Sharp Type was asked to create a bespoke suite of typefaces for Nordstrom, the American upmarket department store chain. Since 1901, when the first store opened in Seattle, Nordstrom has represented a quintessential vision of West Coast style and ease. Lucas Sharp was approached by creative director Jack Decaluwe, formerly of Instrument, who was a fan of our classic scriptface Ogg. Nordstrom wanted a family of typefaces that could perform across all communication channels in any context. To take it a step furher, they wanted an interpolating design space—using Ogg as the basis.

Lucas and the Sharp Type team created a trio of interpolating typefaces—a serif, flared serif, and sans—with the addition of a separate true italic for the serif. Two weight masters were created for each of these four styles.

Ogg was used as the foundation for the serif style, which in turn became the model for Nordstrom’s sans and semi-serif letterforms. Ogg’s original design space had to be simplified and become more mechanical. The features that allow Ogg to work so well as a display face—its high contrast, calligraphic flourish, wildly expressive feel—had to be toned down and reconsidered for adaptability. Restraint was never a defining characteristic of Ogg, so the challenge was to discover the font’s utility without losing its core sensibility. Somewhat ironically, in the course of the design process,

The italic we created for Nordstrom also bears mentioning. It’s the one style that does not interpolate with the rest, and the design was very deliberate, pairing with the scriptface. Although it flows like a calligraphic scriptface, the design is more representational, its connecting semi-script forms and ligatures mechanically constructed. Lucas ended up liking the design so much, that he was inspired to draw an entirely new typeface, which will be coming out sooner than later.

Nordstrom Sans rounds out the interpolating family. We created a geometric to work at scales large and small, and the design complements the Serif and Flare styles using Nordstrom’s logotype as a reference with its pointy diagonal elbows, and Ogg’s /O, which is actually quite geometric in shape.

To this point, in addition to Ogg, clients like Nordstrom have been interested in the flared serif—also called a semi-serif—as an editorial and branding style. If the sans represents neutrality, clean design, and minimalism, the flared serif toes aesthetic and functional lines—it’s a style that, when done well, offers distinction with a more restrained elegance. For Nordstrom, we developed a flared serif as the “in-between” style. While the flared/semi-serif is having a moment, it’s a long-established style, and not the first one that we’ve published (explore Ceraph here).