YouTube releases its first own-brand font, YouTube Sans, inspired by the play button

YouTube has released its first own-brand font, YouTube Sans, designed by branding agency Saffron in collaboration with Letterjuice, URW++ and YouTube’s UX team. Designed to “express a uniquely YouTube aesthetic”, the typeface includes a play button glyph, so the brand’s icon can be typed like any other letter or symbol.

According to Saffron, one of its first tasks was to redraw and refine the play button icon “to make sure its curves and angles were perfect” before making it into a glyph.

The letterforms are inspired by the play button, softly rounded to match the curves of the icon’s outer edges, with angled diagonal cuts into the ends, drawn from the central triangle. It comes in light, medium and bold weights.

YouTube Sans was launched with YouTube TV, the company’s new live streaming service, and is used in bold across the interface. The face is designed to be used in all product and marketing communications.

Saffron says: “It is slightly quirky and expressive, but also simple and bold, just like the platform it calls home.”