The art of type design is for a special breed of designer. The insane attention to detail required to create typefaces is enough to drive the average person mad, as every subtle curve and line matters. One tiny mistake is the difference between a masterpiece and junk.
We’ve covered typography and a lot lately on TNW, but it’s high time we featured some awesome type designers and full-on foundries in all their glory. Here’s a list of 7 to that are sure to make you drool:
Latinotype
Latinotype is a new digital type foundry established in the year 2007 in the city of Concepcion, Chile. Its goal is to design new typefaces remixing diverse influences related to the team’s South American identity, most widely known as “latino”, with high quality products for the contemporary design industry.
Mija, Dans Le Cuisine (a gorgeous dingbat, shown above) and Mazurquica are particularly inspiring.
Canada Type
Canada Type is an independent type development studio based in Toronto. Since its inception in 2004, Canada Type has brought forth a comprehensive and popular library of typefaces that accommodate a variety of aesthetic tastes, including many best-selling fonts and work featured in plenty of design publications.
Check out Jezebel, Guillotine and Firefly if you really want to make your head spin!
Red Rooster
Steve Jackaman, a type and graphic arts expert with over 30 years experience, started Red Rooster Typefounders (RRT) foundry in 1990 with a team of highly skilled type designers, typographers and software experts as the core of his production team.
Check out Granby Elephant Pro, Steelplate Gothic and Venezuela.
Suomi Type Foundry
The philosophy of Suomi Type Foundry is to make extensive type families, so the user has more to choose from; too often you find a great typeface, but the weight is not just right. Suomi Type Foundry’s fonts come with an average of seven weights, so it’s likely that you will find the right weight. The team tries to keep the range of its type library as versatile as possible, from comfortable types for text setting, to signage type families, to more evocative fonts for brand design.
Feel free to let your jaw drop and take a look at Cider, Tide, Tobacco and Tictac.
Jackkrit Anantakul
Jackkrit Anantakul (born 1979) is the graphic designer who established Design Reform Council in 2005. He specializes in beautiful, experimental type treatments and illustrations.
You’ll want to check out YWFT Potjamon, YWFT Spikes and YWFT Buffer.
Very Good Fonts
Very Good Fonts is the outlet for the lettering designs of Paul Brannelly, assisted by digitizing skillionaire David Buck.
Take a peek at Two Stroke and Choc Chip.
Outside The Line
Rae Kaiser resides in a city on a lake but spends most of her time living in her head. She draws doodle fonts, hand-lettered fonts, on the computer and on paper.
Check out Cross Stitch and Fondly Yourz.
Do have any lesser-known favorites you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below!
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