Fotografiska chooses Apotek, Minion as its global brand fonts

Fotografiska, founded in Stockholm in 2010, offers a ‘museum experience for the modern world.’ This destination is dedicated to world-class photography, eclectic programming, elevated dining, and surprising new perspectives. With galleries currently open in Stockholm, New York City, and Tallinn, and three more opening soon in Berlin, Shanghai, and Miami, Fotografiska is expanding its reach to share its passion for photography worldwide. When revising their visual identity in 2021, Fotografiska chose Apotek by Kerns & Cairns for display and Minion by Adobe Originals for text, providing a sleek and sophisticated aesthetic to complement their mission.

When these two typefaces are paired together, the contrast between sans serif and serif creates visual interest that—similar to a fine composition in photography—draws in the reader. The boldness of Apotek’s design complements the nuanced details of Minion, making the text hierarchy more impactful, readable, and navigable.

Apotek, with its clean, geometric shapes and timeless feel—used as the display typeface on Fotografiska’s website—has a unique backstory. Designer Dyana Weissman, not typically a fan of sans serif typefaces, stumbled upon a unique source of inspiration in Norway. Seeing antique medicine bottle labels displayed in a museum, the robust personality of the letters caught her eye. Weissman’s curiosity eventually convinced her to try this functional Norwegian style.

Starting with source material that was mostly uppercase, she expanded her design into a broader range of weights and widths, crafting the 49-style typeface Apotek, a font with a distinctive character and versatility that works well for display purposes. Its bold weights carry a strong visual heft, while its lighter weights are legible and functional. All of these weights (and widths) are included in Apotek’s variable font, as well, offering the entire slate of styles with one font file.

Minion, Robert Slimbach’s iconic text typeface, is an old-style face inspired by the classical typefaces of the late Renaissance. Expanded over time to support more languages, full international phonetic alphabet coverage, and other enhancements, the latest version, Minion 3, also possesses optical size versions for captions, subheads, display, and text. This highly readable family offers stately options for any situation.

Apotek’s blocky, unadorned letters complement Fotografiska’s striking photography without pulling attention away from it, making it an ideal display typeface for this setting. Meanwhile, Minion’s elegance and readability allow it to deliver information in a tonally consistent way. Fotografiska’s use of Apotek and Minion is a testament to their effectiveness, as they successfully convey the museum’s modern and artistic approach to photography.

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