A cool font is more than just simple text
Unless you are a savant obsessed with graphic design or the way text on paper looks, the way a particular font meets the eyes may have never crossed your mind before. But here’s the thing: choosing the right font matters more than you think. A signature typeface can be absolutely crucial to establishing a brand’s image and mood.
For example, Supreme, the New York City-based skateboard clothing brand, has practically built an empire partly on the back of a simple word printed in Helvetica’s clean, bold lettering. The word “Supreme” in this font, emblazoned on its signature box logo, has made its T-shirts, hoodies, and unusual “accessories” a defining part of streetwear culture for a generation of hypebeasts. The right font doesn’t just convey words; it communicates a particular brand’s entire vibe and identity. It’s the reason why you haven’t seen Coca-Cola change its iconic logo for years.
However, Volvo, the Swedish automaker that practically wrote the book on automotive safety, has taken this typography phenomenon to a whole new level. It has developed its own custom typeface called Volvo Centum, and it isn’t just about a cool-looking design; it’s engineered to keep you safer on the road.
Enter Volvo Centum
In collaboration with London-based type design studio Dalton Maag (the same guys who designed fonts for the BBC, Korean Air, and Netflix), Volvo has created a new font that will make its debut in the upcoming EX60 model in early 2026.
This special font is designed to appear on the many screens inside Volvo cars, including on instrument clusters, infotainment systems, and navigation displays. What makes this particular font very special, in comparison to other well-known fonts like Comic Sans, Calibri, or Times New Roman, is that its designers have meticulously crafted every single character to be instantly readable at a glance, whether you’re driving in the daytime or going through dimly lit roads at night.
Volvo
In an interview with design publication Dezeen, Volvo Cars UX creative director Matthew Hall said that safety has been the “guiding principle” behind Volvo for “almost 100 years,” adding that Centum is another component in this vision.
“Volvo Centum was designed with safety in mind – by making complexity simple, being easy to absorb at a glance, reducing visual clutter and supporting a more intuitive driving experience,” Hall said. “Every detail in our interface is an opportunity to create clarity and confidence, and a more intuitive driving experience, so that our customers feel safe and can trust the car.”
The core concept behind the typeface is extreme legibility, where text can be absorbed in a fraction of a second. Hall explained that legibility was “non-negotiable” when it came to designing the font, as it was intended to read quickly by drivers in all conditions, even at a glance.
He noted that every character in Volvo Centum was “carefully crafted for quick comprehension to be instantly readable at a glance for quick comprehension, whether in bright daylight or low-light driving conditions,” adding that the font adds “clarity and reduces cognitive load so drivers can grasp the most important information and focus their attention on the road.”
Volvo
Font design is a science, according to Volvo and Dalton Maag.
Dalton Maag and Volvo didn’t just design the letters to look visually stunning; they dove deep into the actual science of how our brains process visual information. Hall explained that type design is a “discipline that applies the principles of cognitive psychology and visual perception to broader design systems applied to digital or physical surfaces,” adding that these principles are amplified in a driving scenario.
As a result, the team focused on character disambiguation; making sure that similar letters are clearly distinct from each other, and emphasized design features like open counters (the enclosed spaces inside letters like ‘o’ and ‘a’), and other typographic details that aid the brain in scanning and decoding individual letters.
The design team also considered how the typeface would influence thinking time and the perception of messages at a glance. Their ultimate goal was to increase the number of words recognized per glance, in turn improving readability and reducing the time drivers spend looking at screens and away from traffic. Beyond pure functionality, Volvo Centum also draws inspiration from the brand’s design heritage. The typeface evokes classic Volvo models, including the beloved 1990s Volvo 850, with references to vertical tail lamps and the diagonal line of its iconic three-point safety belt.
“What’s been a pleasant surprise is how the same qualities that make the Volvo 850 timeless, one of my personal favourites, translate so naturally into typography,” he said. “Volvo Centum’s boxy curves, clean horizontal terminals, and confident straight segments create a system that is both expressive and purposeful, allowing the typeface to communicate with clarity and character.”
Final thoughts
For a company approaching its 100th anniversary in 2027 (hence the name “Centum”), safety isn’t just marketing, it’s baked into Volvo’s DNA. This is the automaker that invented the three-point seatbelt in 1959 and then gave the patent away for free, allowing every car manufacturer to use it. That single decision has saved over a million lives, and Volvo has continued innovating in safety ever since.
Is a custom font going to revolutionize driving? Probably not on its own. However, this move indicates that Volvo is still obsessed with keeping people safe, even in ways that seem unnoticeable or out-of-pocket. In a world where cars are quite literally smartphones on wheels, with massive touchscreens replacing physical buttons, anything that helps drivers process information faster and keep their eyes on the road is worth recognizing.
