Li Shaobo This presentation will explore a frequently overlooked yet crucial core of type design: functionality. It will primarily share two distinct design case studies: a highly legible Latin font for the high-risk environment of aircraft cockpit screens, and a Chinese font for textbooks serving the elementary education of children.
The first case study details a set of functional and aesthetically pleasing cockpit display fonts designed and developed for the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). The design team conducted research on the readability of display characters in current civil aircraft human-machine interfaces, analyzing font design elements in relation to the user, the machine, and the environment. After validating the font set’s effective readability across various in-flight scenarios, a dedicated font family for COMAC cockpits was finalized. This font family includes multiple weights and widths to serve different aircraft models. It effectively enhances legibility, reduces cognitive load to lower accident risks, and meets the pilot’s need for quick and clear character recognition at maximum viewing distances.
The second case study involves a font design and development project commissioned by China’s FounderType, aimed at creating a comprehensive font system specifically for school textbooks, especially those for early childhood education. This research integrates knowledge from various fields, including character studies, psychology, behavioral science, and aesthetics, upon a foundation of design principles. Functionally, this font aligns with the developmental patterns of hand-eye coordination in children and plays an active, auxiliary role in guiding them through the process of learning to read and write characters.