Case study · 01 of the archive

NCDSGNS Pro

A rounded techno display typeface designed in-house. In active use across NCDSGNS brand work, poster systems, and music visuals since its first cut. This page runs on the actual font file.

Project
NCDSGNS Pro
First cut
2019
Format
OpenType · Display
Use
Identity · Posters · Motion
Chapter 01

A typeface built to carry the brand.

Most design studios license a typeface. A smaller number commission one. Fewer still draw their own. NCDSGNS Pro is the third category. A custom display cut drawn in-house, expressly to carry the NCDSGNS visual voice across projects where a stock typeface would flatten the work to something generic.

It began as a sketchbook study in rounded geometric construction, then moved into a proper digital draw and a full character set. The rationale was simple: if a brand voice is going to read as specific, it should be carried by letterforms that are specific too. A studio's fingerprint lives in the things it doesn't hand off to a licensee.

Ncdsgns
Pro
Display Type System
The heading above and every other NCDSGNS Pro sample on this page is rendered from the live NcdsgnsPro-Regular.otf file, embedded in this page via @font-face. What you're reading is the actual typeface, not a stand-in.
Chapter 02

Design traits: where the personality lives.

The face sits in the rounded-techno family. Stroke behavior is modular; terminals are soft; counters are open and generously weighted; cutaways and interior strokes carry a light mechanical logic without tipping into full stencil. It reads as engineered before it reads as decorative.

The numerals are where the character is most legible. Each digit is drawn for presence at size. They behave less like companion glyphs and more like display characters in their own right, which makes the face well-suited to track listings, album credits, issue numbers, and sequence-heavy editorial work.

Chapter 03

Scale behavior: how it holds across sizes.

The face is explicitly a display cut. Its intended home is large: hero type, title cards, poster heads, cover lockups, motion frames. Below is how it renders at decreasing sizes, all drawn from the same embedded font file.

160 px
Future Form Interface
96 px
Sector-X Live
64 px
Night Transit System
40 px
Issue 003 · Spring Drop
24 px
Display voice for identity & editorial
Chapter 04

The glyph set: complete character family.

The cut includes a full uppercase Latin set, a matching lowercase set, numerals, and a working symbol inventory. Letters are drawn to hold their shape at display weight without optical collapse, and the spacing is tuned for headline settings rather than body text.

Uppercase
A to M
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N to Z
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Lowercase
a to m
a b c d e f g h i j k l m
n to z
n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Numerals & symbols
0 to 9
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Symbol
@ # & + - / : ; ? !
Case pairings
A to M
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg
N to Z
Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt
UPPERCASE
lowercase
The face was drawn with both cases sharing the same geometric skeleton. The lowercase was designed at a reduced height to sit optically with uppercase on the same line without any weight adjustment. Both cases were normalized to identical side bearings and received the same kerning pass.
Chapter 05

Applications: what the face does in the wild.

The face has carried display type on posters, album lockups, motion title frames, and interface surfaces across NCDSGNS client and self-initiated work since its first cut. Three application registers it holds particularly well:

Poster

Sector-X Live

Commanding display voice for event graphics, album campaigns, and launch posters. Large-scale letterforms hold their weight without collapsing at projection scale.

Headline Motion title Campaign
Interface

System UI

Loading screens, dashboards, product reveals, and futuristic interface labels when used sparingly at larger sizes. The geometry suits system language.

HUD Splash Module
Identity

Brand Lockup

Anchors visual systems for experimental studios, music brands, apparel capsules, and creative-tech concepts that need a signature voice.

Logo Wordmark Packaging
Chapter 06

The original specimen: print artifact.

NCDSGNS Pro specimen sheet. Acid-lime and black print layout showing full character set, numerals, and display at scale.

Issue 003, ncdsgns, a display typeface.

The original specimen sheet was designed as the physical companion to the font file. Acid-lime on black, with the face's character set, numeral grid, and a Sector-X paragraph setting used to stress-test how the letters behave when spaced as body copy.

The sheet works as a print artifact in its own right. A PDF edition runs to 18 inches at archival resolution; the compressed web version above is linked from the live page.

Licensing is renting someone else's voice. A face drawn in the studio is a voice the studio owns. It's why this one exists.

Nathan Conrad · Designer's note
Next in the archive
CloudCore
Self-initiated · 2023