Bundesliga

Custom type family for Bundesliga and DFL

The Bundesliga is Germany’s primary football (soccer) competition, with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide. Like many major national sports leagues, one of their goals is to increase worldwide visibility. Bundesliga’s head organisation DFL (Deutsche Fußball Liga) decided to develop a new branding and type system to kick things off. They needed something simple and adaptable that could be recognised immediately.

DFL Sans is at the center of the new identity and forms the foundation of all logos and sub-brands associated with DFL and Bundesliga. The solution takes a digital-first approach: a typeface created with varying screen resolutions in mind, but ultimately suitable for all media. The result is a slightly rounded, square construction. Generous proportions, wide counters, and open apertures facilitate readability in medium and small point sizes.

The typeface has been in operation since the start of the 2017/2018 season, carrying the on-air graphics, website, all social media channels, and merchandising; it is also integral to the Bundesliga arena experience.

Client: DFL (Bundesliga)

Lead agency: Mutabor Design

Year: 2017

Art-direction and design: William Montrose

William Montrose is a type designer with a background in marketing and advertising. His interest in typography led him to Berlin (FontShop International), Reading (MA Typeface Design) and London (Dalton Maag).

William worked on custom and retail typefaces and marketing at Rosetta. He is now a partner in an independent project Kilotype.

Design: Sláva Jevčinová

Sláva Jevčinová is a type and graphic designer from Slovakia. She holds an MA in type design from the Type and Media programme at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague as well as an MA in graphic design from J. E. Purkyně University in Czech Republic. After an internship at Mota Italic in Berlin she specialised in TrueType hinting at Fontwerk. She has been working independently since 2013 and regularly collaborates with Rosetta as hinting specialist and type designer.

Assistance:

Post-production :	David Březina