creative type director at Monotype, says that bringing H&Co’s assets under the company’s e-commerce umbrella simplifies the process of browsing and buying fonts. “It just makes it easier for the customer,” he explains, drawing an analogy between font use and software licensing. “A small foundry writes its own end-user license agreement, sometimes with legal counsel, sometimes without. They all differ wildly, which is crazy.”
Perhaps so. But the prospect of seeing the industry’s licensing practices streamlined was of little comfort to designers who flocked to social media and online fora like Type Drawers to process the shock of the H&Co sale. Some commiserated with Hoefler’s longtime staffers who heard about the sale at the same time the public did; others debated the scruples of Hoefler and his wife, Carleen Borsella, H&Co’s CEO, who left the company as soon as the deal was finalized to “explore new creative endeavors,” as the press release indicated. There were also some who defended Hoefler’s prerogative to steer his business however he pleases. Beyond the sale, many font makers voiced concerns about an impending Monotype monopoly—a “kraken eating up the industry ,” as designer Nina Stössinge puts it. H&Co is hardly the first type foundry to be absorbed by Monotype. Last year, the company acquired URW and the London-based studio Fontsmith. Prior to that, it bought Fontshop, the International Typeface Corporation, Bitstream, and Linotype , which was its main competitor for years. Belief in the value of type
Netflix
Carleen Borsella and Jonathan Hoefler in the Netflix series, Abstract. In the press release about the sale, Hoefler explained that he and Borsella believed Monotype was the best home for their 32-year-old business. “For us, it was critical to partner with an organization that fundamentally believes in the value of type,” Hoefler said. “Monotype is the most experienced foundry in the world, who today cares for many of the world’s most important typefaces, making them the natural home for the work we’ve created at Hoefler&Co.” He declined to comment for this story. Frere-Jones declined to comment on the sale or speculate about his former partner’s motives but also wondered about his profession’s future as Monotype becomes an even more dominant force. “The name ‘Monotype’ is a little too on the nose for what’s happening,” he observes. “Imagine if 70% of movie studios and TV production companies were owned by the same parent company. What do you think we would be watching? How much experimentation would there be? Would there be any pressure at all for this company that owns so much? It pokes right at the heart of what motivates so many of us, yet it’s exactly the thing that’s not part of their business model.”
The impact of H&Co’s acquisition cannot be overstated, says Nadine Chahine , a celebrated Lebanese type designer and Monotype’s former UK type director. Chahine, who earned her PhD from Leiden University and a post-doctorate degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, is a legibility expert and a pioneer of Arabic typography. She designed the official font for the city of Dubai , which is bundled in Microsoft Office. “I think it’s about time that I can speak more openly about this. It’s the future of our industry at stake and it’s never been this bad,” she tells Quartz. “With every new acquisition, it gets worse for the rest of us.”
How fonts are made and sold
To understand the gravity of H&Co’s decision to sell to Monotype, a primer on how digital typefaces are made and sold may be useful. Beyond the tired jokes about Comic Sans and Palatino is a serious industry that takes to heart the responsibility of shaping culture pixel by pixel. Fonts are conceived, drawn, and produced by skilled designers who study art, computer programming, languages, and history. The best ones possess twin geniuses in art and engineering, in addition to an enormous amount of foresight and patience. A type family can take months if not years to complete. A single typeface is redrawn in multiple styles—text, italics, condensed, bold, and variations in between. Quality typefaces are tweaked to ensure legibility when used in large billboards to the tiniest screens. Gotham, for instance, has 66 styles ; the sans serif Mallory that Frere-Jones designed has 110 weights, five widths, and supports a range of languages, from Acehnese to Zulu. Don’t ask a type designer estimate how long it takes to make a font; they’ll finesse a character—moving vector points and adjusting bézier curves pixel by pixel—until it looks just right. “You can describe our work as making really small decisions and projecting the implications of how every last thing that we do plays on each other,” explains Frere-Jones. “If you’re not into nuance, this really isn’t your business.”
The financial rewards for designers are rarely commensurate with their effort, and their work is often invisible in the blur of marketing campaigns and the oceans of text they’re used in—until a detail like letter spacing goes awry . “Love for the craft sustains a lot of this,” Frere-Jones says. Designers sell their work through various channels. They can sell directly to customers through their website or sign up with independent sellers like I Love Typography, Fontstand, or Village Type. But most solo operators will at least consider entrusting their work to large e-commerce platforms like Adobe Fonts or Monotype, who have armies of sales and marketing people on staff. Type designers also earn money from custom commissions. Big brands, newspapers, magazines, and large corporations have the budgets to order bespoke typefaces. Nick Shinn , a veteran type designer who runs a leading Canadian type foundry, has tried it all. “If you’re an independent, you can’t help but feel like you’re being screwed by the system in some way,” says Shinn, the creator of fonts like Merlin, Bodoni Egyptian, and Brown. Big third-party resellers, he says, can take up to 50% of profits and dictate the terms of the sale. On the other hand, those who sign up with large foundries can reach many more customers. “You now have exposure to the entire world,” Shinn says. “And it’s not just desktop fonts. It’s ebooks, it’s websites, it’s all these different licensing points and opportunities.”  The marketing of fonts has become more competitive over the years, he adds. “You used to just put the font on your website, maybe include a specimen sheet [a sampler], and maybe a banner ad. But as more foundries have entered the game, marketing has become more and more sophisticated and aggressive.” After fonts are sold, there’s the ordeal of monitoring licenses and delinquent applications. “That’s an area that Monotype is very strong on,” he explains. Inside Monotype, the company
Founded in 1887 as a manufacturer of printing equipment, Monotype transformed its operations to keep pace with the evolution in communications and media over the decades. At one time it was publicly traded; today it’s owned by HGGC, a middle-market private equity firm co-founded by American football legend Steve Young and based in Palo Alto, California. Monotype has amassed the world’s largest collection of digital typefaces—about 30,000 to date ; it owns licenses to popular typefaces like Helvetica, Times New Roman, Gill Sans, and Arial. Monotype also owns the popular e-commerce sites Fonts.com and MyFonts.com , the latter being a kind of free-market platform where classics like Linotype’s Avenir and House Industries’s Neutraface are listed alongside more homespun display fonts like Off Duty or The Last Tango. Monotype
Homepage of MyFonts.com
Monotype has been heavily promoting a subscription-based model that gives users access to a library of fonts for a flat fee. It also makes a significant chunk of its earnings from brokering enterprise licenses with big corporations and brands. IBM, for instance, told Quartz that it used to pay Monotype over a $1 million every year to license Helvetica Neue for its global workforce. It finally created its own “bespoke typeface,” called IBM Flex, in 2017. Monotype’s marketing touts the company’s commitment to type design. But during her tenure from 2005 to 2015, Chahine says she found that Monotype’s leaders only cared about six letters: EBITDA. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization is one of Wall Street’s favorite ways to measure a company’s performance, and 40% EBITDA growth is a metric that Monotype liked to cite to investors when it was a publicly traded company. In his August 2019 assessment of Monotype, published shortly after the company accepted the buyout offer from HGGC, industry consultant Mark Hahn wrote:
This is not a story of a distressed company, far from it. Rather, Monotype has been so successful in the consolidation of the font licensing business that the company has run out of significant acquisitions in its chosen market segment… Gross profit has been reported hovering around 85% of revenues, most of which are recurring and predictable, which explains the relatively high enterprise value (viewed from the perspective of those of us in the printing industry). But Chahine explains why Monotype’s wild profitability is an indicator that something might be amiss. “The primary function of a foundry is to release quality typefaces and there’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved,” she says. “This is not a profitable field—at least not on the scale that Monotype wants.”
Who manages the world’s largest font company? The composition of Monotype’s C-suite hints at its priorities. Today, not a single designer sits on Monotype’s leadership team . Ninan Chako , its newly appointed CEO, is a tech executive who ran a travel-services company before he was hired by Monotype. He replaced Scott Landers, an accountant, who managed Monotype for 13 years. Chahine, who began as an intern in the font department, says Monotype has become the Wal-Mart of typography—with MyFonts as the industry’s equivalent of the dollar store. “It’s sad because when I started my career at Linotype, my job was to talk about how amazing Helvetica, Frutiger, Avenir, and Palatino were,” she says. “These were the gems of the type world and now they sit with people who don’t care about them and only see them as cash cows.”
When Chahine was promoted to the role of UK type director, she was “at the highest level of design at Monotype, but there were still layers and layers of middle management between me and the executive team,” she recalls. To reach its profit targets, Chahine explains that Monotype’s leaders undermined the work of its designers, subjecting them to quarterly quotas for the sake of reporting. And sacking tenured employees was considered a cost-savings measure. “I always knew I would have to leave Monotype because I did not trust how they treated their employees, especially after a certain age,” she says. “If you’re over 50 and working at Monotype, you are doomed.”
Asked to respond, Monotype didn’t go into the details of its rounds of layoffs but said it does “not make decisions on employment status based on age, race, gender or similar criteria”. Toshi Omigari is among the Monotype type designers who were laid off last year. Omigari describes his eight years at the company as “overall positive,” but says he had been mulling the idea of leaving the company for a while. “I’ve had more than enough of the corporate stuff,” he says. Omigari believes that the company’s sales-focused ethos will prove to be its downfall. He recounts a clip of Steve Jobs in a 1995 interview explaining how the reign of sales personnel (a.k.a. “tonerheads”) at Xerox killed innovation and eventually led to the company’s stagnation. “In my opinion, this perfectly captures what’s happening at Monotype,” he says. An expert in video game fonts , Omigari occasionally picks up freelance assignments from his former employer but is glad to be out on his own. Will H&Co’s staff stay on? Omigari says that hearing the circumstance of H&Co’s acquisition affirmed his hunch about his former employer. “I noticed that Monotype isn’t interested in people; they were always just interested in their assets,” he says. Chahine echoes Omigari’s observation. “When they acquire a foundry, they will eventually lay off most of the staff. They’ll keep the fonts and gut the company,” she says. In a statement emailed to Quartz, Monotype says H&Co’s staff will remain employed. It reads:
Hoefler&Co employees have already begun working closely with the Monotype team to integrate their talent and capabilities. For now, the Hoefler&Co brand will continue to exist as it has, along with typography.com . The team has some exciting design releases upcoming, which we’re excited to help them finish and share with the industry. Of course, we will work together to determine the best long-term opportunity for integrating the Hoefler&Co brand into the Monotype family. Each acquisition is different, and we have been fortunate to benefit from [a] myriad of talent that have come to us as part of previous acquisitions. Based on its history, “for now” may prove to be a crucial phrase in the statement. Monotype says it doesn’t have a defined policy regarding the fate of employees of the foundries it buys. “Each acquisition is unique, and we take time to thoughtfully integrate the new foundry’s talents, IP, and capabilities into the existing Monotype business,” a spokesperson for the company told Quartz. Surveying the current composition of Monotype’s 14-person creative unit , only four—Phil Garnham (formerly of FontSmith), Akira Kobayashi (formerly of Linotype), and Tom Rickner and Terrance Weinzier (both from Ascender Corporation)—worked at a studio bought by Monotype. None of the studio founders has stayed on. Challenging the monopoly
As convenient as it may be for customers to default to the big industry players, there’s a dedicated coterie of type designers who are running their own e-commerce platforms and embracing the business and administrative challenges this comes with. Among them is I Love Typography , a webshop that Chahine co-founded as a counterpoint to Monotype. “The future of the industry depends on the creative output of hardworking type designers and if we want them to flourish, we need to create an ecosystem that rewards them,” she asserts. “Monotype has not shown any indication of that. If we want to support creativity and type design, we need to support the independent foundries wherever they are.”
Similarly, Village Type, a “ font co-op ” of 12 independent foundries, is vying to create a model that more closely evokes the “collegial” sensibility of the type design community. “There is a feeling of shock and aversion when the ‘rougher’ forms of brute capitalism shake up our industry,” says Tracy Jenkins, co-founder of Village Type. She argues that corporations can even use a designer’s dedication to hold them back. “In my early days as an art director at a New York branding firm, a creative director told me that the firm’s executives called the designers ‘exotic menials,’” Jenkins recalls. “It takes years of hard work and a dose of luck to break out of a menial pay and involvement level as a designer. Part of the bargain is that we love what we do. We’re willing to work extremely long hours for low pay because we love to make our work.”
Retirement options for designers: Monotype or bust? Ultimately H&Co’s acquisition has made many type designers turn inward and reflect on their career paths. Peter Biľak , who runs the Dutch studio Typotheque and co-founded Fontstand, says the news has made him think about succession. “In the old days, businesses were usually inherited and stayed in families. Today it is not realistic to expect that my daughter will run my business, ” he says. “Type foundries need to consider what their end game is, not just in terms of selling the business but also the legacy they leave behind,” he adds. “Sadly, the consensus appears to be that if you work with type, you sell to Monotype. I hope to see different models when people are ready to retire or move on.”
Meanwhile Shinn, the Canadian type designer, is ready to sell to Monotype. “I’m 69 and I hope to be working, you know, for another 20 years at least,” he explains. “But if someone said, ‘Hey, Nick, we’ll give you a large sum of money for the rights to your existing typeface library and intellectual property,’ I’d have no qualms.…We might criticize the concentration [monopoly] in the industry and the negative effects of it, but ultimately, if you’re a small operator, you’d sell out if the money was right.”
Frere-Jones, for his part, shares Biľak’s sensibility. “It seems a little too ‘scorched earth’ to think that selling to Monotype and walking completely away from my work might be the only option at the end of my career,” he says. “I can’t really fathom doing that when the time comes.”
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A famous type foundry’s sale to a PE-backed giant has rattled the font industry

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The global user generated content platform market size is expected to reach USD 18.65 billion by 2028. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 26.6% from 2021 to 2028. The use of user-generated content for marketing purposes is on the rise. The authenticity and creativity of this messaging have been harnessed to drive positive business outcomes. As more marketers take advantage of this relatively new form of advertising, close attention is needed to be paid to how this content is commercialized, to not tread into the very different waters of influencer marketing. For instance, Travelex, a U.K.-based foreign exchange company, started a campaign by launching a 12-month photo contest campaign. The company made use of exclusive hashtags such as #Travelxwow in order to urge its audience to participate, capture their best shots, and share on Instagram, Twitter, or directly through their own website. Through this initiative, the company aims to increase social engagement and obtain potential user data. The advent of digital commerce and the extending consumer distaste for intrusive marketing tactics have led many advertisers and brands to introduce user-generated content to engage consumers and connect with them. New formats such as augmented reality (AR) filters and lenses and live streaming have provided consumers with new methods to create content. They have given marketing agencies new strategies to leverage user-generated content as part of their advertising and marketing efforts. For instance, in March 2020, Twitch's, an American video live streaming service, states that its viewership increased by 31% as more individuals connected with the live streaming platform. For brands and their agencies, there are many benefits to using UGC for marketing and advertising purposes. Top among them are highly trusted online content, strong brand affinity and engagement, more earned media, strong search engine optimization (SEO), and new research opportunities. However, the downside of marketing and advertising through user-generated content is connected to the requirement of close supervision as negative content is inevitable. It requires an individual or a team to monitor, filter, and review user-generated content before publishing, which leads to extra costs and time for the organizations. Besides, moderating UGC can lead to a Black Hat SEO attack. Therefore, a dedicated team of supervisors is required to publish the content. Another prominent factor restraining the growth of the UGC market is unreliable and unknown sources. Since people can be reluctant to trust a random review or content with no authoritative background, it questions the credibility of the marketing content. Further, accusing the system of fake accounts and aliases is easy with so many different content contributors. Therefore, some consumers are not likely to trust UGC as others. User Generated Content Platform Market Report Highlights
The rapid growth of digital music has contributed to the explosive surge in user-generated content, such as virtual concerts on Twitch or Fortnite, and music as a viral meme of Triller and TikTok. TikTok has certainly shifted the paradigm on how entertainment/ music followers discover, create, and share music
The growing use of smartphones with high-speed internet technologies, such as 3G, 4G, and LTE, has led to the increased data consumption and production of user-generated content, such as live streaming videos and live podcasts
In terms of product type, the audio and video (including live streaming) segment captured the largest revenue share in 2020. Factors such as increased engagement with customers, high potential for shareability on social media platforms, the availability of high-speed internet, and detailed information about the product are expected to drive the audio and video (including live streaming) segment
To gain a competitive edge in the market, players have started adopting the client base expansion strategy by raising funds for the development of their platform. For instance, in March 2021, Yotpo, an eCommerce marketing platform that helps to accelerate direct-to-consumer growth, announced raising USD 230 million in Series F funding. This initiative was aimed at funding to accelerate the company's eCommerce marketing platform
Key Topics Covered:
Chapter 2 Executive Summary
3.1 Market Segmentation & Scope
3.3 Key Benefits of UGC
3.4 Value Chain Analysis

14:15 ET
Global User Generated Content Platform Market Report 2021-2028 Featuring CrowdRiff, Curalate, Monotype Imaging, Olapic,...

house industries

WOBURN , Mass. -- -- Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. and House Industries today announced a collaboration that will make it easier for creative professionals to license and access the typography they need .

Monotype and House Industries Announce a Collaboration That Will Make Fonts Available to Creative Teams and Promote the Role of Typography in Culture

Celartem Technology Inc. develops and sells innovative technologies for storage, access and distribution of rich media content. Celartem has developed technology in the areas of digital image compression, scalable image viewing and secure content distribution and management under its Extensis (www.extensis.com) and LizardTech (www.lizardtech.com) technology brands. Celartem is listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange, Hercules: 4330. Established in 1996, Celartem is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and has a wholly owned subsidiary, Celartem Inc. with headquarters in Seattle.

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Google's search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

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Monotype (NASDAQ: TYPE) provides typeface solutions for a broad range of creative applications and consumer devices. The company's libraries and e-commerce sites are home to typefaces including the Helvetica, Frutiger and Univers families.

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