Unlike most of our interviewees, Crystal Kluge never dreamt of working OpenType magic or getting the most out of FontLab software. Pens, pencils and brushes are her tools of choice. She’d already found her own enchanting style of lettering and illustration when she was approached by Font Diner’s Stuart Sandler, who had spotted her work when shopping for wedding invitations in Minneapolis’ Uptown area. In 2006 the twosome started the Tart Workshop. It’s a dream team: Kluge draws cheerful, sassy letterforms and pictograms, Sandler makes them into smart and usable fonts with a catchy swing. And the beat, as they say, goes on.
The name of his one-man foundry is modest: insigne, with a lowercase ‘i’. But his achievements, in the eight years since he launched his first font family on MyFonts, are remarkable. His label carries over ninety typefaces, from informal fun fonts to distressed scripts to ambitious suites, one of which — Aviano — made our Best of the Year list not once, but twice, and has graced Hollywood blockbusters. He has seen more of the world than most of us, and remains hungry for new experiences. Introducing Jeremy Dooley, his eyes firmly on the future.