The short story here is that I love creating beautiful sets of letters. In 2018 I opened Etcetera Type Co (ETC) with two variable typefaces. Anybody, and Grandstander. Over a period of one year the catalog evolved into seven families and started to gain attention. Google Fonts approached me at the end of 2019 and asked if I’d be interested in liberating them (and get paid in the process). I said sure, and worked with a few great folks from their team to make sure my work was up to spec.
In the past year Epilogue has received almost 860+ million views on Google Fonts. Had I kept my ETC work a commercial endeavor, I would never have reached that number for a new typeface in my whole lifetime (it’s just a number, I know, but still, it boggles the mind. GF stats are public and fascinating). Google’s commission also enabled me to expand some of these typefaces to wider language support, and gave me time to create Sono (not one of the original seven families).
I love making type. It’s a lot of work, and not always profitable. I’d release everything I make with an open source license if I could earn a living doing so. Google Fonts made that possible for a little while, and I’m forever grateful.
If you use Figma, these variable fonts are already installed and ready to use. Here’s a file I made for you to play around with.