Aakreit Sachdeva - Experience Design Leader

Antiqua Design Language

How we designed a scalable system for everything Monotype!

What is Antiqua?

Antiqua is a design system created by the Monotype UX team. It was created with the vision of creating a high-quality component library that are user-friendly & elegant.

It gets the name from a typeface class also called ‘Antiqua’ which was created & widely used in the 15th & 16th centuries with a vision that we share:

“Bringing simplicity & clarity to every experience we create.”

This design system has been in the forge and being refined for almost 2 years now and has been battle-tested in several high value projects such as the new search experience, WhatTheFont and the Foundry platform.

Antiqua is a design system created by the Monotype UX team. It was created with the vision of creating a high-quality component library that are user-friendly & elegant.

It gets the name from a typeface class also called ‘Antiqua’ which was created & widely used in the 15th & 16th centuries with a vision that we share:

“Bringing simplicity & clarity to every experience we create.”

The old design system was built for one and lacked the scale that was needed for the evolving need of the business.

The need

With the evolving brand guidelines, we also needed a new system that was scalable for every need state we could encounter. Whether it’s a marketing website, or a mobile app or a new property all together, we wanted a system that we could use across.

This wasn’t just to make it easier for us to work, but through design, communicate that whether it’s MyFonts or Monotype Fonts or the Foundry platform, the ecosystem is represented through a singular visual language.

From the atomic elements of typography to the complex molecules of things like the calendar widget… We created everything and anything that was cross platform applicable.