TypeLab: Inspiring Font Discovery
Role
Full-stack designer
Timeline
October - November 2025
Toolkit
Figma
TypeLab: Inspiring Font Discovery
Role
Full-stack designer
Timeline
October - November 2025
Toolkit
Figma
01 CONTEXT
An app to inspire font discovery & learning
As a kid, I spent hours browsing through google fonts and obsessing over the nuances between various serifs, sans serifs and scripts. I wanted to design a community based app that allows users to learn and discover new fonts, and allow amateurs to create and sell their own fonts.
01 CONTEXT
An app to inspire font discovery & learning
As a kid, I spent hours browsing through google fonts and obsessing over the nuances between various serifs, sans serifs and scripts. I wanted to design a community based app that allows users to learn and discover new fonts, and allow amateurs to create and sell their own fonts.
02 SOLUTION
"omg! Your handwriting looks like a font!"
Back in elementary school when I put effort into making my handwriting legible (and not complete chicken scratch), my classmates have told me that they wish they had my handwriting!
I think a lot of people (designers and non-designers alike) have been told that their handwriting is pretty and they wished it was a font. While there is a lot of design decisions that go into creating professional typefaces, I think there is definitely a demand / interest in more casually created fonts that people can easily share & download to use on personal projects / note-taking.
Discover professional & amateur typefaces
Create your own typefaces
Publish your fonts and join a community
Learn what makes a font unique
02 SOLUTION
"omg! Your handwriting looks like a font!"
Back in elementary school when I put effort into making my handwriting legible (and not complete chicken scratch), my classmates have told me that they wish they had my handwriting!
I think a lot of people (designers and non-designers alike) have been told that their handwriting is pretty and they wished it was a font. While there is a lot of design decisions that go into creating professional typefaces, I think there is definitely a demand / interest in more casually created fonts that people can easily share & download to use on personal projects / note-taking.
Discover professional & amateur typefaces
Create your own typefaces
Publish your fonts and join a community
Learn what makes a font unique
03 cREATING AN MVP
Designing a user flow
Keeping the project brief at the forefront of my ideating phase, I created an information architecture to display the screen requirements.
I then made wireframes that aligned with my information architecture.
03 cREATING AN MVP
Designing a user flow
Keeping the project brief at the forefront of my ideating phase, I created an information architecture to display the screen requirements.
I then made wireframes that aligned with my information architecture.
04 ITERATIONS
Navigation bar?
At first, I did not want to include a navigation bar because the goal of the app was simple: discover new fonts and learn about them.
However, as I designed additional features a navigation bar became increasingly necessary.
Branding & high contrast text
I kept the colours minimal to emphasize the qualities of the typefaces. I was happy with a pure grayscale app but wanted to play around with beige-sepia color. Ultimately I felt that black and white felt more visually pleasing and better represented common typeface use cases.
Reframing the brief to sprinkle in some whimsy…
Because this project was a design exploration rather than a functional build, I had complete creative freedom — with no technical or business limitations — to guide the app’s concept. I had multiple ideas ranging from games to help users quickly identify fonts, community upvotes, and even AR type viewers to visualize fonts in real-world contexts (such as signage or posters).
However, I found myself most excited to work on features that dealt with community and accessibility. I often find that the typography community can be a bit daunting to enter, so I wanted to make that experience as effortless as possible.
04 ITERATIONS
Navigation bar?
At first, I did not want to include a navigation bar because the goal of the app was simple: discover new fonts and learn about them.
However, as I designed additional features a navigation bar became increasingly necessary.
Branding & high contrast text
I kept the colours minimal to emphasize the qualities of the typefaces. I was happy with a pure grayscale app but wanted to play around with beige-sepia color. Ultimately I felt that black and white felt more visually pleasing and better represented common typeface use cases.
Reframing the brief to sprinkle in some whimsy…
Because this project was a design exploration rather than a functional build, I had complete creative freedom — with no technical or business limitations — to guide the app’s concept. I had multiple ideas ranging from games to help users quickly identify fonts, community upvotes, and even AR type viewers to visualize fonts in real-world contexts (such as signage or posters).
However, I found myself most excited to work on features that dealt with community and accessibility. I often find that the typography community can be a bit daunting to enter, so I wanted to make that experience as effortless as possible.
05 rEFLECTION
What did I learn?
Avoiding choice overload but allowing for in depth exploration
Initially, I had my typefaces compactly displayed. Users were able to view upwards of 15 font choices at the same time. To avoid overwhelming the user and hurting users' decision-making ability, I adjusted the line spacing between the fonts by nearly double. As a result, a maximum of 7 options are shown at any specific moment allowing for users to better view each font.
Taking a step back
I often found myself over thinking type hierarchy and how it impacted overall clarity, especially on the profile screen, and explore tab within a font.
I would obsess over minute decisions for extended periods of time without arriving at a solution I was happy with. It was only when I put down the project for a few days then got back to it that I was able to mentally refresh.
05 rEFLECTION
What did I learn?
Avoiding choice overload but allowing for in depth exploration
Initially, I had my typefaces compactly displayed. Users were able to view upwards of 15 font choices at the same time. To avoid overwhelming the user and hurting users' decision-making ability, I adjusted the line spacing between the fonts by nearly double. As a result, a maximum of 7 options are shown at any specific moment allowing for users to better view each font.
Taking a step back
I often found myself over thinking type hierarchy and how it impacted overall clarity, especially on the profile screen, and explore tab within a font.
I would obsess over minute decisions for extended periods of time without arriving at a solution I was happy with. It was only when I put down the project for a few days then got back to it that I was able to mentally refresh.
Have a sip of tea
Have a sip of tea