COLLINS’ bespoke typographic identity for Freeform acts as a reactive platform for unheard voices

Launched with the ambition of helping ‘a new generation of storytellers get discovered by a new generation of viewers,’ Disney’s Freeform division champions original young adult stories. To shape its brand, the global mass media conglomerate partnered with NYC and San Francisco-based design studio COLLINS. Having created an expressive visual space, cutting through the noise of the content streaming marketplace, the rigour and freedom afforded by the resulting identity mirrors the algorithm-adverse projects that Freeform operate, offering a platform for often unheard and underrepresented voices. To aesthetically articulate Freeform’s fundamental focus on perspectives, COLLINS collaborated with renowned type foundry Monotype to craft a variable and reactive bespoke typeface that reshapes itself to fit each unique voice. The distinct twists and turns created by the typeface then lay the foundations for the surrounding visual landscape, forging dramatic, contrasting forms that direct how the brand’s supporting typeface Neue Haas Grotesk, content information and imagery sit side-by-side, eclectically and accessibly combining across both digital and tactile spaces.