Kjernekraft
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Nav Display
A custom display typeface for the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration’s digital surfaces
Background
Nav.no has used Source Sans as its primary typeface for many years, an open-source font used on over 145,000 websites globally. It serves readability well, but carries no identity. It says nothing about who Nav is, why we are here or our history.
Source Sans has been Navs brand font for the last years
The need for a custom display typeface emerged as part of a broader effort to revise the visual toolkit on nav.no. Where the colour palette was the first step ( work documented on Aksel), typography was the natural next. The goal was to give headlines a more identity-bearing expression, something recognisable and distinctive, without compromising readability or accessibility.
Process
In October 2024, Good Type Foundry was commissioned to develop the typeface. The work was done in close collaboration with the Aksel and nav.no teams, with monthly reviews of sketches and testing in real context.
The concept from an earlier exploration in another context, that opened the largest space of possibility was one we called «lifeline» (livslinje). A reference to continuity, coherence, and the journey through different life stages, as Nav is with us from cradle to grave. The typeface was grounded in this concept, alongside references drawn from historical documents from the era of the Directorate of Labour and the social insurance offices.
Key technical requirements included high x-height, condensed proportions, and space efficiency. Nav’s headlines are often long, and we wanted to avoid text that spans too many lines.
We started with four directions, gradually narrowing to two, and finally one. Along the way, a serif direction was carefully considered. Serifs would have represented the formal and official character of Nav’s mandate. We found the direction felt like a compromise and did not meet our readability requirements. A darling was killed.
Nav Display
Delivered in June 2025 as a type family in four weights: regular, italic, bold and bold italic. It is optimised for web and app, and works well in headlines and short copy across non-digital surfaces as well.
The typeface is not yet in production. It will be introduced at the next natural opportunity, as part of the ongoing work on coherent design and content across nav.no.