Yulu's new Typeface

Yulu's new Typeface

I led the research for a new typeface that better reflected Yulu’s evolving brand. One that is modern, mobile-friendly, and full of motion. I evaluated and audited 40 typefaces, and then we landed on a typeface that now anchors the product’s visual language across all platforms.

I led the research for a new typeface that better reflected Yulu’s evolving brand. One that is modern, mobile-friendly, and full of motion. I evaluated and audited 40 typefaces, and then we landed on a typeface that now anchors the product’s visual language across all platforms.

What is it?

What is it?

With the need to overhaul Yulu's brand, I led the initiative to define a new typographic foundation that would anchor our new design language. I conducted audit and evaluated 40 typefaces . The selected typeface now powers Yulu’s ecosystem across digital products, marketing surfaces, and internal communication.
I facilitated team-wide learning session on type and helped set the foundations of typography hierarchy.

With the need to overhaul Yulu's brand, I led the initiative to define a new typographic foundation that would anchor our new design language. I conducted audit and evaluated 40 typefaces . The selected typeface now powers Yulu’s ecosystem across digital products, marketing surfaces, and internal communication. I facilitated team-wide learning session on type and helped set the foundations of typography hierarchy.

Roles

Roles

Research

Research

me

me

Head of Design

Head of Design

Aryan Indraksh

Aryan Indraksh

The challenge

The challenge

Typography, for a mobility brand like Yulu that interacts with users across platforms plays a crucial role in shaping perception. Redefined design language, meant needing a typeface that could unify our identity across all channels. The challenge was to find a font that reflected Yulu’s evolving brand tone - modern, approachable,
and future-forward. The search involved evaluating and finding a typeface this is consistent and scalable in a growth environment.

Typography, for a mobility brand like Yulu that interacts with users across platforms plays a crucial role in shaping perception. Redefined design language, meant needing a typeface that can unify our identity across all channels. The challenge was to find a font that reflected Yulu’s evolving brand tone - modern, approachable, and future-forward. The search involved evaluating and finding a typeface this is consistent and scalable in a growth environment.

The first step was conducting audit of all typefaces currently in use across Yulu’s ecosystem. This revealed a lack of consistency, with a total of 5 different fonts used across various channels.

The second step involved reviewing research papers to build a strong case for why typography matters. Next, I analyzed the typefaces adopted by design leaders we identified to benchmark best practices.

In parallel, I began evaluating typefaces suggested by the team, along with those that met criteria. This resulted in a detailed audit and testing phase, ultimately leading us to identify the one typeface.

The first step was conducting audit of all typefaces currently in use across Yulu’s ecosystem. This revealed a lack of consistency, with a total of 5 different fonts used across various channels.

The second step involved reviewing research papers to build a strong case for why typography matters. Next, I analyzed the typefaces adopted by design leaders we identified to benchmark best practices.

In parallel, I began evaluating typefaces suggested by the team, along with those that met criteria. This resulted in a detailed audit and testing phase, ultimately leading us to identify the one typeface.

The approach

The approach

The evaluation

The evaluation

Audit & Research

Audit & Research

First thing first was the audit of current typefaces currently in use across Yulu’s ecosystem. This revealed a lack of consistency, with a total of five different fonts used across various channels:

1. Circular standard - used in presentations and parts of the website
2. Avenir - used within the customer app
3. Open Sans - also found in the customer app
4. Heebo - used on sections of the website
5. Mulish - scattered usage in some web components

Secondly, I reviewing research papers to build a strong case for why typography matters:

1. How Typography Affects Conversions and UX: Tommy Walker (link)
2. Effect of Font Type on Memory for Instruction: Sally McDonnell (link)
3. An Event-Related Potential study of letter spacing during visual word
recognition: Elizabeth Sacchi a, Ryan Mirchin a, Sarah Laszlo (link)

First thing first was the audit of current typefaces currently in use across Yulu’s ecosystem. This revealed a lack of consistency, with a total of five different fonts used across various channels:

1. Circular standard - used in presentations and parts of the website
2. Avenir - used within the customer app
3. Open Sans - also found in the customer app
4. Heebo - used on sections of the website
5. Mulish - scattered usage in some web components

Secondly, I reviewing research papers to build a strong case for why typography matters:

1. How Typography Affects Conversions and UX: Tommy Walker (link)
2. Effect of Font Type on Memory for Instruction: Sally McDonnell (link)
3. An Event-Related Potential study of letter spacing during visual word recognition: Elizabeth Sacchi, Ryan Mirchin, Sarah Laszlo (link)

* Auditing existing typefaces *

* Auditing existing typefaces *

* Research takeaways *

* Auditing existing typefaces *

  1. Suits Yulu’s tone

  2. Legible, readable, contrasting

  3. Il1 test (capital I, lowercase L, and number 1 test)

  4. 8 and B test

  5. Multi-language support

  6. Contrast and weight range

Evaluation method

Evaluation of
Typefaces

Evaluation of typefaces

The audit of existing typefaces across Yulu’s ecosystem revealed team preference for Circular Std. However, licensing restrictions from Monotype made it unviable for long-term use. This led me to expand the search by evaluating typefaces used by leading design teams—such as Cereal by Airbnb, Netflix Sans by Netflix, etc. in order to benchmark what makes those typefaces great and what to look for in terms of quality, scalability, and brand alignment.

The audit of existing typefaces across Yulu’s ecosystem revealed team preference for Circular Std. However, licensing restrictions from Monotype made it unviable for long-term use. This led me to expand the search by evaluating typefaces used by leading design teams—such as Cereal by Airbnb, Netflix Sans by Netflix, etc. in order to benchmark what makes those typefaces great and what to look for in terms of quality, scalability, and brand alignment.

Lexend, Atkinson Hyperlegible, Bitter, Raleway, Thempos Text, Kulturista, Chap, LL Circluar, Heebo, Open Sans, Avenir, Mulish,TT Commons, GreyCliff, Visby Round, Lufga, Jeko, Haffer, GT Haptik,
Polly Rounded, Bariol, Gilroy, Pacaembu, Aeonik, Averta Std. Poppins, Satoshi, Inter, Duplet, Suisse Int'l, Gilroy, Duplet Open.

The typefaces evaluated

We as a team voted and on all the typefaces and finalized 3 fonts we will evaluate further:

1. Greycliff
2. Satoshi
3. Duplet Open

Decisions

Evaluation method

  1. Suits Yulu’s tone

  2. Legible, readable, contrasting

  3. Il1 test (capital I, lowercase L, and number 1 test)

  4. 8 and B test

  5. Multi-language support

  6. Contrast and weight range

The typefaces evaluated

Lexend, Atkinson Hyperlegible, Bitter, Raleway, Thempos Text,
Kulturista, Chap, LL Circluar, Heebo, Open Sans, Avenir, Mulish,
TT Commons, GreyCliff, Visby Round, Lufga, Jeko, Haffer, GT Haptik,
Polly Rounded, Bariol, Gilroy, Pacaembu, Aeonik, Averta Std. Poppins,
Satoshi, Inter, Duplet, Suisse Int'l, Gilroy, Duplet Open.

* Gilroy typeface *

* Gilroy typeface *

* Aeonik typeface *

* Aeonik typeface *

Decisions

We as a team voted and on all the typefaces and finalized 3 fonts we will evaluate further:

1. Greycliff
2. Satoshi
3. Duplet Open

* Greycliff typeface *

* Greycliff typeface *

* Duplet Open typeface *

* Duplet Open typeface *

The typeface for Yulu

The typeface for Yulu

Why Satoshi

Why Satoshi?

  1. Free

  2. Modern and Aesthetic

  3. Multi-weight

  4. Brand alignment

  5. Web optimized

  6. Team vote

  1. Free

  2. Modern and Aesthetic

  3. Multi-weight

  4. Brand alignment

  5. Web optimized

  6. Team vote

This typographic journey wouldn’t have been possible without the collaboration and support of my team—Arpitha, Vaishnavi, Amitesh, Atima, and Aryan. I’m excited to see the typeface come to life across Yulu’s entire ecosystem and contribute to a more cohesive and scalable brand experience.

P.S. It’s already live.

This typographic journey wouldn’t have been possible without the collaboration and support of my team—Arpitha, Vaishnavi, Amitesh, Atima, and Aryan. I’m excited to see the typeface come to life across Yulu’s entire ecosystem and contribute to a more cohesive and scalable brand experience.

P.S. It’s already live.

Conclusion

Conclusion