• by Tanya Gazdik , 2 hours ago

Volvo Cars has created a custom typeface designed to make reading faster, attention sharper, and the driving experience calmer.

Volvo Centum will debut in the Volvo EX60, coming in 2026, and will then be made available to millions of Volvo cars via over-the-air updates. Its name, Centum, is a reference to Volvo Cars' upcoming centennial in 2027, celebrating 100 years since the company was founded.

The automaker created a 2-minute video explaining the process which consumers can view on Volvo Cars YouTube page. 

Typography is a powerful, yet underappreciated tool in supporting safer driving, said Matthew Hall, UX Creative Director at Volvo Cars.

“How can we make these safety systems communicate better to the to the driver?” Hall asks in the video. “And typography is a huge part of that.”

Volvo says this isn’t merely a typeface, but a “quiet innovation in automotive design.”

The typeface was created in created in partnership with Dalton Maag, a typeface design studio.

“When we approach a typeface, we always want to make sure that it’s purpose-built,” says Zeynep Akay, creative director at Dalton Maag. “Every creative brief is unique and Volvos was certainly very unique. 

Volvo calls it “Scandinavian design for your eyes in motion.”

“Every design choice, form, weight, proportion is made to help people read faster, understand better, and stay focused in the car,” says Pablo Bosch, font developer at Dalton Maag. 

Made to work across all platforms and driving conditions, the new typeface supports 35 languages -- including complex scripts such as Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean -- with optimized performance for both in-car interfaces and other applications.

“We knew it had to work in car, on the dashboard, in the UI UX environment, but it also had to speak loudly of Volvo's personality and brand visual identity,” Akay says. “We wanted it to be really easily readable and legible but also be unmistakably Volvo.”

Design has moved into a space where users are craving simplicity, Hall says. 

“We want to make sure we have the right choreography of elements timed perfectly, the size and scale of elements tuned well so that we're able to bring and prepare users, create that place of calm so that they can go out and drive in the complex world that we live in and do so safely,” Hall says.