Daytona™

The Daytona™ typeface family grew out of a desire to provide improved fonts for use in televised sporting events. Jim Wasco drew the design as sturdy squared letters based on humanist shapes and proportions. Letters were kept narrow for economy of space, and inter-character spacing was established for easy reading. While televised sporting events may have initially been his initial target usage, the design considerations he incorporated into the Daytona family also enabled it to perform well in a variety of other video and on screen environments.

Daytona Variables are font files which are featuring two width axes and have a preset instance from Thin to Fat.

The Daytona typeface got its moniker from the famous Daytona Speedway racetrack. “I wanted to name the typeface something related to sporting competitions,” Wasco explains. “I’ve always had an appreciation for racing cars. Being the type nerd that I am, I love the graphics, logos, large numbers and advertisements. The name Daytona jumped out at me as being the perfect name for this design.”

Jim Wasco tells the story of his introduction to the typographic arts, “My father taught me about lettering, proper spacing, letter proportions and balance. Rules like: a letter should be unique and not ever confused with a different letter; type should not distract from readability; the white space and black space are equally important; round shapes need to be larger to appear the same as square shapes; weights of round, diagonal and straight strokes need to match optically.” Today, Wasco is an award-winning senior typeface designer at Monotype. His most recent commercial designs include Neue Aachen™, Elegy™, Harmonia Sans™ and Daytona typefaces. Wasco also has many years of experience developing typefaces for digital use in everything from game consoles and e-readers to human/machine interface (HMI) devices.

“I designed the letterforms to ensure high levels of legibility,” says Wasco. “For example, the lowercase l has a curved foot terminal and the cap I has “serifs” to distinguish the two designs.” An alternate two-story g has been added to the roman as an option for a more legible design in situations that call for the need to distinguish the g from the figure nine in applications such as automotive user interface designs and displays. The default lowercase a in the Italic is a more legible two-story form, however, an alternate single-story a has been added to give the user the choice to use a more traditional italic script form. While efficient typographic communication was basic to the design brief, the Daytona family was also drawn to be a friendly, approachable design. Its rounded corners, open counters and simple characters shapes invite reading and foster memorability.

When asked about the potential uses of Daytona, Wasco replied, “of course the family can be used for all sports related typesetting. It would also, because of its high level of legibility, be a good design for display usage in a user interface. This includes everything from automotive digital dashboards to mobile phones and GPS devices.” Wasco also drew a suite of condensed designs that are ideal for both print and on screen applications where space is at a premium. While televised sporting events may have initially been his initial target, the design considerations Wasco incorporated into the Daytona family also enable it to perform well in a wide variety of other video and on screen environments.