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Even Arby’s has its own custom font to make fun of bespoke typefaces

Even Arby’s has its own custom font to make fun of bespoke typefaces

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Enough is enough

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Step aside Apple (San Francisco), Samsung (SamsungOne), Google (Roboto and Product Sans), Microsoft (sort of with Segoe), Netflix (Netflix Sans), Airbnb (Cereal), Intel (Intel Clear), and every other big tech company with its own bespoke custom font: Arby’s is getting in on the custom font game with its new font, “Saucy_AF™,” as spotted by FastCo Design.

Described as “the ink of the sandwich world,” Arby’s is positioning Saucy_AF™ as an alternative to those who lack the skills to write in sauce like the folks behind the very social media savvy Arby’s Twitter account.

Ordinarily, this is the sort of thing that would infuriate me greatly, since companies going out of their way to spend thousands of dollars on custom fonts for no good reason is just irritating. They’re the design equivalent of a vanity license plate, and often as classy. But Arby’s seems to be looking more to make fun of the recent trend than actually capitalize on this for branding.

Given that Saucy_AF™ is also a hideously ugly font, it’s probably for the best Arby’s isn’t actually using it for real marketing materials — a lesson that, sadly, other companies haven’t quite learned yet. For the record, Arby’s logo does feature a custom font, too, with what this random font website claims is similar to Sanchez Black, designed by Daniel Hernández, but custom logos are far more forgivable from a branding perspective.