// Work — W-05 // Typeface // 2026
Alterra Primary
I turned our logo into a typeface, and it still matches the logo to 98.6%
// 01 — What I did
Alterra Primary is the first typeface I've designed. The only source was our logo: a 2,000-pixel image of seven letters, five of them different, and no vector file.
I measured it row by row and found the rule that makes it ours. Every stem that meets a top bar stops one band short. Once that was code, the font could set any word and still look like the logo.
— Ryan Hofmann, Alterra Studio
// 02 — Strategy
4 moves
- M-01
The logo letters are traced, not redrawn
A, L, T, E and R are traced from the original file at four times its size. Laid over the logo, they cover 98.6% of its pixels; the difference sits in the anti-aliased edges.
The logo file in orange and the font in blue slide together; where they agree they add up to white - M-02
The cut drives the alphabet
The cap height splits into five equal bands, and a stem that meets a top bar stops one band short. B, C, D, F, G and P carry that cut too, so new letters look like the logo.
T, E and R: an orange scan finds band 4 and the stems pull back from the top bar - M-03
Any word, on the logo's grid
R's diagonal sets the angles for P, B and K, and V is the logo's A turned upside down. S, O, U, D and N come from our Studio and Editions lockups.
ALTERRA, STUDIO, EDITIONS and NETWORK building band by band on the grid - M-04
Three weights and a text family
Primary comes in Light, Regular and Bold. Secondary adds lowercase and drops the cut, so it stays readable at 18 pixels.
A scan line steps ALTERRA STUDIO through Light, Regular and Bold, with Alterra Secondary below
// 03 — Results
What it did
| 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% |
| Built | Every glyph, the spacing and the kerning generated in code, drawn on 4 October 2026 |
| Film | A 69-second construction film, drawn in Rive from the fonts' outlines |