Once upon a time, the Monotype studio was an industrious drawing office in Salfords, England where a couple dozen designers produced the large-scale pencil drawings that would become the classic metal typefaces of the 20th century. Today, the Monotype Studio is a group of more than 50 individuals spread around the planet. It’s the largest type studio in the world and it’s where digital fonts are made. But it’s more than that. It’s a hive of typographic activity, encompassing not only the design of new commercial and custom type, but the engineering of fonts and the creation of leading font technologies—including artificial intelligence for font identification and discovery. And yes, it's the home of the largest library of fonts in the history of the world. Meet the Monotype Studio—the people and the initiatives that bring better type to everyone, everywhere—and learn what the Studio can do for you.
Your type speaks for you—day and night. Your type doesn’t care whether you're at work or lounging poolside. It just keeps on promoting your brand. Are you returning the favor? Are you choosing type well? Are you using type well? Consider this lecture the “care and feeding” of your typographic voice. Learn the fifteen fundamentals of legibility—from aperture to x-height—and stop settling for readable. Your type deserves more. Make it legible.
Variable fonts will change the way you look at type. No, literally! They will change the way you see and use type in truly amazing ways. Variable font technology will enable designers to create with exciting, engaging, and effective typography. They’ll bring type to life: active, acrobatic type that functions as normal, searchable text. Variable fonts make type sentient: intelligent and aware of its surroundings. And variable fonts provide thousands of shades and styles that you can tune to your precise creative vision. Learn what variable fonts are, why you want them, and where to find them.
Typography is part of the zeitgeist. Its forms are the visual voices of our time. Patterns of typographic use weave in and out of our culture—both building it and reflecting it. No group of people is better positioned to observe and report on typographic trends than the Monotype Studio. We make the raw material—the fonts that populate our visual landscape—and we’re partners with the world’s leading brands and the agencies that serve them. This survey investigates macro trends—spanning decades—and micro trends that drift quickly in and out of fashion. It looks at contrary movements that challenge the status quo and reveals changes in type technology that are ushering in new modes of expression.
Born in Cyprus, Monotype Creative Type Director Emilios Theofanous, has a soft spot for quality Greek and multilingual typography. Since joining Monotype, Emilios has worked on many custom typeface projects for clients across fashion, banking, retail and automotive sectors, as well as some iconic Monotype Library releases including Helvetica Now Variable. Emilios enjoys engaging with young designers, namely in workshops on type design and related emerging technologies.
Sara Soskolne is a Creative Type Director and designer. As a reformed bookworm, her deepest inspiration as a typeface designer is the experience of reading, and her abiding interest is in creating typefaces which not only serve but enrich that experience. Originally a graphic designer, Sara’s increasing fascination with type eventually drew her to study typeface design at the University of Reading in the UK, and then to practice it at Hoefler&Co.
As a Creative Type Director in the Monotype Studio, Terrance Weinzierl has been creating and modifying typefaces for the Monotype Library and a wide range of brands since 2008. In addition to working on custom projects for PBS, Microsoft, Google, Barnes & Noble, Domino’s and SAP, he’s designed type for video games, professional sports teams and auto manufacturers.
Friedrich Althausen is a Type Designer based in Monotype’s Berlin office. After his studies at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Friedrich worked as a freelance designer with a special interest in book typography and letter drawing. He has designed typefaces for several textbooks on subjects such as mathematics and Cartography, and his typeface “Vollkorn” became widely known as one of the first free web fonts on the internet.
Creative Type Director Damien Collot’s interest and passion for type design comes from drawing. As a child, he could spend hours at his desk trying to get the perfect, most unique, Donald Duck. Damien easily found his place in a field where attention to details and focus are key assets to explore the nuances of letter shapes.
Tom Rickner is a Creative Type Director with a career in type that spans more than three decades. During that time, he has mastered nearly every aspect of type design and font production, from his earliest days editing bitmaps, to designing some of the very first Multiple Master fonts for Adobe and TrueType GX Variations fonts for the Font Bureau and Apple.
Creative Type Director Akira Kobayashi has three decades of experience, with an extensive background in Japanese typeface design and a deep understanding of calligraphy. After studying at Musashino Art University in Tokyo for four years, Akira Kobayashi accepted his first job at phototypesetting manufacturer Sha-Ken Co., where he was involved in the lengthy and intricate process of designing Japanese fonts.