If form follows function in architecture and product design, as Louis H. Sullivan famously wrote, one wonders if this is true for type design as well. It could be argued that type is more like fashion: each season (they last somewhat longer in type) has its trendy silhouettes and popular textures. The fancier the shapes, the higher the probability that functionality will be limited. But there’s also the work wear sector — more matter-of-fact, less volatile, yet with its own subtly changing trends and colors. Does this mean that in the type world form also follows function, or is it perhaps the other way around? One thing is certain: this month’s Rising Stars won’t give you an answer to pretentious questions like that.
It does not happen very often that we interview designers right after they’ve signed up with MyFonts, and we’ve never interviewed a group as large as Fontyou. But then, the subject of this month’s Creative Characters interview is not your average type design studio. The Paris-based initiative has an ambitious plan: finding new ways to design and produce fonts. Using online tools, Fontyou establishes fruitful relationships between people with complementary skills — lettering artists, type designers, font technicians, and more. The outcome: something that’s greater than the sum of the parts — collaborative font designs with originality, quality, and character.
He is not one of those type designers who produces a new font family every two or three months. Each of his typefaces has taken considerable time to mature, and it shows: they are thoughtful, original and well-wrought. Rather than responding to passing trends, his Emtype Foundry publishes fonts that are aimed at having a long shelf-life, and his Geogrotesque has been a bestseller ever since it came out five years ago. He is also prepared to pull his weight when it comes to nourishing international typographic culture — he’ll be co-organizer of next year’s ATypI conference, the world’s major annual get-together of type designers. Meet Eduardo Manso, an Argentinian who has made Barcelona his home.
He’s arguably the most widely read type designer in the world. Verdana, Georgia, Tahoma, Skia: all ubiquitous, all his. Miller, one of North America’s most popular news faces — his initiative. Bell Centennial, drawn for AT&T, has been used in millions of phone books. His typefaces are all across the stylistic spectrum, from elegant renaissance oldstyles via meticulous scripts to indestructible sans-serifs. Having started as an apprentice at age 19, he has been in the business for the best part of six decades and is still passionately interested in the latest technological developments. He revels in working with demanding technicians and challenging projects. Here is our long-awaited interview with Matthew Carter.
He is one of those type designers who taught himself the craft by making experimental geometric fonts, then traveled a steep learning curve by continually challenging himself. Within years he was designing highly original, beautifully drawn typefaces, and winning awards. Several of his most striking faces were published by Fountain in Sweden. He still releases work with them, but some years ago launched his own one-man label, operating from Lisbon, Portugal. Among his side projects is a series of splendid videos he designed and directed to accompany his typeface releases. Meet the multi-talented Rui Abreu.
He is one of those lettering artists who learned the craft right at the time when it was becoming obsolete. While passionate about calligraphy and sign painting, he loves working with digital design tools. He has drawn custom logos and titles for prestigious companies. He has produced a string of successful font families, of which the most recent — Desire — took him an estimated 7,000 working hours. He was a mentor to fellow lettering artists Laura Worthington and Debi Sementelli, both of whom he helped to perfect their digital skills. Meet Charles Borges de Oliveira from Borges Lettering, building bridges between hand crafts and digital savvy.
Cyrus Highsmith is a senior designer at Boston’s Font Bureau. With his contemporary body of work, he has established himself as one of the truly original new voices in American type design. He’s somewhat of a designers’ designer — many of his peers hold him in awe for the sheer audacity of his letterforms. Jean-François Porchez, himself one of the most respected type designers in France, called him “the W.A. Dwiggins of today”. Meet Cyrus Highsmith, a natural draftsman.