Mike Abbink is the designer of several internationally recognized typefaces, including most recently FF Kievit Slab and FF Milo Slab (FontFont 2013, 2014); and Brando (Bold Monday 2014). In 2014, Mike teamed up with designers Paul van der Laan and Pieter van Rosmalen of Bold Monday to create serif and sans additions to the GE corporate typeface family Inspira. Both Brando and the GE Inspira have recently won awards in the 61st Annual TDC Type Competition. Mike is also Senior Creative Director at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and has a broad typography background from personal, in-house, and design agency work including MetaDesign in San Francisco, Apple, Wolff Olins on two coasts, and Saffron Consultants.

I caught up with Mike at his home in Brooklyn. We toured his neighborhood, studio space, and dropped in to the city to see his office at MoMA.

Even in the 21st century women are still underrepresented in the field of typeface design and development, and despite their rising numbers they are also less visible. I discussed the gender gap in type design with four diverse women who spoke from their personal experience – Verena Gerlach, an independent book and type designer and teacher who has always been vocal about women’s issues; Nadine Chahine, Arabic and Legibility Specialist at Linotype and Monotype Imaging who was selected as one of 100 Most Creative People in Business 2012 by FastCompany; Emanuela Conidi, an MATD alumnus who is currently writing her PhD on early Arabic types in Europe and the Middle East between XVI and XX centuries at the University of Reading; and Nina Stössinger, independent type designer, typographer and coder, just graduated at Type and Media, who was named one of “9 Type Designers to Watch” in Print Magazine’s February 2015 issue.

Today let’s look at some of the possible relationships when setting Pedro Leal’s Mafra with Pieter van Rosmalen’s Nitti Grotesk.

The graphic and type designer tells us about her favorite projects and what it was like to take part in the Type and Media post-graduate master course in The Hague.

Originally from Switzerland, Sibylle Hagmann explored her passion for type design and typography while completing her MFA at CalArts. After releasing her popular Cholla typeface suite through legendary digital foundry Emigre, the awarded type designer and teacher set up her own foundry Kontour.