Ausome Hoops
Birra Bruin is the typeface chosen for the identity of Ausome Hoops, a basketball program specifically designed for young people with autism.
In 2022, Ausome Hoops revamped its visual identity. The star of the game is Birra Bruin. Bruin takes to the court with its semi-slab uppercase, while its blackletter-inspired lowercase is mostly kept on the sidelines. It can be seen scoring in social media posts and the website (assist: Montserrat). For the logo, the letterforms were drawn bolder, with rounded terminals, set on an arch and spruced up with outline and shadow effects. On the jerseys, the oblique glyphs were slanted back to make them stand upright. Purists may cry fould play, but we give three points – go Hoops!
Founded in 2019, Ausome Hoops organizes school holiday camps and weekly programs for kids on the autism spectrum in the area of Melbourne, Australia, “providing a safe, inclusive space where they can learn how to play basketball free from the judgement from others”.
Birra Bruin was designed by Elena Schneider and released as the Medium Italic in Darden Studio’s Birra Flight of fonts, a diverse family with styles created separately by various guest designers. Like all Birra fonts – five at the time of writing – it’s available free of charge.
The website pairs headings in all-caps Birra Bruin, with text rendered in Montserrat.
Eventually, Birra Bruin’s lowercase get some time on the court, too: it’s used for the titles in the merch shop.
