Introducing SbB Powertrain

10/17/20 • 6 min read

This post was originally posted on October 18, 2020 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Bold, angular and flexible

Last spring, in the midst of the pandemic, I decided to revisit, revise and expand some of my existing typefaces, and I pretty much spent every spare minute of the summer working on them. The first release from these updated designs is also the most ambitious of them – SbB Powertrain, a massive family of 100 fonts. Five widths and 10 weights. And it’s available today at MyFonts.

Powertrain is inspired by a bunch of random things I like: 1920s constructivist posters, comic book lettering and early pixel fonts. I’ve been sketching letters on graph paper since I was a kid and a bunch of that DNA is here, too. Obviously, my experimentation with modular type at Fontstruct has been an influence as well.

Powertrain meets a specific need that I had as a designer. I like creating logos and illustrations that are sharp and angular, but I never had the type to complete the look. I needed a wide range of weights and widths to work with a variety of concepts, but I struggled to find options that I liked and that I had the flexibility I wanted. Something that could work for everything from headlines and logotypes to paragraphs and web addresses. Powertrain serves that need for me, and hopefully, it will work for you, too. I think that SbB Powertrain will work well in corporate, industrial and athletic branding projects.

I’ll be honest. Five widths and ten weights is probably overkill. But the more I played around with Powertrain, the more I enjoyed having maximum flexibility in picking exactly the weight I wanted to use.

• Five Widths: Extra Narrow, Narrow, Regular, Wide and Extra Wide
• Ten Weights: Thin, Extra Light, Light, Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold, ExtraBold, Black and Heavy.

I’ve included support for many languages, but I plan to expand that further in the near future.

Powertrain vs. Powerlane

Powertrain is a massive extension and revision of my first commercial typeface, Powerlane. Powerlane was very narrow — and actually forms the basis of the SbB Powertrain Extra Condensed. I’ve spent a significant amount of time refining the letterforms, spacing and features. SbB Powertrain will replace Powerlane.

So why change the name? Powertrain is a significantly different typeface and I felt it needed a new name. Plus, I never really loved the name Powerlane. I know why I picked it, but when I started working on this version, I knew it was time to make the change.

Opentype Features

As a designer, I like (and use) Opentype features. So SbB Powertrain features a range of features and alternate characters.

• Small Caps. I hate fake small caps where the uppercase letters are just crudely scaled down. So Powertrain includes a full set of small caps.

• Alternates. I’ve included a handful of alternate letters. I especially like the alternate M and $.

• Figure Sets. Powertrain includes proportional lining numbers, tabular lining numbers and even a version of “old style” numerals. (I really like how the old style numbers look in a block of text.)

Software support for Opentype features varies widely, but Adobe Creative Cloud apps have solid — if inconsistent — support for features.

Sans Serif? Or something else?

Traditionally, typefaces fall into some specific categories. Clearly Powertrain isn’t a serif typeface. It’s not a script. I wouldn’t classify it as a decorative or display typeface because it’s more useful than that. I guess that means it’s a geometric sans serif of some sort? That’s what I’m going with.

Geometric sans are normally curvy, though, so I don’t love grouping Powertrain into that category. (Powertrain has virtually no curves.) I think I actually prefer the term “constructed” to describe Powertrain. It’s not designed to follow a historical, written model, but it is intended to be used beyond just decorative use. Maybe I should call it a “Constructed Sans Serif.”

Variable Font

Variable fonts allow you to customize aspects of the typeface. SbB Powertrain Variable has three axes — width, weight and slant. One font file takes the place of 100. If you want to pick a size in between the defined sizes, you can. If you need a different slant angle, pick any angle up to 15 degrees.

I knew when variable fonts were announced, that I wanted to play around with them. It’s pretty impressive technology, but… it’s early. Support from software is iffy. It works reasonable well in Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps — they just fixed an issue in Indesign. Browser support is coming along slowly.

Since the variable font file can generate any font in the entire family, SbB Powertrain Variable is included when you buy the complete family on MyFonts or Creative Market. I still feel like the variable font is a beta and I plan on updating it as the technology continues to mature.

Price

The type industry is changing. Type is being offered for free through Google Fonts and as part of an Adobe Type subscription. It’s always been tough to get people to pay for type. It’s just getting harder.

I’ve decided to experiment with a different pricing structure. You can buy the whole family — SbB Powertrain, SbB Powertrain Extra Narrow, SbB Powertrain Narrow, SbB Powertrain Wide and SbB Powertrain Extra Wide plus the variable font — for $39. If you need just one width, it’s just $19. (Although I’m offering introductory pricing… Until the end of November, you can purchase the complete SbB Powertrain family — or any of the widths — for 25% off at MyFonts.)

Is it priced too low? Probably, but it’s hard to compete with free. I feel like given the current market, these are reasonable prices.

Wrap up

I designed SbB Powertrain to fill some needs that I had as a designer and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. Powertrain is angular and flexible and will work well for branding projects — especially for industrial, athletic or corporate clients. I designed it for me, but I hope you find it useful as well.

You can purchase SbB Powertrain through MyFonts. For a limited time, the complete Powertrain family is 25% off: 100 fonts plus the variable font for only $29.25. And a single weight is just $14.25.

(And look for a few more display typefaces coming later this Fall.)

Purchase SbB Powertrain from MyFonts

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, researcher, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. And he wears a mask to protect his community.