How Custom Fonts for Retail Brands Drive Consistency
Client
T‑Market
Agency
N/A
Industry
Retail
The Client – Local Supermarket Chain with Global Ambitions
T‑Market – a Bulgarian supermarket chain owned by Maxima Bulgaria. We collaborated with their brand team to craft the T‑Market typeface—a brand-aligned custom font system adapted for everyday customer touchpoints.
Custom Font Design Built Around Brand Voice
In early 2024, Maxima Bulgaria engaged us to develop a bespoke typeface system for T‑Market. The goal: refresh the supermarket brand identity with a custom typeface that fits the Maxima Group’s voice—yet feels local, warm, and trusted by Bulgarian shoppers. This type system had to be deployed across signage, price labels, digital displays, and marketing channels.
Typography Challenges: Mixed Messaging & Inconsistent Type
The challenge? Their existing typography just wasn’t cutting it. We kicked things off with a full typographic assessment. It revealed a mismatch between their intentions and their visual language. T‑Market’s previous type system lacked cohesion: multiple styles, unclear hierarchy, and fluctuating brand tone across assets. A typographic audit revealed a gap between brand intent and visual identity.
With only two months and a limited budget, our task was to create a flexible yet unified type system—a scalable font structure fit for branding, retail, and marketing.
Design Strategy: Brand‑Aligned Typeface Rooted in Brand Values
With a tight deadline and modest budget, we went for a smart and lean approach: adapt one of our own fonts.
Glober was the perfect match. Its humanist design and balanced proportions gave us a head start—it was friendly, clear, and adaptable. We made careful modifications to align it with T-Market’s brand tone.
Our approach is always anchored in brand attributes—communication tone, values, and target audience. For T‑Market, we preserved Glober’s humanist structure while designing soft brush finishes on stems, terminals, and apexes to amplify its distinct character. That way we underscored the brand’s friendly, approachable, and convenient voice.
We made thoughtful adjustments so the typeface felt tailored—not generic—to the retail environment, all without starting from zero.
Marketing-Ready Typeface: Two Weights for All Touchpoints
The result was a sharp, no-nonsense headline typeface in two weights—Bold and Black—used across all touch points:
- TV spots, social posts, in-store signage, internal comms, and more.
- It brought clarity and consistency to their communication while giving their brand a fresh and confident voice.
- We also delivered a custom type manual to guide their teams on proper use across formats.
“Fontfabric helped us align our visual tone with our brand values, without starting from zero. It’s made a big difference in our day-to-day comms.” — Kalina Ivanova, Brand Manager / Maxima Bulgaria
Custom Fonts That Scale Across Your Store Network
This project is a great example of how strategic font selection—and smart customization—can quickly elevate a brand’s voice without blowing the budget or timeline. Typography isn’t just decoration—it’s how you say what you mean, visually.
Additional Info
- Duration: 32 business days
- Creative Type Director: Plamen Motev
- Type Designer: Ivelina Martinova
Looking to unify your brand with the right font?
Let’s talk about building a font that fits your brand—whether we start from scratch or adapt something smart.