Connary Fagen is probably one of the best-known designers at YouWorkForThem, consistently having his work included in our Top Ten Fonts of the Year lists for several years running. His work beautifully balances contemporary design aesthetics and exceptional versatility, in no small part due to his attention to detail and his dedication for his craft.
After Connary began his career in graphic design, he took notice of just how much typography affected the overall quality of his own work. A number of times when a search for the “perfect” type design meant coming up empty-handed, Connary did what a number of designers do when they’re in a similar pinch: he designed his own. Usually, that means designing only the letters you need for your logo or design project, but Connary wanted to take it a step further. He really wanted to understand the mechanics behind solid type design, so he jumped in with both feet and began developing his own original, full typefaces.
Once he felt confident in his type design skills, he started making his fonts available on the retail market. That’s when things really began to take off. Seeing them find success in a market that’s quite often saturated with type designs, Connary felt like he was on the right path with his work. That isn’t to say he didn’t feel surprised and humbled by it; Connary is incredibly grateful to every single designer who purchases his work for their projects.
To that end, while he enjoys the work that comes with it, he takes his typography seriously. He puts a great deal of care into each letter set he crafts, ensuring that a type design is not only architecturally-sound, but also passes a gauntlet of testing that guarantees the font will work as it should in any application.
Even if a font is as good as it can be when it’s first released, Connary often revisits his old projects to see where improvements can be made later on. Anyone who has purchased one of Connary’s fonts will have access to any updates he makes – forever. That level of customer service and attention to detail, not to mention his gorgeous typography, is just one of the reasons why people return to his work again and again. His fonts have been licensed by major companies that include Bed Bath & Beyond, Land’s End, and Discovery Digital Networks, just to name a few.
Connary offers a number of retail fonts and also works on bespoke type designs for his own clients. Through YouWorkForThem, he offers a beautiful selection sans serifs, serifs, slab serifs, and display fonts for projects of all types.
One of his more recent releases is Criteria CF, a geometric sans serif that was designed with a simple yet efficient architecture that allows for your message to come across in a clear and honest tone. Criteria CF is strong and assertive, but its manner doesn’t feel overly aggressive; it simply says what it means and means what it says.
One unique aspect of Criteria CF stems from its actual creation. Connary built this type design on a vintage 2005 Powerbook G4 Mac because if something works… why throw it away? He later polished Criteria CF on a more modern machine, but if anything, Connary has shown what’s possible on even a dinosaur of a computer while also saving it from an unnecessary and permanent vacation in a landfill.
Much like Connary’s design process, the architecture of Criteria CF makes sure that nothing is wasted; every stroke is deliberate and expertly executed, resulting in a clean and tight vertical design. With nine weights that include Thin, Extra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Demi Bold, Bold, Extra Bold, and Super, with corresponding obliques for each, Criteria CF fits the criteria for design projects of all kinds. It’s beautifully suited to impactful headlines, subheadings, editorials, body copy, website design, letterhead, corporate communications, white papers, publishing, infographics, presentations, product packaging, logos, information sheets, labels, and business cards.
Criteria CF’s range of weights make it well suited to branding and identity projects where design cohesion is required across multiple media outputs.
Additional OpenType features include discretionary ligatures, standard ligatures, ordinals, and stylistic alternates for greater versatility. Its multilingual support extends to Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Romanian, Pan African Latin, and Dutch for exceptional global design accessibility.
As with all of Connary’s other type designs, Criteria CF also comes in longterm support, including free updated features and bug fixes.
Connary Fagen currently offers 20 products through YouWorkForThem, a range of impeccable and expertly-crafted type designs for projects of all kinds. Visit his portfolio to view the rest of his work and he’s one you’re gonna want to bookmark so you won’t miss out on any of his future releases!
