In 2018, Airbnb created a custom typeface to unify its app, website and physical materials, with one central requirement: staying legible everywhere and for everyone.
The typefaces
The brand first used Circular, a commercial geometric sans. In May 2018, it launched Airbnb Cereal, designed with the Dalton Maag foundry, in six weights from Light to Black. Its name refers to the cereal boxes the founders sold in 2008 to fund the company.
The system
Cereal was conceived as both a design and an engineering project: it has to work in a small interface label as well as on a poster. Product and accessibility teams took part in its development. It accompanies the brand symbol and structures the whole hierarchy of information.
Why it works
Its geometric yet open shapes convey welcome and simplicity, two values at the heart of a hospitality service. A proprietary typeface makes the brand recognisable even without its logo. Its name, drawn from the company's story, also gives it a narrative dimension.
What a brand can learn from it
A custom typeface makes the most sense when a brand lives primarily in a digital product. Building in accessibility from the start avoids fixing it later. A name that tells a story helps teams make the typeface their own.
Read also: Circular, Geometric sans, Weight, Hierarchy