stern font, clarity for every story.

stern is a bespoke font-family commissioned by stern magazine (rtl group) for their new identity.

rtl group approached us once more, this time inviting us to craft a bespoke type family for stern—“star” in german—the renowned weekly news magazine founded in 1948 and read by millions throughout germany and beyond.

as is typical in complex editorial work, the brief demanded a typographic palette capable of covering the entire spectrum of expression: from commanding, attention-grabbing headlines to whisper-small photo captions and footnotes. after several exploratory workshops with stern’s in-house art directors, we settled on a twin-track strategy: a robust sans, including a space-saving condensed subfamily, and a complementary serif rooted in the same skeleton.

for the development of this big font family we worke together with arilla type studio.

we began with the sans. its underlying architecture is rectilinear, with a generous x-height, minimal contrast, and open apertures—think of it as a contemporary, more humanistic re-imagining of classic german industrial faces like din. the goal was clarity without coldness: a voice that feels steady and authoritative yet retains a certain warmth and approachability. the resulting letterforms project restrained solemnity, excellent legibility, and a bold presence on the page.

the condensed cut carries this dna forward but narrows the set width to maximize word count in tight columns, coverlines, and infographics. by carefully adjusting stroke modulation and counter-shapes, we preserved legibility while gaining precious horizontal real estate—critical in a publication where every millimeter matters.

the serif branch, meanwhile, inherits the sans’s proportions but relaxes the rigid square­ness, introducing softer, more rounded terminals and subtle bracketed joins. this gives the face a balanced temperament: refined enough for long-form essays and op-eds at 8-point, yet confident enough to shout from front-page headlines. in practice it mirrors stern’s editorial ethos—serious, investigative journalism delivered through a distinctly human lens.

together, the three subfamilies form a cohesive toolkit that empowers stern’s designers to speak in multiple tones while always sounding unmistakably like stern. the typeface not only meets the functional demands of modern magazine production; it also embodies the brand’s legacy and forward-looking spirit, ensuring that every page, from gripping war reportage to lighter cultural pieces, resonates with clarity, credibility, and character.