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A comment on Helvetica Now Variable. Parent comment

Re:Helvetica Now Variable by flixic on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @05:47PM (#28215250)
Both Netflix[0] and the company I worked at designed custom fonts to _save_ money. As other comment threads say, it's a standard practice to license by pageviews, and it can be difficult to negotiate. Alternative: just have your own custom font, exclusive and unlimited license.

[0]: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/21/17147170/netflix-sans-cus...

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Re:Helvetica Now Variable by itslennysfault on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @09:22PM (#28216735)
...but was it cheaper than just finding a suitable free font(s)?

However, if a design team wants to make their own font and has the resources to do so I don't see why not. It's a strong branding move.

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Re:Helvetica Now Variable by zinekeller on Tuesday August 17, 2021 @09:36PM (#28216828)
The problem is that for these companies, they're in danger of being burdened by copyright issues, as somehow everyone forgets that designs are copyrightable in Europe, and unlike programmers most designers don't really want legal uncertainties when it comes to their designs (because it's damaging in their circles). If they're designing from scratch, they hold those design copyrights and designers can rest easy knowing that they won't get sued.
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Re:Helvetica Now Variable by flixic on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @06:05AM (#28219302)
It was cheaper than licensing a couple of fonts we liked. So we asked the designer of one of these fonts to tweak their font to our brand, and license as new IP under new name. Because it wasn't entirely "from scratch" the price was reasonable, around $50k.
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