Teraoka Seiko Co., Ltd. is a manufacturer that develops various products and solutions related to store management such as POS cash register, weighing and packaging, and labeling for customers of distribution and retail, food manufacturing, logistics and restaurants. We are constantly taking on the challenge of "creating new common sense," and are launching world-first and industry-first products and services.
We are pleased to inform you that the Teraoka Seiko touch panel vending machine "Delious Lio" has been able to adopt and introduce the fontworks typefaces "Tsukushi A Old Mincho M" and "Cezanne M/DB".
We asked Mr. Yokono of Teraoka Seiko, who was actually involved in the selection, adoption, and introduction of typefaces, about the process.
Products that are easy to convey information on the display
--- Teraoka Seiko is expanding its business in various fields such as food and logistics. What kind of product is "Delious Lio"?
Yokono: DeliousLio is what is called a "ticket vending machine." Speaking of ticket vending machines where you first put in money and buy a meal ticket for the menu you want to eat, I think that many people have the image of being a stand-up soba shop or ramen shop.
Nowadays, various technologies such as touch panel are incorporated, and the display is a large and vertical type, which makes it a very high-performance product. The experience has changed so that customers who come to the store can operate the touch panel to select a menu instead of using the buttons found on conventional ticket machines.
In such a situation, not only are the buttons with menu characters written orderly arranged as before, but the images displayed on the display can be freely laid out and assembled, the color and size of the characters, the typeface type By improving the, etc., it has become possible to convey the menu visually more clearly.
The "ease of transmitting information" is one of the features of the product called DeliousLio, and it is very well received by the stores that have introduced the product.
Incorporating the power of letters to convey a sense of sizzle
-Why did you pay attention to the typeface during the development of Delious Lio?
Yokono: For example, when a customer wants to eat ramen, I think that there is little information that can be conveyed by simply arranging characters such as "miso ramen" and "salt ramen", and it may be difficult to choose.
There is a "sizzle" in a word that makes you think that it looks delicious and has a luster. Of course, I think that this sizzle feeling can also be conveyed by photographs and colors, but I also think that it can be conveyed by the power of letters.
With the system standard typefaces that people often see and use on PCs, etc., I think that the information displayed on the display can give the customer a feeling of "Ah, I want to eat this" Whether? I have a question.
I'm in the product design department, but I really like UI/UX. Considering letters as an important factor, the development concept of this product was to "choose a typeface that conveys a sizzle feeling".
We started to select fonts and compared more than 20 fonts. As a result, we focused on Fontworks' Tsukushi A Old Mincho M. I felt that it was the typeface that most matched the concept among the comparisons, so I made a selection. I think the final deciding factor was the design of "Tsukushi A Old Mincho M".
I think the design of the letters themselves is part of the product description. I think that it should not only be conveyed as words, but it should also represent the characteristics of the product itself, and I am very conscious of that.
-I'm really glad that you paid attention to the design of "Tsukushi A Old Mincho M". Delious Lio has also adopted "Cezanne" in addition to "Tsukushi A Old Mincho M". How are these two typefaces used properly?
Yokono: In this project, we were considering multiple fonts from various font makers as candidates. I had a persona that I had set, so I finally narrowed down the typefaces that matched it.
As a result, it was adopted as "Tsukushi A Old Mincho M", but at the same time, I wanted the customers other than that persona to also use Delious Lio, so one of the characteristic " It means that he used "Tsukushi A Old Mincho M" and, on the other hand, chose "Cezanne" considering a more general typeface.
I think you used to select the typeface for your previous products, but is there anything different from the point of view of the typeface selection at Delious Lio this time?
Yokono: In most of our previous products, typefaces were used in label printers. What you often see on the label printer is a label like the one on the product Packaging, which is placed in the fresh food counters such as supermarkets. Others include labels with the address and product name printed on a cardboard box that you receive online. We manufacture machines that make such labels.
The printed label is mainly used by store managers or touched by store staff. Universal Design (universal design) font, which doesn't require a beautiful design or a sizzle in such a situation, but has readability and legibility, that the number of characters is correct, and that numbers are easy to distinguish. It can be said that it would have been good if the characteristics that had were prepared.
But this time the Delious Lio is a self-contained product and has a large display. Since it is the consumer who uses it, it is completely different from the approach method like the conventional label printer. Therefore, DeliousLio wanted to create a superiority by carefully selecting typefaces from the aspect of approaching for consumers.
We were particular about the beauty and appearance of the numbers because we were a scale manufacturer.
--This time, we also examined and introduced Universal Design fonts from Fontworks.
Yokono: We also compared the fonts of each manufacturer with regard to Universal Design fonts. Originally, we were a manufacturer of scales, so we placed great importance on the appearance of numbers.
The numbers are important factors that are necessary in any situation, such as price and weight, but Universal Design font of Fontworks has a very beautiful number form as a design, and it was highly superior. Right.
It has a good reputation within the company. I was surprised myself, but when the font I adopted was installed in a certain product, the numbers were displayed more beautifully than the fonts I had used up to now.
I think there is also the beauty of the letters themselves. Employees who are not in a position to care about designs and fonts like us received comments such as "It looks beautiful!". It was very impressive.
Fontworks fonts are expected to be installed in various products of Teraoka Seiko, including Delious Lio. I'm looking forward to the more opportunities I see in the city and in stores. I might find the logo of "TERAOKA" without thinking "Oh, this touch panel ticket vending machine..." (laughs).
By the way, Yokono-san sometimes creates his own fonts. I just can't fit into the frame I want to fit...but only numbers are needed...sometimes, it seems that numbers are created by themselves.
Mr. Yokono laughs because when he walks around town, he often feels "I want this font", and conversely, "I wish I could use a font like this." As for Fontworks, we were able to hear an interesting story from the introduction of fonts to their adoption, and it was a fruitful time.
Fontworks is waiting for consultation on the introduction of embedded fonts that match the characteristics of the device and environment. Please feel free to Contact Us us.
