This page is an attempt to answer the frequent question “Where are the Black type designers?” The definition of type designer varies, from professionals who make a majority of their income in typeface design to those who have simply created a single font. This list applies the broadest definition; it includes anyone who identifies as Black and has worked in type design at some point in their career.
madebyDebo
https://www.behance.net/frnctt
Elms
Manchester Type
Tondi Type Studio
Wolff Olins
Velvetyne
Studio Grand
Darden Studio
AKOFAType
Typefolio
Mam'Gobozi Design Factory
typefazed
Firebrand
stype, typefazed
Afrotype
poly-mode
Terry Biddle
Vocal
KonQa
What Inspired this Page
The question asked in 2017.
The question asked in 2020, with many designers listed in replies, forming the basis of this database.
Talks on Black Type Designers & African Writing Systems
Talking Type: In Conversation with Kwesi Amuti and Tré Seals (Part 1) | Revision Path
September 8, 2017 As we prepared this latest installment of the Talking Type series, Nina Stössinger at Frere-Jones Type, posted a photo from TypeCon in Boston with Bobby C. Martin, Jr. asking the very question we're starting to answer. .@bobbycmartin asking the tough questions at #typecon.
revisionpath.com
A Typophile's Twenty-Year Adventures in Zimbabwe
A Typophile's Twenty-Year Adventures in Zimbabwe with Saki Mafundikwa From an idea to founding Africa's first graphic design and new media college, designer Saki Mafundikwa will speak about his 20-year adventure running Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts without funding. This will be an online Letterform Lecture held on Zoom.
letterformarchive.org
Abdoulaye & Ibrahima Barry, Mark Jamara, Neil Patel: Inventing the Adlam Script / Designing Type for a Society in Flux
Letterform Lecture, March 19, 2019 - In 1989, two brothers in Guinea, aged 10 and 14, invented an alphabet from scratch for their native language. Pular (and Fulfulde) were spoken by millions of Fula people dispersed across Western Africa, but had no writing system of their own.
vimeo.com
BIPOC Scholarships for Type Design & Lettering Education
Open for Applications
Letterform Archive offers a BIPOC scholarship in each of its public workshops and the Type West program.
Typography By and About African Americans
African American Designers
Examples of fonts in use in the set "African American Designers"
fontsinuse.com
Women Designers of Color
Examples of fonts in use in the set "Women Designers of Color"
fontsinuse.com
African American
Examples of fonts in use tagged with "African American"
fontsinuse.com
BIPOC Design History
Bipoc Design History is a series of courses that revisits and rewrites the course of design history in a way that centers previously marginalized designers, cultural figures -particularly BIPOC and QTPOC people. Through live and pre-recorded lectures, readings, and live discussions, the class will shed light on moments of oppression and visibility.
bipocdesignhistory.com
The Black Experience in Graphic Design: 1968 and 2020
We asked 15 design leaders to look back at Print’s report on racism in the profession. What has changed? What remains the same?
letterformarchive.org
