Hi designers!
Welcome to the 25th edition of the CUxD newsletter – a curated set of learnings, inspiration, resources, and tips. I’m Clément, Internal Community Lead, and I’ll be writing to you on behalf of CUxD every week.
If you’re not familiar with CUxD (Cornell User Experience Design), we’re a centralized community for UI, UX, and product designers at Cornell. We learn and grow together both professionally and socially!
Want to be more learn more about UX design?
Table of Contents
Learning time - Typography pairings
Every week, we’ll explore a topic in design. This week, we’ll talk about typography pairings: how to combine fonts to create hierarchy, personality, and clarity.
Why does typography pairing matter?
A good pairing creates clear hierarchy (meaning a visible order of importance between elements) as well as visual rhythm (ie: a consistent flow that guides the eye smoothly down the page). In other words, it helps users instantly distinguish headlines from body text, navigation from content, etc.
Contrast, not competition
Strong pairings usually rely on contrast in one or two dimensions, not all of them. For instance:
Serif vs. sans-serif
Weight (bold vs. regular)
Scale (large vs. small)
Structure (geometric vs. humanist)
Example pairings
Here are a few classic combinations that work as well as why!
Playfair Display + Inter
Playfair Display (serif) for headings
Inter (sans-serif) for body text
Elegant + modern. It works because Playfair brings the contrast and editorial sophistication. And Inter is a neutral and highly readable font, which makes it a strong, supporting partner.
Montserrat + Merriweather
Montserrat (geometric sans-serif) for headings
Merriweather (serif) for body
Bold + readable. Montserrat is structured and modern. Despite being serif font, Merriweather is optimized for readability.
Space Grotesk + Source Serif 4
Space Grotesk (sans-serif) for headings
Source Serif 4 (serif) for body text
Tech-forward + scholarly. Space Grotesk feels contemporary and slightly expressive, giving headlines personality and edge. Source Serif 4 balances it with a grounded structure that works beautifully for longer text. The contrast between modern grotesk and classic serif creates hierarchy without feeling disconnected.
Internships
NY, $37 - $40 / hr
NYC, $45 - $50 / hr
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NJ, $22 / hr
Advice from a fellow designer
About
Amy Ge, 2026 Info Sci (UX Concentration), from San Diego, CA
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Previous work experience
UX Design Intern @ Pogo (Series B)
UX Design Intern @ Google
UX Design Intern @ Tesla
UX Design Intern @ SAP
UX Design Intern @ Cisco
UX Design Intern @ Headstarter AI (Series A)
Proudest design project
Last summer, I was a part of a newly formed org in Google Cloud called Applied AI. It was backed by significant investment, led by Shiv Venkataraman (ex-OpenAI Search Lead), and its charter was to identify and scale new revenue streams with Gemini applications across industries.
I owned end-to-end features for Agent Assist, a flagship product that helps enterprises transform customer support with Gemini. My contributions included the first Generative AI experience for a subproduct, Agent Trainer, and a complex stimulation tracing feature that visualizes how LLM training instructions are triggered.
The pace was fast, the stakes were high, and the goal to ship AI products that could immediately demonstrate value was realized.
Advice
Design is everywhere around you! Find beauty in the everyday things, and be curious about why things are the way they are.
Design inspiration
Some cool designs for your dopamine hit!
Outro
That’s all for this week!
Have any feedback or want to see something on the newsletter next week? Email us at [email protected] or reply directly to this email.
See you soon,
Clément @ CUxD