We’re honoured to welcome the wonderful Production Type for a guest post today. They offer their expert eyes to reveal 12 top type designers you need on your radar in 2022…
Some new blood, some seasoned crafters: here is a selection of a dozen gems who contribute to shaping today and tomorrow’s type scene.
Hélène Marian | @helene_marian
Trained a graphic designer and a signpainter, the letters of Hélène Marian can be alternatively drawn, painted, or simply typeset. She spans a work that is fresh, monumental, and expressive, and pours this generosity into vivid letters. Hélène is already a seasoned instructor, and workshops are a stout part of her practice. An active collaborator both in the indie zine and in the experimental music scene, she regularly contributes mixtape covers and magazine spreads.
Notable typefaces:
Émilie Vizcano | @emilievizcano | @sen_vz
What makes Vizcano’s work special is the fresh take one can experience on almost any typeface she undertakes. Be it a classical script face or a blocky sans, there’s always a surprising element that clicks right. Make sure you do not miss her Tangerine typeface. Émilie also animates her Twitch channel where she streams about type news, hosts guests, and evokes the reality of freelancing in type design.
Notable typefaces:
Daria Petrova | @typodaria
Dark and spiky: with her first gothique releases (still WIP), Petrova sets the tone for a consistent body of work. With a notable taste for macabre, the typefaces look buttoned-up and expressive, just like a dramatic theater play. Erratic and unpredictable in a good way: with Petrova it’s quite difficult to know what will come next.
Notable typefaces:
Alaric Garnier | @alaricgarnier
Alaric Garnier contains multitudes. Trained a graphic designer, he completed an apprenticeship in signpainting with Sean Barton in Seattle. Since then, he has worked as a craftsman, a book designer, a graphic designer, a teacher, and of course, a typeface designer. Moreover, Alaric grew a new dimension of his varied curricula: together with Léna Araguas, he co-founded Rotolux Press in 2015, a non-profit publishing house where new typefaces are tested in editorial projects.
Notable typefaces:
My-Lan Thuong | @mylanthuong
With a taste for accuracy, revivals, and large display types, Thuong shows how specific and tactful type design can be. Although each release gives a new direction for her creations, one can clearly identify her rich and rigorous practice. Definitely a type designer to watch.
Notable typefaces:
Hrvoje Živčić | @hrvoje_zivcic
Lowkey practising typeface design in Zagreb, Croatia, Živčić has already released major families under his name at Typotheque and Production Type, and collaborated with Commercial Type on significant typefaces. The work of Živčić is a subtle arrangement of found lettering inspo and methodical, rigorous digital type design. Informed, researched, and thought after pieces of design are definitely his signature.
Notable typefaces:
Hugues Gentile
Hugues Gentile’s interests span over early American serif face to Python programming, with a touch of French script type in between. Before turning 30, he had already published a major font superfamily, commissioned by Google Fonts, and has contributed several extensions to the font editing software RoboFont. It is difficult to connect all the dots of his type design practice, as he explored vast, intertwined fields: from Blackletter type to French Script, from Indic to Cyrillic. The work of Gentile is polymorphic, and one should expect it to go only deeper.
Notable typefaces:
Emmanuel Besse | @largetimes
A co-founder of design studio Large, Besse places type at the center of his practice, albeit not using it systematically. As a typeface designer, he often explores vernacular and crude shapes that he later distillates. His superfamily work Enduro is good proof of that process.
Notable typefaces:
Sandra Morales
Vernacular inscriptions, billboards, and signpainting that surround her in her native city of Puebla, Mexico: that’s what is at the heart of Morales’ creative inspiration. The young designer is still studying, but her commitment to social topics is strong, and we like to think that it prefigures her stance as a professional. And we’re not the only ones keeping an eye on Morales: in 2021, she has been the recipient of the Malee Scholarship.
Notable typefaces:
Fanny Hamelin | @fanny.hmln
With already two commercial releases, Hamelin shows a specific art direction: her typefaces are researched and rooted in history. However, the finishing touches feel fresh and contemporary, whether it is for her Garamond-inspired Savon, or the Scotch-style Selva. Even the super displayish Giana has this Euro finish that gives depth and thoughtfulness to an otherwise energetic face.
Notable typefaces:
Fátima Lázaro | @fatimalazaro___
A Mexico native, Lázaro mixes influences in a very personal way to pull off singular designs. Her recently released Cardone is a good manifestation of her approach: open, generous, and committed.
Notable typefaces:
- Cardone
- Feral
Thank you, Production Type!
