This month, I’ve switched jobs. Today, I took up a half-time position as research assistant at the Braunschweig University of Art, where I’ll soon begin my doctoral research into early 20th century German type foundries. Additionally, I’ve gone out on my own as type designer and font marketer in Berlin.
September was my last month as an employee at Linotype GmbH, and I’d like to thank all of my former colleagues at Linotype and Monotype Imaging for the wonderful opportunities and lessons-learned over the past seven years. When I look back at all of the work accomplished in that time, I am very proud; I look forward to watching the company grow and develop in the future. I first came to Linotype while studying at the HfG Offenbach. Working with the Product Marketing department, I wrote typeface descriptions and classified fonts for linotype.com. This position became full-time in 2006, and my responsibilities grew to include type design. I was also served on the editorial team behind all three issues of the Linotype Matrix magazine.
In October 2007, I took a year’s leave to study on the MA Typeface Design course at the University of Reading. After returning from England, I moved to Berlin and transferred into Linotype’s font development group. Over the next two and a half years, I had the privilege of helping bring typefaces to market from designers like Hannes von Döhren, Gerard Unger, and Jovica Veljović. I also worked on several custom projects for Linotype’s clients – including fonts for the Devanagari and Thai scripts. The most public project that I contributed to was the Carter Sans typeface, with Matthew Carter and Allan Haley.
Since 2009, I’ve used most of my vacation time to offer type design and typography workshops and courses at design schools in Darmstadt, Halle, Hamburg, and Saarbrücken. This makes my switch to a university position quite organic. As for the immediate future, I am looking forward to the additional typefaces that I’ll help bring to graphic designers, publishers, and device manufacturers, both from my own studio and from colleagues I’ll collaborate with soon.