Redesigned Makro into a Modern Grotesk Powerhouse

In type design, "bold" often gets mistaken for "loud." For years, Makro XM was built for designers who needed to shout. But as branding and UI/UX design moved toward more considered, sophisticated systems, we realized Makro needed more than a facelift. Most high-impact display faces share the same problem: no discipline. Looking back at Makro XM, we found the issue in the letterforms themselves. The outward-leaning terminals gave the type a centrifugal energy, striking in a short headline, but unstable once it had to carry an entire brand system.

The goal was a more useful Makro, not just a better-looking one.

Getting there meant going back to the fundamentals of the Modern Grotesk, the genre typographers call the workhorse of the trade. We replaced the outward terminals with inward-facing tips, gave it a double-storey "a" and "@," and built out a 3-axis variable system. The result is less a redesign than a rebuild: Makro went from a niche display face to a typeface built for how digital-first designers actually work.

The Ergonomics of the Terminal

The type is full of small, invisible decisions that add up. In the earlier version, Makro XM's terminals leaned outward, a choice that gave the letters kinetic energy but cost them the block-like stability high-end layouts needed.

When a terminal faces outward, it pushes the eye away from the letter's core. We adjusted these tips to face inward instead, and that one change does two things.

Pulling the terminals inward makes the characters feel more solid and grounded. That matters most in Black weights, where too much outward energy can make a headline look like it's coming apart rather than holding together.

It also cleans up the vertical rhythm between lines. Inward terminals let you tighten tracking and leading in headlines without the letters clashing or leaving odd gaps in negative space.

Modern Grotesk Roots: Stability Meets Sharpness

The new Makro sits solidly inside Modern Grotesk tradition. We moved away from the eccentric display traits of the old version and toward the disciplined contrast of classic Grotesk engineering, a genre built on geometric simplicity and an authoritative tone that still reads as more human than a strictly geometric sans.

You'll see this most at the tension points in the letterforms. We sharpened the transitions where the bowls of the b, d, p, and q meet the stems, and refined the shoulders of the h, n, and r, so the counters stay open even at condensed widths. The result is a more traditional structure, one that holds up under the pressure of a complex UI without needing extra tweaks.

The Three Axes of Variable Control

The centerpiece of the redesign is a 3-axis variable font architecture. For a static font family, that's a real limitation. A variable font gets around it, and it's especially useful for responsive web design, where the type can flex with the viewport while the whole family loads from a single file.

The new Makro moves across three dimensions:

1. Weight (Light to Black): seven core weights that hold their optical balance from delicate captions all the way to soul-crushing headlines.
2. Width (Condensed to Expanded): the type moves from the tight, architectural feel of Condensed to the cinematic sprawl of Expanded without losing its identity along the way.
3. Slant (Italic): matching italics across every width keeps emphasis consistent wherever you use it.

Distinctive Anatomy: The Double-Storey Changes

We kept the Grotesk discipline, but we didn't scrub out the Makro personality entirely. A few shapes stayed distinct on purpose, as brand anchors for the typeface.

The double-storey "a" and "@" are the clearest example. We used a traditional double-storey lowercase "a" for legibility, and gave the "@" symbol the same double-storey treatment. Most "@" glyphs use a single loop; This one gives your contact sections and digital headers a small, deliberate flourish instead.

We also reworked the hash (#). Most hash marks slant; ours uses a straight structure built from parallel vertical and diagonal lines, so it lines up cleanly with the verticality of a Modern Grotesk layout.

With over 744 glyphs and an expanded set of OpenType features, Makro works across print and retina screens alike.

Discipline, Not Just Impact

Redesigning Makro was ultimately about discipline over spectacle. We embraced Modern Grotesk tradition, refined the terminals, and built out the variable 3-axis system, and what we ended up with holds the page instead of just sitting on it.

The Condensed axis still has that same surgical precision; Expanded weights still carry the same cinematic weight. Makro is still a mix of heritage and new technology, just built on a more classical structure this time around.

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