Description:

Tobler is a bespoke typeface commissioned for the renowned Swiss chocolate brand, Toblerone. Initially crafted to echo Toblerone’s iconic wordmark, the typeface has been extended to include a Cyrillic character set, punctuation and symbols; broadening its potential for application across different markets and adding more versatility to its design.

The original typeface styles, composed of Solid, Outline, and Shadow, were originally created to operate independently or layer together. The challenge of extending these to accommodate a Cyrillic character set involved going beyond the existing letter shapes, delving deeper into the zeitgeist and period lettering that inspired the original design—Art Nouveau.

The Cyrillic extension introduced more advanced shapes into the typeface, requiring a higher degree of adaptability. The design tropes we associate with the Toblerone wordmark; a heavy baseline and corresponding drop shadow, required further bespoke treatment to ensure both legibility by brand and legibility by language. Each character is designed to exist within a larger type system, which was particularly challenging for intricate glyphs such as currency symbols. While many of these are informed by existing letterforms, the complexity that comes with the addition of vertical or horizontal strokes needed to be carefully managed to ensure visual balance alongside other characters.

As brands around the world adapt to the potential of bespoke typography, rarely do they explore beyond their own linguistic back yard. Toblerone is a global brand with a rich history, creating the opportunity for a nuanced approach to identity and communication. This expansion of Tobler demonstrates how an existing design can be effectively extended to cater to more complex linguistic systems, illuminating the possibilities of typographic design.