The designers with the freshest fonts
Typography is a vital component of any brand identity, and is often the most eye-catching element of the boldest graphic designs, whether that’s for an exhibition programme or a national ad campaign. Whether you’re creating gym wear for your fitness studio or tote bags for your coffee brand, a carefully chosen font can speak volumes about a brand or a product, and it’s amazing how much mood and character a simple typeface can embody.
Whether you’re looking to commission your own custom font, or on the hunt for existing lettering that fits your brand sensibility, here are some of the exciting typographers who have caught our eye here at ICON.
Benoit Bodhuin
French designer Benoit Bodhuin claims to be “curious about everything”, and combines a mathematics-based approach with his graphic design expertise to create varied, idiosyncratic typefaces. He likens his process to that of a sculptor, slowly refining and perfecting the minutest details until his specific vision is realised.
Mischa Appel
Since graduating from his BA in 2018 Mischa Appel has created graphics and typefaces for an impressive list of clients, including both the Danish government and the Spice Girls. Now based in Utrecht, Appel sees his work as a kind of translation, taking contextual information and weaving it into a final product that conveys meaning while leaving room for interpretation.
TienMin Lao
TienMin Lao’s list of awards is as long and impressive as her CV, which includes work for Birchbox, Verizon and USP. Her portfolio of fonts includes a number which explore Chines/Kaji localisation, and the dynamic nature of these alphabets is realised across her varied output.
Emery Lane Norton
Canadian designer Emery Lane Norton moved to Finland to pursue an education in graphic design, and now works for the Finnish Architectural Review as well as pursuing freelance projects. Emery also works as an editor and critic, and each of his disciplines informs the other, all guided by internal logic and building on conceptual networks.
Saeed Abu-Jaber and Mothanna Husseun
Saeed Ab-Jaber and Mothanna Hussein are the duo behind Jordanian design studio Turbo. One of their aims as a studio is to reignite Jordan’s relationship to experimental type, which they feel is a practice the city has seen less of in recent years. Another key element of their approach is to push the expectations of their clients, positioning themselves as educators about the complexities of the design process.
Daan Rietbergen
Daan Rietbergen is also based in Utrecht, and began his lifelong love affair with lettering as a young boy experimenting with graffiti. Rietbergen recently left a larger studio to start his own, and has found himself returning to the spaces of his earliest explorations with type. Experimenting again with lettering in public spaces has helpedRietbergen explore and refine the interplay between the freedom of graffiti and a more formal typographic practise.
Lina Forsgren
Lina Forsgren is a multidisciplinary designer based in Stockholm, who hopes to push beyond the expectations for whatever discipline or field she might be working in. Forsgren is also very aware of the gender imbalance within her field, and runs a network for female and non-binary creatives that prioritises a “norm-critical” approach to work and collaboration.
Alex Valentina
When designing his futuristic-gothic font ‘GoliaGolia’ Alex Valentina tried to work in as spontaneous and random a way as possible, drawing each individual letter by hand and approaching the process as a kind of game. The finished product is something which feels both incredibly current and somehow ahead of its time, all at once. It’s a feeling imparted by much of Valentina’s work.
Segal Choi
Segal Choi finds most of his inspiration in the foundational elements of the Korean writing system Hangul, dissecting and playing with it in an infinity of interpretations and representations. Most recently he created a series of posters for the National Hangeul Museum that reimagined the human body as a writing tool, translating human movements into graphic strokes. This truly playful and inspired approach to his design makes Choi one of the most exciting designers working today.
Sandrine Nugue
Sandrine Nugue is a much-celebrated Parisian designer whose fonts are often cited by other designers, picked out as examples of their favourite work. She is fascinated by the idea of type and alphabets as human inventions, progressing and evolving over long periods of development. As such, she often thinks about moments in history and culture and how they can have relevant influence on the project she is working on.
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