“Typography should not be a barrier.” We speak to Olivia King about her vision for Inclusive Sans 2.0

When type designer Olivia King first designed Inclusive Sans, the goal was simple yet ambitious – to create a typeface that was beautiful, highly readable, inclusive and accessible. Released in 2022 with a single regular weight and a corresponding italic style, it quickly gained popularity among designers seeking a modern typeface that balanced aesthetics with functional clarity. While it proved useful, designers quickly requested additional weights, particularly bold, to make it more versatile for branding and interface design. Now with Inclusive Sans 2.0, King has expanded the family to include a full 10-style range plus a variable font option, significantly enhancing its versatility across digital and print environments. This update allows designers to fine-tune weight and contrast dynamically for everything from small UI elements to large-scale headlines. The story of Inclusive Sans began with a deep dive into typographic accessibility. “A few years ago, I was working on branding projects in the disability and government sectors, where accessibility was always a big focus,” King explains. The journey began when King and her colleague Jo Roca discovered research about how individual letterforms impact readability. “We knew things like type size and contrast mattered, but hadn’t thought about how individual letterforms could make reading easier.”