The Designers Foundry 10 Wulkan Type Family

Finalist
Credits
  • Pou Auaha / Creative Director
    Jan Estrada-Osmycki
  • Ngā Kaimahi / Team Members
    Daniel McQueen, Ola Rubik
  • Client
    The Designers Foundry
Description:

Wulkan type family. Originally released in 2019 as only Display family. However, as time passed, we saw increasing demand for an optical range, better text performance, and more language support. Rather than add onto the existing font, we chose to redraw the entire typeface from the ground up.

We developed three distinct families: Text, Headline, and Display, each optimised for specific settings. The technical cornerstone of the system is the variable font’s optical size axis, allowing users to seamlessly transition from small, robust text to large, dramatic display typography with pixel-level precision.

We also introduced a new Black weight, reworked the italics for greater elegance, and added OpenType features such as small caps and swashes. Language support include both Latin and Cyrillic scripts, enabling Wulkan to function across a wider range of editorial and cultural applications.

The outcome is a typeface family that performs with distinction across a range of sizes and use cases. From book typography to digital interfaces, branding to editorial, Wulkan’s expanded system offers designers flexibility without sacrificing personality.

Since the re-release, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve seen Wulkan adopted by global studios, used in both cultural and commercial contexts.