![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/26ea948a0e/colorplan-alphabet-1.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/5761x2431/aafbdfedc5/g-f-smith-desktop-header-copy-3x.png/m/1300x0/filters:quality(100))
G . F Smith
We began our typographic work for the well-regarded paper merchants G . F Smith creating a tongue-in-cheek ‘paper’-weight type for their most popular and wide-ranging offering: Colorplan. The Bold-weight G . F Smith Type was commissioned as a follow-up nearly a year later in tandem with an identity overhaul by collaborators Made Thought.
- Typeface
- G . F Smith, Colorplan Paperweight
- Comissioner
- Made Thought, London
- Year
- 2013 — 2014
- Styles
- 2 Styles: Light, Bold
- Coverage
- Latin-A Encoded
- Classification
- Sans Serif
- URL
- gfsmith.com
- madethought.com
Colorplan
Beginning work on Colorplan in 2013, Colophon focused first on the letters that would comprise the brand’s new logo mark, arriving early at a distinct set of forms that would inject the proper amount of simultaneous gravitas and lightness for the 50-color range: playful flicks on the dual ‘l’ characters, a mirroring of that behavior on the lowercase ‘a’, and generous apertures in the case of ‘o’ and ‘p’ letterforms.
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/fbb7d30f6c/colorplan-main-no.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/67304c95c9/colorplan-4up-4.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/e0e0ce576a/colorplan-4up-4a.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/67304c95c9/colorplan-4up-4.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/e0e0ce576a/colorplan-4up-4a.png)
In addition, the Colorplan product line dictated certain typographic behaviors: when numbers act as a stand-in for tactility in promotional material, the type must embrace those settings in kind. For instance, the innate delicacy of a well-milled text stock may be conveyed to the customer simply as ‘100gsm’ (Grams per Square Meter). This numeric necessity prompted the creation of special old-style (or non-lining) numerals, which not only increase legibility of this technical data, but also introduce classical elements into an otherwise contemporary setting.
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/f9f856416b/colorplan-story-1.png/m/1320x0/filters:quality(75))
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/95611784d6/colorplan-story-2.png/m/1320x0/filters:quality(75))
G . F Smith
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/f0ebff62a3/gfsmith-4up-1.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/878ed9c634/gfsmith-4up-2.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/f0ebff62a3/gfsmith-4up-1.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/878ed9c634/gfsmith-4up-2.png)
Nodding to the canon of 20th century British realist types — in particular the sans serif works of Edward Johnston and Eric Gill — we ultimately crafted an understated, refined, light-weight face that would function elegantly across promotional materials and printed collateral, which the typography-centric brand creates regularly to showcase its offerings.
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/62eb6c21ad/gfsmith-4up-4.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/52ed7f53c1/gfsmith-4up-3.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/62eb6c21ad/gfsmith-4up-4.png)
![](https://www.colophon-foundry.org/cdn/f/146262/2400x1600/52ed7f53c1/gfsmith-4up-3.png)