A few years ago, I started teaching type design and it made me come up with a definition of ‹typeface›. I can tell students that a typeface is a set of outlines defined by Cartesian coordinates and stored in a SFNT wrapper within a binary file. Technically that is correct, but it’s like defining food with a list of chemical compounds.

A more complex way to look at it is: why do graphic designers pick ‹Geometric Sans Serif Designed For Use In Text Sizes 1› instead of ‹Geometric Sans Serif Designed For Use In Text Sizes 2›? They probably perform the technical task of setting text in a given context equally well. They just look different. Designers pick one over the other because one conveys the feeling of the text more accurately than the other.

So, my new definition is: ‹typefaces are emotions encapsulated in an alphanumeric representation.› That has led me to be less interested in the visual styles that typefaces can take and more interested in what feelings they can bring to certain contexts. I have a list of emotions and contexts that I want to design something for. It’s a fun challenge.

Tal Leming.

Most of my code work is for behind-the-scenes workflow support. I use it to help maintain design and quality consistency when working on large families. I’ve built my own software and open sourced well over half of my code base so that other designers can build their own tools. Tal Leming.

Oddly, I don’t remember making the decision to start a foundry. One thing led to another and it just kind of happened. I started drawing typefaces around 22 years ago after I stumbled onto Emigre Magazine. The interplay between Zuzana Licko’s brilliant typefaces and Rudy Vanderlans’ layouts was magic. I started making typefaces for the work I was doing in my classes and at my job as a designer for my university. That led to making typefaces for use outside of my own work. That led to me making some typefaces for House Industries. That led to me working as a designer at House for several amazing years. That led to me constantly thinking about typefaces. That led to ideas for typefaces that I worked on in my free time. That led to starting a company so that I could finish those typefaces. Once they were done I wanted to see how people would use them, so I started a foundry. It’s all one long thread but my motivation for making typefaces is still the same as it was 22 years ago. I still make typefaces to solve design problems. Tal Leming.

The key is not to focus on single shape, but to work with the whole set. type design is not about designing letters, but designing text. it is like solving a complex puzzle, or conducting a philharmonic orchestra – each shape is unique, but needs to work with the rest, otherwise it gets too much attention and fails to work as an ensemble. Peter Bilak.

I usually start with the lower case ‘a’, not because it is the first letter of the alphabet, but because it is one of the most complex ones, and it can quickly show the character of the new font. I then move to letters that have the most basic forms, ‘n’, ‘o’, so I can evaluate the rhythm and relationships of shapes. the very tricky characters are those with diagonals, ‘z’, ‘y’, which are deceptively simple because it’s hard to balance the shapes which are predominately based on focus on vertical stems.Peter Bilak.

The type designer creates a semi-product, a font is not complete until someone puts it in context, and uses it. knowing that there is this separation, and I am rarely responsible how the final reader sees our typefaces and this makes me more detached from seeing the typefaces in use and having a strong feeling about it. Peter Bilak.

People get impatient—they want instant recognition and success, while the most interesting thing in type design is the fact that it works outside of the fashion cycles. type design combines specific design skills, but also knowledge of language and technology, which explains why it is not easy to master the discipline. many young people don’t realize that it is nearly impossible that their first typeface will be suitable for publishing. they will most likely lack skills, be too easily influenced by their favorite designs or designers, and haven’t yet developed a critical eye. their second, and third typeface will be better and so on – it is important to persevere. Peter Bilak.

… the more culture spreads out and the more refined education becomes, the more refined the sensibility about type becomes, too. The more uneducated the person is who you talk to, the more he likes horrible typefaces.

Look at anything which is elegant and refined; you find elegant and refined typefaces. The more culture is refined in the future—this might take a long time, but eventually education might prevail over ignorance—the more you’ll find good typography. I’m convinced of that.

Massimo Vignelli.

We easily spend years working on a new type release for typotheque. I worked on greta sans for 4 years. if I based my work on current trends, by the time I completed a project, it would be out of fashion. instead, we look at type from a more long term perspective—they have a potential to remain usable for decades – even longer. in fact many of the fonts which we use right now were created by people who have passed away long, long time ago. in our own collection, one of our bestseller is fedra sans, which was designed back in 2001, but only recently became used widely. while type design certainly builds on history, we try to adapt to the contemporary requirements and anticipate how type might be used today. fedra sans was designed to be used on screen and paper, from the start, instead of adapting a print font for screens, which is why it’s flexible and used often still today. Peter Bilak.

The life of a designer is a life of fight, to fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, visual disease is what we have all around, and what we try to do is to cure it somehow with design, by eliminating, as much as possible, the people who make it. Not physically, but at least limiting their possibility of polluting the world. It’s a mission. Is it arrogant? Perhaps. Is it pretension? Perhaps. But so is every other field. You find the same attitude in music; you find the same attitude in literature; you find it in any kind of art, and in architecture. There’s a continuous fight against ugliness, a continuous fight against noise instead of music. It doesn’t surprise me that a great tool like the computer can allow this explosion of visual pollution. But in good hands, it’s the best thing that ever came about. Massimo Vignelli.