“Harding,” Nature’s custom font
In October 2019, the Nature Journal introduced a logotype refresh, including its new custom typeface “Harding,” named after late neurologist Anita Harding. In her article “The design decisions behind Nature’s new look,” creative director Kelly Krause shows the evolution of Nature’s logo design over the past 150 years, laying out brand strategic and technical considerations that went into the redesign.
Together with external designers, the team aimed to ensure that the new typeface could cope with various needs of scientific material, considering equations, Greek letters, and special characters commonly used in scholarly articles, alongside incorporating a wide range of additional characters such as astronomical symbols and phonemes found in African languages.
Nature Journal’s logotype update. Left: Logo before the 2019 redesign. Images: Twitter screenshots.
Fonts similar in tone to “Harding”
When designing “Harding,” Krause highlights that the overall tone aimed for was a sense of calm and rational intelligence, paired with a touch of British formality and wit.
If you’re looking for fonts with a similar tone, check out these five typefaces:
1. Bauhaus Soft
Bauhaus Soft comes in nine font weights, Thin to Black. The weight closest to Nature’s logotype is Medium (500). The typeface’s focus in tone is “organic” due to its rounded nature, e.g., a pronounced ball terminal in the letter r and a rounded tail in the letter a.
2. Bauhaus Chez
More approachable in style, Bauhaus Chez eliminates the serifs (little feet protruding from the letter stems) and has rounded top right stems, both of which add to an overall friendlier look.
3. Kijs
The Kijs typeface is a nature serif font with lots of character. The tails are often elongated with a pen-like stroke, adding a touch of handwriting feel to the typeface design. High-contrast strokes and more distinct letters that stand out (but can be swapped with design alternates using a layout program) make the Kijs font a display font and perfect for logos.
4. Mod
Similar to Bauhaus Soft, Bauhaus Mod is a modern serif type. The serifs are slightly more prominent than usual, giving this font presence and strength. Mod’s counters are wide open, and the baseline stems are cut straight, which creates a balanced male-female balance.
5. Quil
Quil Medium (500) has short serifs and straight-cut terminals—both design features that create a factual, more distant feel. The directness is balanced with long tails, e.g., on the letter t.
