… I think there has been a shift, but actually that shift is reversing. There is a time and a place in the typeface design industry where you can still do that—you can design a typeface sitting in your room and not talk to anyone. Once software became affordable, the means of production and distribution became accessible to all. But at least in the type industry, I think the trend is different now. It’s one thing to do a poster font that requires only a particular set of characters by yourself. However, if you are doing a superfamily, or a large type family, there are all sorts of things to cover. We’ve essentially bridged the technical point where the needs of type design outstretch the ability for one person to do everything themself.

I’m thinking of an example like Tal Leming, and his recent Balto typeface. He drew the entire thing. He kerned everything. But he didn’t do the hinting. And I think that’s going to be the case more often. There’s always going to be some collaborative help as type projects become more demanding. Large character sets aren’t just English, web fonts need hinting, and super families are huge tasks. At a certain point, type designers will have to choose where they are going to spend their time. Someone like me can do the technical stuff, although it’s something that I’m trying to transition out of.

There are people who spend their time just working on the design. For example, Kris Sowersby from Klim Type Foundry, does most of the drawing and kerning, but I do his typeface production. I master his fonts because he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to do the very slow, nit-picky, technical work. But I do. So yeah, it’s possible to sit alone in a room and do everything. But I also think designers have to really think about what it is they want to do, as the amount of work keeps increasing.

Ben Kiel.