Lobster 1.4 is a freely available decorative font by Pablo Impalllari. It is a bold condensed script face, laden with hundreds of alternate characters and combinations. As it is opentype, there are many versions of adjoined letter pairs (or ligatures), so that the best possible versions of these pairings automatically appear when letters are juxtaposed.


Google has picked it up as an officially supported Google webfont! Whilst this is great, it has set a gorgeous typeface on a dangerous path. As it is both accessible and ornamental, it has lead to overuse – Any startup that cropped up since 2010 is likely to have been tempted by Lobster.


Whilst travelling abroad it is amazing to see how many sings, billboards, menus, and other pieces of communication have adopted this little crustacean. Designers overseas seem to be eager to save the pennies, and as this is one of the prettiest gratis fonts it sees an astounding amount of use. Hopefully this won't become the next Comic Sans.


With this in mind, I have created this piece of personal work trying to imagine what household brands would look like if designers of the future continue to grow a Lobster addiction. Some of the results work well, others not so much – but I hope that you scroll down and smile...