• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 21, 2014

Domino's worked with advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CPB) to redesign the company's brand. One part of the rebranding efforts meant creating a custom font for use across print, packaging, broadcasting, Web, mobile apps, out-of-home and point-of-sale terminals.

Melissa Rhyner, senior brand architect at CPB, said the font -- initially drawn by hand for each marketing piece -- received so many requests from Domino's corporate office and franchise owners to use the design that the agency turned the typeface into the graphic.

Consumers can find the custom typeface on pizza boxes, TV, mobile apps, print, Web sites and other platforms, Rhyner said. "The typeface is another tool to help Domino's improve their image," she said.

CPB worked with Monotype, a typeface and technology company that works with digital advertising agencies on custom typeface design. The collaboration enabled better creation and use of redesign and brand typeface across all media. It also simplified and reduced branding costs for its franchisees and international markets, Search Marketing Daily was told.

Can a typeface change consumer behavior and would it prompt consumers to increase their average order value online? Rhyner couldn't answer the question, but said it's all about image.

Custom Web fonts have become a part of the brand experience. In fact, 45% of the top 1 million Web sites use some sort of custom font, per the measurement service HTTPArchive.org. Custom fonts also have become a way to tie together marketing pieces across offline and online.

Separately, Adobe and Google partnered to develop an open-source font for Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) languages that covers 65,535 glyphs, making it one of the largest fonts to support these languages. The font optimized for print and screen is free through Google Fonts and Adobe's Typekit.

While Adobe led the initial design, Google also contributed -- providing funding for the latter half of the project, which brought in options from partners in Japan, China and Korea to finalize the fonts.