Lab Antiqua

To celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2018, Stockholm Design Lab decided to create a signature typeface inspired by their own wordmark. The multidisciplinary branding agency collaborated with Letters From Sweden to turn their vision into a premium typeface. The project took three years to complete.

Designed in 2008, the SDL logotype consists of three serif letters characterised by large, flat serifs and a refined high contrast, and a striking S with a flat top and bottom standing firm on the baseline. Those distinctive traits became the starting point for an elegant design containing hints of venerable precursors like Morris Fuller Benton’s Century Expanded and Bodoni, and De Vinne by Gustav F. Schroeder. Lab Antiqua feels perfectly at home in magazine spreads, on covers, and other editorial projects, as well as on eye-catching posters, in signage projects, and on packaging for fashion items and beauty products.

The type family is available in two widths with three optical sizes to guarantee the most delicate hairlines and serifs at any given size, and includes a variable font version allowing you to fine-tune them to your personal preference. Lab Antiqua also features a unique stylistic set that removes the overshoots in the capitals—the details that extend a little above the top and below the bottom for optical correction—to avoid parts of letters crashing into each other in tightly-stacked titles set in all-caps.