The Spry Group has been collaborating with Web Type and Font Bureau on TypeNetwork: a new platform bringing together the best type designers in the world with an advanced system for browsing and licensing their typefaces.

We developed TN’s site from the ground up to provide a desktop-like user experience. Behind the scenes our flexible services oriented based architecture allows for easy scaling and simplifies building new features. In short? TypeNetwork is built from the ground up to evolve with the users’ and markets’ needs.

So let’s see what TypeNetwork has to offer! We’d also like to thank a list of people for their work on this project, and share a little back-story about how it came together.

What is TypeNetwork?

TypeNetwork is a new model for type design, development, and the licensing needs of both type designers and typeface users. How can you use it?

• Browse TypeNetwork’s wide variety of typefaces with a curated view of what’s going on in the catalog, news sections, and galleries
• Delve effortlessly into a rich catalog of typefaces with our robust search tools, quick links and filters
• Quickly license fonts from multiple designers with a unified checkout system
• View live specimens for every typeface, allowing you to see every single size, glyph, and feature
• Connect directly with an alliance of foundries
• Explore a site where designers are encouraged to share their stories and inspirations

From Postscript to TrueType to OpenType and web fonts, their tradition is pushing the boundaries of type design and development. www.typenetwork.com

The Backstory

The collaboration between Spry Group and Web Type on TypeNetwork began back near the end of 2014. The original Web Type website had launched in 2010, establishing an online presence for the WebType brand. The new TypeNetwork property opens up the platform to put foundries up front. Not only does TypeNetwork provide licensing and delivery of web fonts, its catalogue has been expanded to include desktop, e-pub, application, and print licensing.

This reimagined tool gives users a fresh approach to networking with typeface designers and foundries. It offers highly curated content, an exceptionally intuitive search, and powerful filtering tools.

The TypeNetwork team has been working in digital type since desktop publishing first gave designers the tools to take control of their own typography. They haven’t stopped innovating since.

We really enjoyed working with them on this project, and look forward to assisting you and your team with your next venture.

OUR THANKS

We are grateful to everyone who gave their time and talents for this project, including any contributors not listed below. We also quoted some positive feedback submitted from other team members on those they worked with. Nice job!

Ilya Kushnirsky introduced us to Paley at WebType and started this ball rolling.

Paley Drier – Paley is the CEO of WebType and champoined our involvement in TypeNetwork with the Font Bureau team.

Lauren Drier – The original designer of the site and we love her work and the tone she set for the design.

Chris Lewis – Chris was one of the original developers on TypeNetwork having worked extensively with Font Bureau in the past. He was key to getting us on board and wrote a lot of the code for loading the fonts in the browser and sizing the specimens.

Sam Berlow – CEO of Font Bureau was so “generous with his time and his hands-on approach to the project”… “It was great working with Sam… I admired how he adhered to his typographic principles throughout the entire process. His guidance was key.”

Petr van Blokland - CTO of Font Bureau, “for sharing their experience with developing font software and guiding us on implementing FB’s various font libraries.”

David Jonathan Ross (DJR), C.J. Dunn & David Berlow – “the type designers at FB we got to work with taught us so much about type and the software for managing it.”

Roger Black - Principal and Designer at FB, “for his input on the business of selling fonts, typography and design, and setting a strong vision for the product.” http://rogerblack.com/

The Spry Group Team - “Everyone on the Spry team was super responsive, thoughtful and efficient.” … “This is a really great group of developers. I’ve worked with many different development teams over the years, and my experience on this project far exceeded previous experiences. I felt that the Spry team valued my input and took great care with design implementation and the execution of detailed specs. I enjoyed the agile workflow, the Github ticket system and Gitter integration. I definitely prefer these tools to Basecamp, Redmine and other project management tools I’ve used in the past. Angular part has been fun so far.”

Andy Zickler - Lead Developer, who kept “the project running and code updates flowing.”… “Project Leader and now Django developer. He learned Django very quickly and implemented a lot of important logic on the backend.” … “Leads the team and replies very quickly to every hesitation from the team.”

Cherny Berbesi - Developer, who brought “his deep Django expertise to the project and filling in equally on the front end and backend.”

Conrad Kreyling - Front End / UX Developer, who worked “with the client to get their vision documented well enough for our developers to build it and digging deep in making our front end work well.” … “Great Frontend Developer, all the strange issues and broken things were fixed by him in a couple of minutes. He has very good skills and also he could help on a couple of functionalities on Backend.” … “Conrad was also a key player because has the entire picture of the project on his head. He’s always a step ahead when a new requirement is asked by customer.” … “Conrad in particular was my go-to source for guidance, questions and brainstorming.”

Darrel O’Pry - Systems Architect, “for setting the technical vision, team processes, and designing the software architecture and infrastructure throughout the project.” … “Support on architecture and infrastructure. Also has provided valuable suggestions through the dev process.”

Martin Freytes - Developer, “for all his help getting our backend working and being the machine of progress in terms of raw development throughput.” “A star developer with a fantastic work ethic. He helped us make a good chunk of the app!”

Paolo Dvorchik - Developer and PM, “for his steadfast work with the client reviewing and resolving issues and helping manage technical expectations.”… “FullStack - He is very comfortable with Django and backend development, as well he made a lot of functionalities on Frontend side and has very good skills as developer.” … “Helps to lead the team and always provides a quick and easy way to implement or solve issues.”

Randi Hazan - Production Designer, “for helping evolve the design with the client as they’ve been revising their vision and producing the graphics assets we needed as we went.” … “Very good designer with a very good eye on details.” … “She has been the UI/UX guide for TN and honestly I think the application is very intuitive and fancy.”

TypeNetwork - “TypeNetwork is a marketplace of fonts where the designers can add new families and fonts. The people can buy depending on the application needed (app, desktop, web, ebooks).” … “TN offers beautifully crafted type presented in a designer-friendly format. The catalog allows the user to browse and examine the type in countless ways. TypeNetwork also offers some of the most complete font families I’ve seen in terms of the variety of weights and widths available. And I love that TypeNetwork created their own type classification system with tn_width and tn_weight.” … “I’m a type nerd, so working on a typography project was absolutely dreamy. Particularly working with Font Bureau, who I’ve always admired and respected.”