Prototypo
Online application that allows designers to create unique brand images with custom fonts in just a few clicks.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
| N/A | €0.0 | round | |
| investor investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
| N/A | €350k | Seed | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Prototypo SAS, a French company founded in Lyon in 2013, operates in the digital typography space, offering a specialized tool for font generation. The company was established by Yannick Mathey, Antoine Heber-Suffrin, and Louis-Rémi Babé. Mathey's journey into type design began during his final year of studies at ESAD Strasbourg, where he developed the initial alpha version of Prototypo. The venture secured $857K in a seed funding round on January 18, 2018, with participation from investors including Investisseur Prive and Vox Capital.
The core of Prototypo's business is a web-based application that allows designers and agencies to create custom and unique fonts. The platform addresses the often time-consuming process of selecting fonts by empowering users to generate their own. It serves a clientele of creative professionals who require distinct typographic identities for branding and design projects. The business model is likely subscription-based, providing access to the font generation tool and its features.
Prototypo's product is built on parametric font technology. This technology utilizes a Javascript algorithm and mathematical formulas to generate font glyphs dynamically. Users can manipulate various parameters, such as weight, width, x-height, and slant, through on-screen sliders to alter the font's appearance in real-time. The application can generate up to 30 font variations per second, which allows for a fluid and interactive design process. A key feature is the ability to create responsive fonts that can adapt to their environment, such as changing based on screen size, background brightness, or other data inputs. This opens up applications in data visualization, interactive installations, and creating more accessible web experiences for the visually impaired. Prototypo has collaborated with the type foundry Production Type, notably on making the Google Font 'Spectral' the first parametric font available through their system.
Keywords: parametric fonts, type design, font generation, custom typeface, typography tool, web typography, responsive fonts, brand identity design, graphic design software, digital typography, Yannick Mathey, Production Type, variable fonts, creative tools, design software, font customization, user interface design