Knight Frank are global property professionals, with over a century of experience in the property market. When they came to update their visual identity, they also addressed the usage of fonts. Dalton Maag was approached by London design agency Hat-trick to design a font for display, to support the other design elements of this identity, not least the secondary font family, FF Meta.

Much of the current visual identity is very contemporary. The photography is bright and clear, colours are vibrant, and the typographic layout is clean. The new font design needed to incorporate these elements and, at the same time, take charge with sophistication. When starting to design the font, we were inspired by the work of Frederic Goudy, but even more so by the beautiful character shapes of the inscription on Trajan’s column. Overall, the design of the Knight Frank display font is slightly condensed, the serifs are a mere flare and some characters have open counters. These elements provide distinction without compromising the traditional values of good font design.

This font is capitals only, and contrary to normal typographic rules it is spaced very tightly. The tight spacing supports the tight leading, giving all headlines a compact look and feel. As it is inspired by classic proportions, round characters have generous counter spaces that ensure the tight setting of the font does not become claustrophobic, but retains an open and friendly feel.

As with all fonts that Dalton Maag designs, the font supports over fifty languages which use the Latin alphabet, helping Knight Frank reach many markets.