Sharp Grotesk and Dropbox: A Rebrand Made in Heaven

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Sharp Grotesk Meets Dropbox

In January, we had the honor of sharing Sharp Type Co’s massive typeface family Sharp Grotesk—a 19th-century woodtype-inspired masterpiece. The superfamily boasts more than 20 numbered widths and seven weights. As it turns out, us typography nerds at PRINT weren’t the only ones who took notice of Sharp Grotesk’s impressive versatility.

In the summer of 2017, Dropbox was working on a top secret rebranding effort. They tapped Sharp Type Co for a licensing agreement to the full Grotesk family. All 294 fonts of it.

“To what extent they would be using it was unclear,” states the Sharp Type case study, “until we saw an early design deck. Dropbox appeared to be using every weight and width of Sharp Grotesk’s robust family.”

Interestingly enough, Sharp Grotesk is available for retail with 259 fonts. But that wasn’t enough for Dropbox, and so the two companies worked together to complete the remaining 35 italics that had originally been left behind.

The Dropbox redesign stretches everywhere, from logo development to the new website and even printed ads like billboards. A full design overhaul. “Our new brand system shows that Dropbox isn’t just a place you store your files—it’s a living workspace that brings teams and ideas together. The look is expressive, with vibrant colors, rich imagery, a versatile typeface, and playful illustrations,” says Dropbox.

Sharp Grotesk could not have been a better typography choice for an ever-expanding company like Dropbox. After all, a robust brand needs a robust font. Or 200.

Sharp Grotesk could not have been a better typography choice for an ever-expanding company like Dropbox. After all, a robust brand needs a robust font. Or 200.

With all of its different weights and widths, Sharp Grotesk allows Dropbox to “speak in a variety of tones” to a diverse client base, including everyone from designers and writers to scientists and professors.

“As we enter a new technological paradigm of digital typography with the advent of the variable font format, we see a world of potential for robust type systems like Sharp Grotesk. While we wait for the technology to catch up with wide support across browsers and applications, however, Dropbox found a way to seamlessly incorporate this functionality into their design.”

Seamless functionality. That’s exactly what an obsessively-complete font family can offer designers. While variable fonts might be years away from absolute integration, Sharp Grotesk is here now, enriching every design project it touches.

Learn more about Sharp Grotesk and more typefaces from Sharp Type at sharptype.co.