Alibaba Typeface
Sometimes everything is working out, but it is not what you want, or at least you realized something else should happen. Before the Alibaba’s typeface designing project started, IranSans, Iranyekan, and Anjoman typefaces could somehow meet the technical needs of Alibaba Company and its users. However, something was missing; a communication that could express the pure emotions of the brand.
The public typefaces could cover the technical needs of Alibaba such as readability and legibility in the website and the application, but they did not create a unique experience for Alibaba’s users, because other brands with totally different and even opposite identities had the same written tone and personality. But we were looking for a unique experience of a journey; the excitement of a trip, from dreaming about it to going through its memories.
To have a better typeface design process, we focused on the brand’s personality features and tried to know Alibaba better. We read the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and rewatched the Adventures of Sinbad cartoon after many years enthusiastically. We didn’t have to work out all the complex aspects of the typeface at once. Using a simple round-tip marker let us create what we had in mind, without getting lost in details. The magic and adventures in Ali Baba’s stories inspired us not to limit ourselves to general forms and not to let readability stand in our way of being creative.
Considering what the brand is about, we concentrated on the most repeated words such as “tourism, journey, ticket refunding, booking, airplane, train, etc.”. Trying to design the main instruction of the letters we started to add the details, and by shaping the letters and creating features related to the brand’s identity, we strengthen the typeface personality like a sculptor adding details to shape a basic form.
After developing the application version, it was time to reconsider its readability. We had to make sure that letters and special numbers could be read easily and correctly on digital screens, because prices are the part that users work with directly.
Finally, the typeface was designed by Reza Bakhtiarifard and Mahdi Ershadi in 2021 for Alibaba Traveling Co. in four weights for use on the web, print, and advertising, and cannot be purchased.