READ US #0 was created as part of READ – Rencontre Étudiante d’arts et de design (Meetings of Art and Design Students). Founded in 2023, this student-led activist festival brings together around twenty art schools from different countries each year, through football, talks and concerts. This first issue traces the productions of collectives from the Amiens (2023), Nantes (2024) and Nancy (2025) editions, from jerseys, scarves, banners and stickers to fanzines and sports objects.

Aurora Vanchiglia Transfemminista is a football team within ASD Aurora Vanchiglia, a grassroots amateur sports association based in Turin and rooted in the Aurora and Vanchiglia neighbourhoods. The team practises football as an activity open to everyone, regardless of age or sporting ability, and especially welcomes trans people, who often struggle to find spaces where they belong amid growing discrimination. It brings its ideas onto the pitch through action and through its new match kit.

BBC Cricket briefed us to engage the next generation of sports fans without alienating their existing audience. Inspired by cricket’s iconic scoring system, we created an ASCII-style typographic language that became the building blocks for motion and 3D. Combined with a vibrant RGB colour palette and our hero font, Mono Spec, the result was a bold, energetic design system rooted in the traditions of the game, but built to capture the attention of a new generation.

Kieler Turnerbund, a local basketball club based in Kiel, has unveiled a bold new identity for its men’s and women’s basketball teams. A new emblem, custom lettering and matching numbers unite both squads as the KTB Seals and make them stand out on the court.

The Next Level, a reference to one of Maximilian Slash Tiger Marton’s hobbies outside of his design practice.
Hand-painted with acrylic on Arches Aquarelle Cold Pressed, air-dried, 100% cotton, 640 g paper.

The Next Level, a reference to one of Maximilian Slash Tiger Marton’s hobbies outside of his design practice.
Hand-painted with acrylic on Arches Aquarelle Cold Pressed, air-dried, 100% cotton, 640 g paper.

Two custom typefaces form a central part of Gretel’s vibrant brand identity for the New York City FC. Expressing the grit and power of this magnificent city, they take inspiration from old signage of the NYC Subway: the Express is a bold, compact headline face based on enamel station signs; the Local, aimed at smaller sizes, is based on tile lettering. The Frere-Jones Type team also drew the refreshed crest (monogram and lettering), with all of their work based on design and concept by Gretel.

In Catch Up, Maximilian Slash Tiger Marton turns typography into a physical trace of movement. The words are pressed into sand, becoming part of the landscape rather than sitting on top of it. Footprints suggest a body moving ahead, while the fading letters evoke distance, time and the pressure to keep moving. The work transforms a simple sporting phrase into a quiet reflection on movement and pursuit.

This work is aimed, to highlight the stark contrast, between the stillnes of the sport fields, and the movement of the competitors. The typo is based on the characteristics, and dynamics of the sport, reflecting it’s feeling, and texture. The backgrounds are an abstractions of the fields, it’s main leading lines, connecting the pieces together.

In Every Day, Maximilian Slash Tiger Marton transforms typography into a physical experience. Letters are fragmented, rotated and scattered across the page, turning language into movement. The rhythm of “24 7 365” reinforces the idea of continuous activity, while the repeated phrase becomes both instruction and visual gesture. The work explores how typography can communicate energy, motion and the everyday impulse to move.

In Power Is Nothing Without Control, the designer explores the tension between force and discipline through sport and image. Two opposing figures are reduced to expressive silhouettes and gestures, while the diagonal typography creates a sense of movement and instability. The contrast between red and blue suggests opposition, competition and balance, turning the familiar statement into a visual study of controlled physical power.

In Mountain Climbing, Maximilian Slash Tiger Marton transforms the physical challenge of climbing into an abstract architectural landscape. A solitary climber moves across an immense geometric structure, where scale, light and negative space become expressions of effort, distance and ambition. The work explores the psychological space between the individual and the seemingly impossible.

Not everyone shaping performance steps onto the field. Zuzana Pšenáková is a sport and performance psychologist training what no scoreboard can show: the mind. The concept “Gain an Edge” frames mental preparation as a competitive advantage. A hand-drawn “Z”—her initial—becomes the distinctive brand asset, shifting in form, scale and position. Disciplined sans-serif typography brings structure and focus. The system balances control with motion—like the mental work behind physical performance.

ČSPE—the Czech-Slovak Pickleball Extraliga—brings Czechia and Slovakia back together around one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. Its logotype breaks the league name out of a line and into a court: bold letterforms take opposing positions around the ball, turning typography into play. The typographic system carries that same tension across layouts—structured, competitive and built to move. Two nations. One court. And a new shared history, set in type.

Faster, Higher, Stronger.

Faster, Higher, Stronger.

Inspired by the Tour de France, designer Laura Jane Boast translated the physical and psychological energy of cycling into a typeface: speed, discipline, desire and focus. In its making, those qualities became part of the process itself — repetition, persistence, focus and momentum. Like the riders who inspired it, the work became an act of showing up without knowing the outcome, driven by the pure pleasure of the process. The typeface became a way of living the energy that inspired it.

Designed to complement the brand’s dynamic tone, the custom iconography system adds clarity, movement, and expression to every touchpoint. Optimized for performance both online and offline, it supports the daily journeys of all Cosmos customers, clearly, confidently, consistently.

Cosmos Sans is a custom typeface inspired by athletic lettering found on jerseys and sports gea, bold, legible, and full of energy. Designed in both Latin and Greek, it empowers Cosmos to communicate in a consistent, rhythmic, and inclusive voice across all media.

Typography is central for the visual identity, not only for the logo system design but also for the printed materials and editorial approach. The logo is custom created and based on rigorous geometry with surprisingly soft curves. Playing with the contrast and dynamic of angles it immediately centres the theme in the experience of the Pilates practice. The system pairs FF Meta and FF Info Correspondence for all its intrinsic history and style and also a nod to the early digital design era

“æra&FFFC” is a collection by the Bern-based art and culture project æra, which was presented in 2022 at the Underground Fashion Show at the squatted Tripity in Bern. One day before the kickoff of the World Cup in Qatar, it addressed the exploitation of people and nature in sports and fashion. The looks were created collectively by upcycling surplus sportswear from the local neighborhood club FC Breitenrain and were embroidered, printed, and re-sewn.

A custom typeface inspired by the movement and physicality of horse jumping, PJL Display and Sans are a dual-type system with DNA uniquely derived from the sport, such as dynamic italic angles, crafted stencil cuts, and hoof-inspired terminals.

Designed for the new Premier Jumping League (the PJL) in collaboration with NOT Wieden+Kennedy, it was designed to cover a wide range of uses, from on-screen leaderboard graphics to large outdoor billboards and way finding.

The Court is an identity born from how basketball truly works: through the precise movements and tactical formations of its players. To capture these plays, I designed a bespoke typeface translating athletic motion into text. It is a cool, dynamic brand built entirely from these human pathways, strong imagery, and secondary type. It playfully reveals how physical motion can generate experimental typography, creating a totally unseen visual code for basketball culture.

The poster captures the sensory essence of freediving through minimalist geometric tension. Distorted horizontal lines visualize ocean pressure and surface ripples bending downward, guiding the eye into an abyssal plunge. Anchored by a lone diver descending on a single breath, the piece translates the silence beneath the waves into visual rhythm, reflecting an intimate dialogue between the human body and the quiet deep.