How the pandemic made fonts friendlier.

Creative Type Director, Phil Garnham, spoke with the Economist in May about the impact the pandemic has had on typography. With such an unprecedented year we’ve had, Phil uncovers how this period has evolved fonts to become friendlier to their audiences. 

Introducing Monotype Spark™2.0: Low-Memory Scalable Type Just Got Better.

Makers of smart watches, wearables, medical devices, automotive dashboards and other resource-constrained devices no longer have to use low-quality bitmap fonts for their displays. The Monotype Spark Solution brings the benefits of scalable type and high-quality multilingual font display to the embedded environment - and it just got a major upgrade.

Creative Characters Ep. 10: Hannelore Ocampo.

In episode 10, Creative Type Director Terrance Weinzierl interviews Hannelore Ocampo, Fonts Lead and Type Specialist at Ford Motor Company. The two discuss how to develop a cohesive in-car experience that reflects the needs of modern transportation.

Creative Characters Ep. 9: Angelina Lippert, Posterhouse.

Creative Type Director Charles Nix talks with Angelina Lippert, Chief Curator at the Posterhouse museum in New York City, about the history of poster design, the unseen hands behind some of the more iconic posters from history, and the finicky wonder of Rubylith.

Creative Characters Ep. 8: John Norman.

Our guest in episode eight was John Norman, a celebrated visual storyteller and former Chief Creative Officer of world-renowned creative agencies like Translation, The Martin Agency, and most recently, Havas Chicago.

Creative Characters Ep. 7: Sarah Hyndman.

In episode seven we talked with Sarah Hyndman, founder of Type Tasting and the author of several books, including Why Fonts Matter and How to Draw Fonts and Influence People.

Creative Characters Ep. 6: Chris Do.

In episode six we talked with Chris Do, award-winning designer, CEO and Chief Strategist of Blind and the founder of The Futur—an online education platform that teaches creatives how to make a living doing what they love.

Creative Characters Ep. 5: Terrence Williams.

In episode five we talked with Terrence Williams, Senior Design Lead at Salesforce, who discusses the emergence of relationship design, and shares why it is important for people to bring their full identities into their work.

Creative Characters Ep. 4: Tré Seals.

In episode four we talked with Tré Seals, founder of Vocal Type, about his efforts to break down stereotypes in design and how a middle-school side gig, born out of a brush with serious childhood medical issues, helped him become the artist he is today.

Creative Characters Ep. 3: Jenna Blazevich.

In episode three we talked with Chicago-based lettering artist Jenna Blazevich, about chain stitching, punk rock, intersectional feminism, and whatever the heck Malört is.

Creative Characters Ep. 2: Scott Starrett.

In our second episode, Monotype Creative Type Director Charles Nix talked with Scott Starret, co-founder of the design studio Tandem NYC, about serendipity and the experience of designing for a transformational political candidate.

Sustainability: a way forward for brands, a challenge for design.

Today, it is a moral imperative that companies and agencies prioritize sustainable, environmentally friendly principles and practices. More and more consumers are demanding that brands act responsibly when it comes to environmental concerns. But what role does visual communication play in this topic, and how can type and design contribute to good sustainability practices?

Everything old is new again: a deeper look at nostalgia in design.

Over the past year or two, nostalgia has become a fixture in design of all kinds: typography, fashion, furniture and beyond. We take a look at the complex relationship between reviving heritage design elements and the history they come from. 

Do sci-fi fonts work in the real-world future?

In a recent episode of our Creative Characters podcast, the conversation centered around how the futures we envision aren’t always practical for the reality we live in – both in sci-fi films and fonts in car dashboards. 

Design by trial: Creating meaningful connections in virtual worlds.

Elizabeth Ann Clark, Chief Creative Officer at virtual reality studio, AEXLAB, talks about the power of VR in social contexts, some of her favorite design tools, and how her team came to select a student-designed typeface for the face of their flagship game.

5 tips for building a better font licensing strategy.

Kevin Laurino, Manager of Art & Print Production, Retouching, and Finishing at Netflix, shares some experiences from his career-long relationship with fonts and how to tame the beast that is managing a brand’s font licensing. Here are some tips to help get you started.

4 popular book cover design trends in 2023.

In this article, get a peek at recent and upcoming book releases in a variety of genres to get a sense of what typography styles are trending in publishing right now. This post is a guest piece from our friends at Reedsy, a website that connects authors with publishing professionals.

Meet the 2022 Beatrice Warde Scholarship recipient: Doah Kwon.

We caught up with Doah, who graduated in May 2023 from the School of Visual Arts with a BA in Design, with Rhodes Family Award and Honors. Doah talked about her type-driven design style, a recent project using machine learning and motion, and some of her biggest design influences.