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Venture / in-house · Typeface

We turned our logo into a typeface, and it still matches the logo to 98.6%

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Alterra Primary is our own type family, grown from the Alterra wordmark. The five logo letters are traced from the file, the rest follow rules measured from them, and a text companion, Alterra Secondary, carries everything under the headline. It's our brand, not client work.

The constraint

A five-letter wordmark with no vector source had to become a typeface that still sets ALTERRA exactly.

What we ran

We measured the logo, traced its letters and generated a display family and a text companion in code.

The result

Six weights across two familiesDrawn on October 4, 2026

Client
Alterra Studio, our own brand
Stage
Venture / in-house
Services
Typeface, type film
Timeline
Drawn October 4, 2026; film finished October 5, 2026
Tools
Python (fontTools), Rive
The type film. Drawn in Rive from the fonts' own outlines: the logo, its grid, the cut, the alphabet and the weights.
Brief

The problem and the brief

Five letters in a logo file had to become a type family that still sets ALTERRA exactly.

The wordmark existed only as a 2,000-pixel image. Nobody had written its rules down, and it had only five distinct letters.

We wanted the brand to be able to set any word in its own letters, from a lockup to a big number, plus a text face for copy and interface that belongs to the same family.

How buyers choose

The research

Three questions a typeface drawn from a logo has to answer

  • BrandDoes ALTERRA still look exactly like the logo?
  • DesignerCan it set any other word?
  • ReaderWill it read at 18 pixels?
Logic

The approach: measure the logo, then let its rules draw the rest

We measured the logo, wrote its rules down and had code apply them to every letter, so the family can't drift from the mark.

  1. Question 1 · The logoDoes ALTERRA still look exactly like the logo?

    The logo letters are traced, not redrawn

    A, L, T, E and R are traced from the original file at four times its size and scaled onto a 700-unit cap height. When the font sets ALTERRA, the word lands on the logo.

    Laid over the logo, the traced letters cover 98.6% of the same pixels. The difference sits in the anti-aliased edges.

  2. Question 2 · Any wordCan it set any other word?

    Four measured rules draw the other letters

    Bars sit in the logo's five bands. A stem that meets a top bar stops one band short, so B, C, D, F, G and P carry the cut too. R's diagonal sets the angles for P, B and K, and V is the logo's A turned upside down.

    As a check, we rebuilt the five logo letters from the rules alone. At Bold they overlap the logo by 96%.

  3. Question 3 · Small sizesWill it read at 18 pixels?

    A text family for everything under the headline

    Alterra Secondary has upper and lowercase, normal widths, and the same corners and square terminals. It drops the cut and gives A a crossbar, so it stays readable at 18 pixels.

    A display face built from a logo works for short, large words. Copy and interface need lowercase and quieter shapes.

System

The design system

Black, off-white and one orange, the colours of the logo's own lockups.

  • Black #0E0F11The ground for specimens
  • Off-white #FAFAF9The film's paper and the site
  • Orange #FF3701The cut, and nothing else

Built in code. Every glyph, the spacing, the kerning and the names Windows uses to group the weights come out of one script. Change a rule, rebuild, and every letter that uses it updates.

Weights. Light, Regular and Bold rebuild the logo's letters on the grid at stems of 100, 140 and 182 units; Bold keeps the traced originals.

The film. Drawn in Rive from the fonts' own outlines. The camera only pushes and tracks, and the clicks and bells are synthesised clockwork timed to the picture.

ALTERRA set in Alterra Primary Bold over the wordmark's five-band grid, stem 182 and bar 140
The grid: bars sit in bands 1, 3 and 5, and bands 2 and 4 stay open.
The cut: the stems pull back from the top bar, and band 4 stays open.
ALTERRA STUDIO, ALTERRA EDITIONS and ALTERRA NETWORK set in Primary Bold, Regular and Light
The lockups for Studio, Editions and Network, set in the three weights.
Measured

Results

Family
Alterra Primary in Light, Regular and Bold; Alterra Secondary in Regular, Medium and Bold
Match to the logo
The traced letters cover 98.6% of the logo's pixels; rebuilt from the rules alone at Bold, 96%
Characters
Primary sets capitals, figures and basic punctuation; Secondary adds lowercase and symbols such as & @ # % *
Film
A 69-second construction film, drawn in Rive from the fonts' outlines
After this

What's next

  1. Set the site in it Primary for one-to-three-word moments like numbers and the nav lockup, Secondary for headings and interface.
  2. Accented letters so Secondary can set names and places in other languages.

Questions & answers.

Alterra Primary: the case in 4 short answers.

What did Alterra Primary need?

Our wordmark was a 2,000-pixel image with no vector source, and it had five letters. We wanted headlines, numbers and lockups that look like the logo without anyone redrawing it by hand each time, and a quieter face for everything else.

What did Alterra Studio do for Alterra Primary?

We measured the wordmark row by row. Its cap height splits into five equal bands, stems are 182 units and bars about 140, and every stem that meets a top bar stops one band short. We call that the cut. A, L, T, E and R are traced from the file at four times its size; the rest of the capitals and figures follow the same grid, the cut and R's angles. S, O, U, D and N come from our Studio and Editions lockups. Everything is generated by code, so changing a rule rebuilds every letter that uses it.

What was the result for Alterra Primary?

Alterra Primary comes in Light, Regular and Bold, and Alterra Secondary in Regular, Medium and Bold. Laid over the logo, the traced letters cover 98.6% of its pixels. We drew the construction in Rive as a 69-second film.

How long did it take?

Drawn October 4, 2026; film finished October 5, 2026.

The thinking behind it.

Guides on the decisions behind work like this, written by the team that did it.

All insights

Want a typeface drawn from your logo?

Book 30 minutes and bring your wordmark. We'll tell you whether it has rules a font can grow from, and what that would take.

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