Nicola Ginzler

Senior Graphic Designer

Favorite Adobe Fonts, 2023 Sticker Fonts, Font Friday

I wrote this post a while ago, after I created the 2023 Burning Man sticker designs but before I knew that three designs had been selected for printing. So here’s a little peek behind the scenes.

The greeters at the gate of Black Rock City, the temporary city built by Burning Man workers and participants each year, hand out welcome materials to everyone entering. Among these are always stickers emblematic of the event in general or that year’s theme. I submitted no fewer than thirteen (13) sticker designs this year. Visit my blog post Frequent Font Friday to see some of the designs.

I work almost exclusively in Adobe products for design (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, learning After Effects), so I use the proprietary Adobe Fonts collection often. It’s very convenient: activate a typeface here and it’s available in all your Adobe apps. The “Tags” and “Classification” search features (below) make it relatively easy to find a typeface that fits your usage; you can also search by name or typeface foundry.

For the sticker designs, I used typefaces tagged Rough, Funky, Fun and Futuristic for headers and large type. All these typefaces are fairly distinctive or decorative, which I don’t get to use often in corporate work. So I’m always happy to have a less formal project! I used Atkinson Hyperlegible (see later in this post) for small type and blocks of type, specifically because of its readability.

NOTE: Some of the stickers reference the 9 Phyla of the Animal Kingdom and/or the 10 Principles, the unofficial code of conduct and mantras of Burning Man, meant to make your experience—and the experience of those around you—as connected and joyful as possible. See https://burningman.org/about/10-principles/ for more information.

Two panels of buttons for searching fonts. Panel 1, "Tags": Calligraphic, Clean, Brush Pen Geometric, Friendly, Rough, Rounded, Cursive, Art Deco, Luxury, Funky, Fun, Futuristic, Marker, View 12 more." Panel 2, "Classification": Sans Serif, Serif, Slab Serif, Script, Mono, Hand.

Here are the typefaces I used:

Type samples of Adobe Fonts in rainbow colors: Abigail (dark green); Afronaut (cyan); Allumi Std Extended inline (dark blue). Type sample of Braille Institute typeface Atkinson Hyperlegible (purple). Type samples of Adobe Fonts: Blackcurrant Squash (red); Cubano (orange); Espiritu Expanded (yellow-orange); Sneakers Pro (acid green).

Click on images to enlarge.

Type sample of Adobe Font Abigail in dark green
Type sample of Braille Institute font Atkinson Hyperlegible in purple
Against a black background, a bright blue, engraving-style illustration of a butterfly extends diagonally from the top right corner to the middle; a bright yellow-green engraving style illustration of a salamander extends diagonally from the bottom left corner to the middle. The animals are almost touching heads. “Burning / Man / 2023” is left-justified in white in the upper left-hand corner; “Animalia” is left-justified below the previous text in light yellow; “We / are all / so beautiful” is centered in bright pink in the lower right-hand corner.
The design is divided into 2x2 rectangles, with a horizontal bar taken out in the middle. Each rectangle has a soft, blurred image of an animal. They're separate AI generated images, each caught halfway through rendering. L to R and top to bottom: a chukar bird (Alectoris chukar); a kit fox (Vulpes macrotis); a black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) and a mountain lion (Puma concolor). The black band across the middle says, in white type: "BURNING MAN 2023: "ANIMALIA" [line break] Animals of the Black Rock Desert

UPDATE: This design was selected by Burning Man for printing as a sticker. I’ve become increasingly uncomfortable with AI generated art, which I’ve come to recognize as plagiarism, so I offered to revise this with legally sourced images.

Type sample of Adobe Font Abigail in dark green
Type sample of Braille Institute font Atkinson Hyperlegible in purple
The design is divided into 2x2 rectangles, with a horizontal bar taken out in the middle. Each rectangle has a soft, blurred image of an animal. They're photographs with a lot of Photoshop wizardry. L to R and top to bottom: a chukar bird (Alectoris chukar); a kit fox (Vulpes macrotis); a black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) and a mountain lion (Puma concolor). The black band across the middle says, in white type: "Animals of the Black Rock Desert."

UPDATE: This is the revision of the above design to replace the AI generated images. The new source photos are legally acquired; the weirdness is all me! This final artwork was selected for year-round distribution at the Burning Man HQ in San Francisco.

Type sample of Adobe Font Afronaut in cyan
Behind the type, there's a gradient going from yellow on the left to orange on the right. Next, on the right-hand side and partly off the page, bright yellow line art of a stylized beetle. Over that is black lower-case left-aligned text in an unusual, curvy, lyrical typeface: on one line, "burning man 2023"; across the middle, in large type, "animalia"; and finally, "august 27 - [line break] september 04"

Type sample of Adobe Font Allumi Std Extended Inline in dark blue
Type sample of Braille Institute font Atkinson Hyperlegible in purple
Black background. All text is centered. [In bold yellow caps] Burning Man 2023 “Animalia” [in bold bright pink caps] 9 Phyla [in white all lower-case] sponges, jellyfish + corals, 3 kindsa worms, mollusks, starfish + more, insects + more, mammals + more [in bold bright pink caps] 10 Principles [in white all lower-case] radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, immediacy
The sticker has a vertical background gradient, shading from sky blue at the top, through yellow in the middle, to orange at the bottom. There's text centered over that: [in bold white capitals] Burning Man 2023 “Animalia” [then in black capitals] 9 Phyla [then in black all lower-case] sponges, jellyfish+corals, 3 kindsa worms, mollusks, starfish+more, insects+more, mammals+more [in bold caps] 10 Principles [in all lower case] radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, immediacy
Type sample of Adobe Font Blackcurrant Squash in red
Type sample of Braille Institute font Atkinson Hyperlegible in purple
Black background in a square format. Along the top border of the square, in a funky 1960s typeface, in bright pink: "Know your"; along the right border, facing in, also in bright pink: "10 Principles"; along the bottom edge, facing in (upside down), in bright yellow: "The Playa will"; along the left edge, facing in, also in bright yellow: "test you!" Similarly, the 10 Principles, in a sans serif font, in a rectangular "spiral" in towards the center of the sticker, with one principle per side, alternating pink and yellow, and facing in. In the middle is "Burning / Man 2023" in the funky font, in white.
Black background in a round format. Along the edge of the circle, facing in, in a funky 1960s typeface, in bright pink: "Know Your 10 Principles!"; continuing around the circle, in bright yellow: "The Playa Will Test U!" The 10 Principles, in a sans serif font, in a rectangular "spiral" in towards the center of the sticker, with each principle alternating pink and yellow, and facing in. In the middle is "Burning / Man 2023" in the funky font, in white.
Type sample of Adobe Font Blackcurrant Squash in red
A bright pink square sticker design with partially transparent white writing in a funky 1960s typeface, detailing the taxonomy of a domestic cat with an attitude: Kingdom - Animalia, Phylum - Chordata, Subphylum - Vertebrata, Class - Mammalia Order - Carnivora, Family - Felidae, Genus - Felis, Species - Catus, Subspecies – METALLL. Over the pink square but under the type is an illustration of a stylized black cat outline and white skeleton. Over that, a yellow speech bubble with a thick black outline says "Burning / Man 2023 / Animalia" in black type

UPDATE: This is one of the designs selected by Burning Man for printing as a sticker.

Type sample of Adobe Font Cubano in orange
A square sticker with a white background: on it, arranged in a grid, are brightly colored AI generated images for the 9 phyla of the Animal Kingdom. L to R and top to bottom: sponges; jellyfish and coral;"3 kindsa worms, representing flatworms, roundworms and segmented worms; mollusks, "starfish + Lots more"; insects "+ lots more"; and "mammals and lots more."

Type sample of Adobe Font Espiritu Expanded in yellow-orange
Square sticker design with black background and wide white type 'Burning Man 2023 / "Animalia" .' Animal tracks L to R, top to bottom: frog in yellow-orange, deer in red, snake in yellow, pigeon in purple; bear in cyan, cat in pink, human in green.

Type sample of Adobe Font Sneakers Pro in acid green
The background is a photorealistic outdoor shot of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, where Burning Man is held. The dry, cracked, light-colored playa stretches back to mountains on the horizon, with low clouds above them. The sky is bright blue and the sun is directly overhead. In the foreground is a kit fox sitting on its haunches. It is covered with almost fluorescent bright pink feathers and has a large pair of wings, outstretched, jutting from its shoulders. The insides of the ears and the lower legs are bright yellow-gold.

UPDATE: This design was also chosen to be printed. I decided to pull it, though, as I felt it glamorized AI art, which I now recognize as plagiarism. I’m really sad about this—I love my Foxbird!

Bright yellow background has large, realistic illustration of dragonfly centered on it. Centered text in red says "They visit us here." Centered text in blue below that says "Black Rock City 2023" and below that "ANIMALIA" in black.

I used the free typeface Atkinson Hyperlegible, from the Braille Institute, for larger amounts of type or small type. The typeface was specifically developed for legibility and readability contrast, particularly in small sizes, as a way to aid readers with low vision. (Thanks to my talented fellow designer Mimi Heft for the tip!) From the Braille Institute website:

Atkinson Hyperlegible – unique design features

Atkinson Hyperlegible full sample (black) - all upper and lowercase characters

For low vision readers
certain letters and numbers can be hard to distinguish from one another.

Solution
Atkinson Hyperlegible differentiates common misinterpreted letters and numbers using various design techniques:

Sample of Atkinson Hyperlegible font characters to show concepts of Recognizable Footprints and Differentiated Letterforms

Recognizable Footprints
character boundaries clearly defined, ensuring understanding across the visual-ability spectrum

Differentiated letterforms
similar letter pairs are differentiated from each other to dramatically increase legibility

Sample of Atkinson Hyperlegible font characters to show concepts of Unambiguous Characters

Unambiguous Characters
designed to increase legibility and distinction

Sample of Atkinson Hyperlegible font characters to show concepts of Exaggerated Forms and Opened Counterspace

Exaggerated forms
shaping of letters is exaggerated to provide better clarity

Opened Counterspace
open areas of certain letters are expanded to provide greater distinction

A type sample of Atkinson Hyperlegible showing angled spurs and differentiated tails: aGbgrpqu

Angled spurs and differentiated tails
increase recognition and define distinctive style

A type sample of Atkinson Hyperlegible showing circular details: Åö8ij%?¡,:

Circular details
Links to the history of Braille Institute and braille dots

Atkinson Hyperlegible – available for free to everyone

  • Four fonts, including two weights (regular, bold, italics, italics bold)
  • 1,340 total glyphs across all fonts, 335 per font
  • Accent characters supporting 27 languages
  • For designers and anyone interested in making written materials easier to read across the entire visual-ability spectrum
  • Improve legibility and readability for low vision readers

In the taxonomy of species, there are 9 Phyla in Kingdom Animalia:

  • Porifera (sea sponges)
  • Cnidaria (jellyfish, coral and others)
  • Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
  • Nematoda (roundworms)
  • Annelida (segmented worms)
  • Arthropoda (insects, spiders and others)
  • Mollusca (mollusks)
  • Echinodermata (sea urchins, starfish and others)
  • Chordata, made up of Vertebrata (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals); Tunicata or Urochordata (sea squirts, salps); and Cephalochordata (which includes lancelets)

The 10 Principles, the unofficial code of conduct and mantras of Burning Man, meant to make your experience—and the experience of those around you—as connected and joyful as possible. See https://burningman.org/about/10-principles/ for more information.

  • Radical inclusion
  • Gifting
  • Decommodification
  • Radical self-reliance
  • Radical self-expression
  • Communal effort
  • Civic responsibility
  • Leaving no trace
  • Participation
  • Immediacy