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[Headline set in Falace Heavy (2008, Thierry Gouttenègre (2008).]








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A3
[Bram Vermeyen]

Bram Vermeyen's blog and electrtonic mag about design and typography. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Achraf Amiri

Creative director and founder of Illustrashion Magazine, based in London. Known as Prince, Amiri used to live in Brussels, where he was art director and graphic designer. Home page. In 2010, he published a booklet, Didot Fashion Victim. His fashion-inspired lettering is quite amazing, and so are his fashion illustrations. In 2011, he continues his amazing mixtures of typography and illustration in his design of a wall logo for Boutique no. 7 in Moscow. He also made the hairdo experimental caps typeface Touffe (2011). More fashion and vamp illustrations: Milano 2011, New York 2011, Paris 2011, Sophia Loren, Sofitel Brussels Le Louise (2011). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ad Hoc Design
[Guy Schockaert]

Guy Schockaert was born in Kortrijk, Belgium, in 1949. After studying graphic arts and visual communication at the Institut Saint-Luc in Bruxelles (1966-1970) he became an assistant of Michel Olyff before becoming self-employed as a graphic designer in 1971. His graphic studio Ad hoc Design specialized in corporate identity, books and brochures for a range of clients including Alfac, 3M, Plantin, Sic and RTBF. Schockaert advocated rigour and emotion in his career. He gave many and was active in teaching. From 1997 until 1999, he was the president of Icograda (International Council of Graphic Design Associations). He was one of the initiators of Design for the World, an organisation that is dedicated to finding design solutions to humanitarian problems. Since 2003 he has been President of Ydesign Foundation.

His awards include Médaille de Bronze, Prix Plantin-Moretus (1989), Brno Biennale Honorary Membership (1996), Icograda President's Award (2007), and the Red Dot Award (2004).

On January 11, 2013, he sent out this disturbing message by email (including to me): Dear friends. I left our world this morning convinced that a paradise exists somewhere for graphic designers. My computer will be mute from now on. I loved you all. And indeed, a few minutes later, obituaries started popping up all over the web.

Linkedin page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Agata Smok

Mechelen, Belgium-based designer of the hip handcrafted sans typeface Bossuwé (2017). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Aisha El Salawi

During her studies in Antwerp, Belgium, Aisha El Salawi designed Fold (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alberto Maccari

Brussels-based designer. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alessandro Pivetta
[Alessandro Pivetta Type]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Alessandro Pivetta Type
[Alessandro Pivetta]

Italian designer of Brillo (2019), a latinized grotesque. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Alexander Thomas
[Dr. Lex's fonts]

[More]  ⦿

Alexandra Mendes

Since 2003, Alexandra Mendes runs Blank, a Porto, Portugal-based brand identity and graphic design agency.

Licht Punt (2010) is the geometrically precise custom typeface used in the Sky High project for the Radisson Blu hotel in Hasselt, Belgium.

In 2011, she published the art deco family Rosetta, and wrote: Rosetta font was designed by Alexandra Mendes for an upcoming branding project. The typeface design is inspired in all things lovely and luscious of the female intimate universe: lingerie, lace, blush powder, négligé, bustier, lip gloss and other lavish niceties. Should feel as a flirt, the subtle wink of the eye, a roseate glow. Rosetta is a coquette who flirts with life, winking her eyes, batting her lashes, flicking her hair, leaving her scent behind as she passes on the street, turning heads, with her whispering lips and waddling feline walk. Teasing and feigned disinterest to test the reliability of her admirers. Tall slenderizing lines and delicate curves shape the form of Rosetta. The typeface look is minimal and contemporary but reminiscent of a certain "je ne sais quoi" of Art Deco. There's a pure linear geometric symmetry to the font, to create a look of elegant modernity, that exudes a flair for glamour. Rosetta is a font family set composed by the styles: Rosetta, Rosetta Blush, Rosetta Bloom, Rosetta Bud. Images of Rosetta: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, x. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alexandre Défossé

During his print design studies in Brussels, Alexandre Défossé created the triangulated typefaces Zeo (2013) and Pico (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alexandre Goldenberg

Belgian designer of the monoline script typeface New Theater (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Amélie Dumont
[Polymorph]

[More]  ⦿

Ameet Tavernier

Ameet (or Aimé) Tavernier (b. Bailleul, French Flanders, between 1522 and 1526, d. 1570) was a Belgian punchcutter and typefounder. He made a type which we shall call the Tavernier Civilité. Some claim it was made independently of Robert Granjon's Civilité (1556). However, Dr. Maurits Sabbe and Marius Audin in their wonderful 17-page treatise, Les caractères de civilité de Robert Granjon et les imprimeurs flamands (1921) (see also Die Civilité Schriften (1929), the German translation published by Herbert Reichner, Vienna), doubt that claim. They note that surely, Tavernier must have seen Plantin's Civilité. Besides, Tavernier's Civilité is first seen only in 1559 in La civilité puerile distribuée par petitz chapitres et sommaires ... traduictz par Jehan Louveau en Anvers chez Jehan Bellere (Imprimerie Aimé Tavernier). Considering that Sabbe was director of the Plantin Museum in Antwerp, and Audin a well-known type historian from Lyon, it is likely that they were right in their conclusion that Tavernier had indeed seen the Plantin version. Tavernier became well-known and started making type for export to neighboring countries. Unfortunately, he died very young in 1570. Plantin said in 1574 that after the death of Tavernier and François Guyot, his land had no outstanding typefounder left, but that there were some in Germany, but that he would not recommend the Germans because they were "irrgläubig". He said of Tavernier that he was the last good typefounder of the sixteenth century.

Regarding revivals, we refer to George Tulloch's text typeface Cunaeus (2018) who explains: Cunaeus is intended primarily for use in running text. It brings together the types of two renowned sixteenth-century punchcutters: the roman is an interpretation of a pica font cut [in 1551] by Ameet Tavernier, and the italic that of a pica font [from 1565] of Robert Granjon (1513-1589/90). Granjon's italics have inspired a number of revivals in the past, but usually of his more slanted styles; the present digitization features the lesser slant of his so-called droit style typical of the mid 1560s. [Google] [More]  ⦿

AmoinsB
[Bastien Sozeau]

AmoinsB, est.2013, is a Belgian free font foundry run by Bastien Sozeau and Jean Gabriel Franchini. Their typefaces as of 2013 include Beon-Medium, Caledo-Bold, Caledo-Light, FuturaRener-Light, FuturaRener, Karma, LS-Bold, LS-Light, LS-LightAlt, LS-RegularAlt, LS, LilGrotesk-Bold, LilGrotesk-Regular, Nemoy-Bold, Nemoy-Light, Nemoy-Medium, Strato-Medium, Strato-Regular, YoungSerif-Regular. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ana Victoria Morales Hernandez

During her studies in Luxembourg, Ana Victoria Morales Hernandez (b. Caracas) created the connect-the-dots constellation typeface Ursa (2015). She is presenty based in Brussels. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Anais Lievens

Belgian type designer. In 2018, she graduated from the University of Reading's MATD program. For her graduation, she designed Khela, a multi-script type family for longer book texts, such as novels. It supports settings in Latin and Bengali. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Andonni Tsolingkas

Ghent, Belgium-based designer of Mercury Serif (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Andrea Rodriguez Milla

Brussels-based designer of an untitled hexagonal hipster typeface in 2014. [Google] [More]  ⦿

André Génard

Belgian artist, b. 1954, Antwerpen. The DITT writes this about him: AndrĂ© is an adult dyslexic. At Bridges 2009, he presented an experimental typeface on which he had been working since 1975, under the title Zen Art. In 2007, he created another experimental geometric face, Alphabet Candy. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Andres Hertsens

Illustrator and animator in Brussels. Creator of the covers for Pablo Andres, for which he used his own (unnamed) alchemic typeface (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Angelo Mangano

Graphic designer in Brussels who created the sans typeface Tokyo Airport (2014), together with a set of airport icons. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ann Bessemans

Ann Bessemans (b. 1983) obtained her Ph.D. in 2012 from Leiden University (under Gerard Unger) and Hasselt University. She grew up in Sint-Truiden, Belgium.

In 2011, she finished the Expert Type Design Class with Frank Blokland at the Plantin Genootschap in Antwerp, and created the typeface Matilda. Matilda was specially designed to help make kids make the transition from reading simple type forms to more complex ones.

Her PhD in 2012 entitled Type Design for Children with Low Vision was jointly supervised by Gerard Unger at Leiden University, and Bert Willems at Hasselt University. Her research interests include the interrelations between image & word, typography, font design, legibility, reading graphic design, book design and modular systems.

She speaks regularly about legibility. Speaker at ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam and at ATypI 2014 in Barcelona.

In 2014, Ann Bessemans designed a Belgian postage stamp that set a Guinness record of 606 words on one stamp.

Speaker at ATypI 2016 in Warsaw on READSEARCH---A Platform for Reading Research (together with Kevin Bormans and Maarten Renckens). READSEARCH, launched in 2015, is Bessemans's research group that studies reading from a multidisciplinary and scientific perspective, covering both impaired and normal readers.

Speaker at ATypI 2017 Montreal. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ann Vangansewinkel

Graphic designer in Peer, Belgium, who created some typefaces in 2012: Sirco is a display type with concave terminals, while her second typeface, still unnamed, consists of roman capitals.

In 2013, she added Olans (angular serif), Bastil (another angular serif), and Marbo (a quaint serif face). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Anna Guyot

During her graphic design studies in Brussels, Anna Guyot designed a blocky geometric typeface (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Anna Skrinnikova

During her studies at Royal Academy Antwerp (Antwerp, Belgium), Anna Skrinnikova designed the experimental typeface Noach (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Antoine Pilette

Obaix and/or Brussels, Belgium-based creator of the free display sans typeface Nooa (2013, updated in 2017) and the sans typeface Cuba (2016: based on a Cuban postage stamp from 1981).

Operating as Ono Studio. Behance link. Home page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Antoine Van Leest

Woodcutter, engraver and printmaker, b. Antwerp, ca. 1545, d. Antwerp, 1592. He worked as a book illustrator for Christoffel Plantijn in Antwerp. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Antoon De Vylder

Born in 1940, De Vylder teaches at the Plantin Genootschap in Antwerp, Belgium. He started De Diamant Press in Herentals, and is a typographer. The Dutch Type Library is working on his type family, DTLRosart. [Google] [More]  ⦿

AP Fonts
[Michel Welfringer]

Paris-based type foundry set up in 2006 by Thierry Charbonnel, Nicolas Hoffmann and Michel Welfringer as a commercial outlet for Les Designers Anonymes (Hoffmann&Welfringer) and Autre planète's fonts (Charbonnel). Hoffmann and Welfringer designed Normale (2006) and Edibulle (2006). Charbonnel created Digital Planet (2006, futuristic) and Oups (2006, ink splashes; with Antoine Doury). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Arnaud Beelen

Graphic designer in Brussels. Behance link. He has done some interesting typographic work, such as Noah (2009). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Arne Meganck

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where he designed the experimental font Dirtyfax. Arne lives in Kontich. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Arno B

De Haan, Belgium-based student-designer of Roundings (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Arthur Coppens

During his studies, Hasselt, Belgium-based Arthur Coppens designed the free modular outline typeface BRTX (2018), an experimental font inspired by brutalist architecture and Duplo playing blocks. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ashwin Visser

Student at LUCA School of Arts in Gent, Belgium, who created the fishing hook alphabet Bait (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Atelier Typografica

Belgian type site. Atelier Typografica is located at 133a Ducpétiauxlaan 1060, Brussels. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ATypI 2018

ATypI 2018 was held in Antwerp, Belgium, from the 11th until the 15th September 2018, on the theme of type legacies. The local organizing team consists of Ann Bessemans, Jo De Baerdemaker, Joke Gossé, Yves Peters and Frederik Berlaen. The keynote speakers were Annie Bocel, Matthew Carter, Sara De Bondt, Nelly Gable, and Fred Smeijers. Flickr page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Audrey Bukeye

Belgian designer, with Alice Lejeune, of the free thin display typeface Panton AM (2020). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Auguste Vitu

Author of Petite histoire de la typographie (1886, Librairie Ch. Delagrave, Paris). This delightful book contains great historic accounts from the fifteenth century, including a section in which he "deals with" the myth of Coster. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Azerty requiem

Book on typewriter type (edited by Philippe Ernotte&Claude Stassart) with contributions by Fernand Baudin, Hubert Nyssen, Patrick Rogiers, Marcel Moreau, Jean-Pierre Verhegen, Pierre Bergounioux, Nicolas Ancion, Daniel De Bruycker, Veronika Mabardi, François Bon, François Clarinval, and Serge Kribus. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bad Kollektiv

Belgian designer (b. 1990) of the connect-the-dots typeface Rund (2020). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bald Condensed
[Yves Peters]

Based in Gent, Yves is a Belgian type expert, who is a regular at several type forums such as Typophile and Typographica. He is much appreciated for his insightful type critiques as well as his type identification skills. Owner and typographic designer of Don Q Design, and art director and typographic designer at Magelaan.

Yves started reviewing type in his Bald Condensed column on Typographer.org. Since ca. 2008, Yves was editor-in-chief for the international design and typography blog The FontFeed, and Unzipped, his blog on the FontShop BeNeLux home page. After primarily working for FontShop for a decade, he has found a new home from 2016 until 2019 at Type Network, for which he is a design writer and producer. Speaker at ATypI 2017 Montreal. Twitter page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bart Claeys
[Bart Claeys Font Design]

[More]  ⦿

Bart Claeys
[Fontasia]

[More]  ⦿

Bart Claeys Font Design
[Bart Claeys]

The original link disappeared. Exclusive donationware (mostly grunge, graffiti and grunge) fonts by Bart Claeys (Belgium) at Fontasia International: Antiphun BC, Barrow Irregular BC, Brockx Normal BC, Colloquial Prickle BC, Heamorrhage BC, Phlox BC, Probe BC, Prolix BC, Stoneware BC, Thrill BC, (the nice grunge font) Zoophyte BC, Chemical Symbols BC, Zodiac BC, Smart BC, Kosovo BC, Navis BC (ships), and the animal silhouette dingbat font Founa BC.

In the 1990s, he ran Fontasia International by BarClaey [dead link] and called himself Maestro Cicero. It was a very useful and thickly packed font jump page, that included lists of ITC fonts [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bas Vaerewyck

Graphic designer in Sint Niklaas, Belgium. He created the experimental typeface RLF (2009). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Base Design
[Sander Vermeulen]

Sander Vermeulen (Brussels, Belgium) joined Base Design in 2010 as design director. Base is an international network of studios led by creatives and is based in Brussels, New York, Geneva, and Melbourne. Sander is a graphic designer who co-designed Muoto (2021, 205TF), a variable sans serif font created by Matthieu Cortat, Anthony Franklin and Sander Vermeulen (Base Design). They write: Muoto is the synthesis of a sensitive and human approach to modernist design. This font combines full curves and solid stems, showing that functionalism can actually be warm and softly effective. With its robust structure and subdued proportions, it evokes organic forms dear to Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who in 1957 wrote: "We should work for simple, good, undecorated things, but things which are in harmony with the human being and organically suited to the little man in the street".

Personal page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bastien Sozeau
[AmoinsB]

[More]  ⦿

Bastien Sozeau
[Uplaod]

[More]  ⦿

Baudouin Willemart

Belgian designer of the beveled all caps typeface Atlas Regular (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Belgium-Holland

After ATypI 2009 in Mexico City, Lucas De Groot sent a desperate Twitter message, asking about the decline of Dutch type design---only three Dutchmen attended the meeting, while there were four from Belgium. Shock is a better word. My Dutch brothers and sisters should not have to worry---Belgium is not taking over any time soon. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ben Laenen

Antwerp, Belgium-based designer of the beautiful free musical symbols font Euterpe (2007). Alternate URL. He is also involved in the management of the DejaVu free font family. [Google] [More]  ⦿

BenBenWorld (or: BB Bureau)
[Benoît Bodhuin]

Benoît Bodhuin (aka Ben Ben) lived in Tournai, Belgium, and after a brief spell in "chti" country, i.e., in Villeneuve d'Ascq, France, he relocated to Nantes in France. He studied mathematics and graphic design. Freelance graphic designer since 2004. In 2011, he set up Benben World at MyFonts.

Designer of the pixel fonts Logotix (2004), Latham and 5x7 Negatie Moyenne. In 2010, he made the paperclip typeface Pipo (first published in 2011 by Die Gestalten, and in 2017 by bb-bureau). He created the commercial angular sans typeface S-L (2006) which was originally made for the University of Arts Saint-Luc in Tournai. It was published by Volcano.

Commercial typefaces include S-L Bold (2012, a hexagonal typeface based on his design at St. Luc in 2006), Zigzag (2012, Volcano Type; a font originally made for the Vivat theater), and Marianne (2012, BenBenWorld: an inline and modular typeface family).

In 2013, he published the stencil / fractured typeface Mineral.

In 2014, he designed the experimental triangle-based Bauhaus-inspired Side A typeface.

In 2016, Bodhuin designed the expressive Italian typeface family BB Book A and bb-book Contrasted. He added the wedge serif BB Book B, BB Book Mono and BB Book Text to that series in 2018.

Typefaces from 2017: Brutal, Elastik.

Typefaces from 2019: Grotesk Remix (extended to Grotesk Remix Monospace and Grotesk Remix Variable in 2020), Tme (experimental: an update of Sl drawn in 2006 for the University of Arts Saint-Luc de Tournai), Standard-bb, Pickle Standard (extravagant and thought-provoking).

Typefaces from 2020: Gikit (in Text and Title version, for a perfect gridnik feel), Ballpill (designed for printing at very small sizes).

Typefaces from 2021: Bilibot (an experiment with overlapping strokes), Pimpit (rounded, condensed and with reverse stress), Volcano Type link. View Bodhuin's commercial typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Benoît Bodhuin
[BenBenWorld (or: BB Bureau)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Benoit Dussart

Liège, Belgium-based designer of the display typeface Qubse (2015). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bertrand Schauss

During his studies at Saint-Luc in Liège, Belgium, Bertrand Schauss created an experimental 3d alphabet (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bibliothèque royale de Belgique

Open every day except Sunday, 9-5: Mont des Arts, Boulevard de l'Empereur 4, 1000, Bruxelles. They have a good old book collection, but only a rather minimal collection of books on typography. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bjarno O

Young Belgian designer of DA Pistols (2009). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bjorn Capens

Bjorn Capens (possibly from Beveren and/or Antwerpen, Belgium) made these typefaces at Fontasia International in the mid 1990s: Blake (an avant-garde typeface after the comic strip album Blake and Mortimer), Suske en Wiske, Karolingisch, and Unciaal. The original link disappeared. Alternate URL. Blake is at Dafont.

A sad comment: In 2014, the Blake font was claimed by a certain Rebecka Danielle and posted on Fontspace. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bob Torfs

During his studies in Sint Cordula, Antwerp, Belgium, Bob Torfs designed the geometric sans typeface Kobold (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bob Vranken

Graphic designer in Brugge, Belgium, who designed Philips TV Icons in 2017. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bram Vermeyen

Located in Leuven, Belgium, Bram Vermeyen developed an architectural font based on the architectural forms of Stéphane Beel. He is also working on Phatboy (2006). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bram Vermeyen
[A3]

[More]  ⦿

Brecht Cuppens

Belgian web designer and creator of Sprawl (2004), a free typeface inspired by geographic density maps of Belgium. Cuppens was born in 1977 and works in Hasselt. Since 2003, he is also working on a Master in Graphic Design at the Karel De Grote Hogeschool in Antwerp. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Brigitte Foissac

Belgian designer (b. 1978, Brussels, based in Brussels) of fonts at Garagefonts, including the swash/calligraphic handwriting font Mockingbird (2000), which was published at Garagefonts in 2010.

FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Brody Neuenschwander

Brody Neuenschwander was born in Houston, Texas in 1958. He studied art history at Princeton University and the Courtauld Institute, London, receiving his PhD in 1986. He studied calligraphy at Roehampton Institute under Ann Camp and then became assistant to Donald Jackson. Since 1988 he has worked as a free-lance calligrapher, first in Wales and now in Bruges, Belgium. Clients have included the U.S., UK, and Belgian governments, the BBC, Time-Life Books, and the Royal Mail. He has worked with director Peter Greenaway on several films, including "Prospero's Books" and "The Pillow Book." Brody is currently working to install trilingual signage in the Coptic quarter of Cairo. Brody got the Belle Lettere Award in 1997.

Codesigner with Maciej Polczynski of Ozzy (2019, Laic). Described as calligraphic funk, this typeface cannot be properly classified.

John Berry's report of a presentation. His presentation at Sonoma State University. John Berry's report of a presentation. Speaker at ATypI 2016 in Warsaw. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Bruce Vansteenwinkel

As students at LUCA School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium, Bruce Vansteenwinkel (Brussels), Hannah Demuyt, Kirsten De Neve and Yana De Smet designed the rounded squarish modular typeface Chill Mono in 2017. Later in 2017, Bruce Vansteenwinkel designed the fictitional right wing Flemish party typeface Power---octagonal with undertones of nazism in the glyphs. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Bruce Vansteenwinkel

At LUCA School of Arts, Bruce Vansteenwinkel (Brussels, Belgium), Hannah Demuyt, Yana Desmedt and Kirsten De Neve co-designed Chill Mono in 2017. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Brusseline

Sans family designed in 2006 by Eric de Berranger for the STIB, the Société des Transports de Bruxelles. This six-weight legible and lively family is not for sale. [Google] [More]  ⦿

C. Mylanver

Brussels-based designer of Alphabet des Contes et Legendes (2014), an ornamental caps typeface. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Calli Art

Belgian outfit grouping many Flemish calligraphers, such as Paul Bortier, Anna van Damme, Joke van den Brandt, Lieve Van Kerkhove, Linda Truyers, and Margreet Wanst. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Camille Moisset

Based in Steenvoorde, France. Designer of the free font KM Standard TT (2014, OFL) during a course at ERG in Brussels. This typeface is based on Alexey Kryukov's Old Standard TT (2006-2008). It is a bold didone family for Latin, Cyrillic and Greek with small stencil cuts in the Latin section.

A shop sign for the Fontainas Bar in Brussels inspired her to design the vernacular typeface Fontainas (2015) Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Camille Mormal

Brussels-based designer of Autmun (2014, a fat modular typeface created during her studies). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Camille Tota

Mons, Belgium-based designer of the bilined typeface Farine (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

C&C (or: Cataloged)
[Coline Sunier]

C&C is the studio of Coline Sunier (who graduated from ESAD Grenoble Valence, France in 2006 and from ESAD Strasbourg in 2008) and Charles Mazé (a graduate of KABK Den Haag in 2009) in Brussels. Their typefaces:

  • Single Stroke CC (2011).
  • Série Seize (2011): Ongoing revival project of Deberny & Peignot's Didot Série Seize. The book series initiated by Swiss artist Laurent Kropf will provide the frame and use to develop this type family. Série Seize was cut in the second half of the 19th century and was widely used in Europe until the end of metal type.
  • Zoo (2010). A font done for Bénédicte Ramade, it is a revival of a children's alphabet seen in The Zoo (1960, M.E. Gagg).
  • DeVinne (2010). Digitized caps for the poster/program Ideas for the Future of Art.
  • BAT (2009, a Charles Mazé typeface). A didone family that originated from Charles's work at KABK.
  • Astral (2009). A decorative caps face.
  • Mercator (2009, Charles Mazé). Revival of Mercator Regular (Dick Dooijes, 1909-1998) based on a type specimen edited by Letterfoundry Amsterdam / Tetterode in the mid-sixties.
  • In 2012, Stéphanie Vilayphiou, Alexandre Leray, Coline Sunier and Charles Mazé co-designed the readable typeface Dauphine Regular, which can be downloaded from Github and Open Font Library. See it in action on the web site of ESAD (Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design). Dauphine is a sans-serif font inspired by lettering in late 19th and early 20th century maps.

Typecache link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Candice Witpas

Graphic designer in Namur, Belgium. In 2015, she designed a colorful monoline typeface called Play. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Capucine van Roey

For a project at ESA Saint Luc, Tournai, Belgium-based Capucine van Roey designed a display typeface that is based on the work of Daniel Libeskind (2017). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Carine de Wandeleer

Carine de Wandeleer was born in Argentina to a French-Belgian immigrant family. She studied fine arts and graphic design at University of Buenos Aires, but lives and works in Spain.

Kycka (2011) is a hand-printed slab serif family designed for children's books. Karty (2011, Eurotypo) is a blackboard bold pair of typefaces inspired by Baskerville. Marilyn (2011, Eurotypo) is an informal bouncy heavy sans face. Natalie (2011) is a condensed slab serif face.

In 2012, she published the connected script family Gilda, the informal cursive typefaces Zanya, Miss Seshat (Eurotypo) and Belha, the script typeface Lirio (Eurotypo), the hand-printed Pimpin, and the fat finger family Souffle.

Typefaces from 2013: Aleka (a vampire script in the style of Bombshell Pro), Mots (a light feminine script), Vernaccia, Eydis (connected script), Bonna (a successful calligraphic family), Rocha (funky cartoon style), Mussa (a curly children's book font), Onna (multiline script), Blondy (curly signage script), Gemma (connected script), Gemmadonati (another connected script), Lavinia (signage script), Ameglia (seductive upright flourished vernacular script).

Typefaces from 2014: Juliette, Urbis (curly script), Tansy (a charming connected script), Flamenca (connected script), Mde Sade (flowing wedding script), Nubila, Gardeny (script), Eroli (connected calligraphic script), Andria (script), Kumma (script), Tout, Tout Web Icons, Tout Restaurant Icons.

Typefaces from 2015: Parisi (calligraphic script), Scintillae Script, Santa Rita (signage script), Kira (brushy font), Amorino, Aprilis (signage script), Redbird (brush script), Muscari (connected script), Ambar (connected script with a roman caps set called Ambar Serif).

Typefaces from 2016: Lyllo, Redmoon Basic, Sond (brush script), Nuit (an informal typeface based on hand-printing), Wildly (brush type), Bloem (Script and Sans), Brun (brush typeface), Joias, Scriptum (brush script).

Typefaces from 2017: Halley, Brighten (brush script), Decize (an ornamental didone), Tapa (a sharp-serifed text family), Serenus, Pasteque, Galia, Mikha, Mikha Sans, Junius.

Typefaces from 2018: Anemos (a powerful retro signage script), Bernyck (retro script), Mathylda Script (a calligraphic signature font), Cinefile, Stanffords (a brush script paired with Stanffords Sans), Clauques Script and Sans (a signature script), Jacine (Sans+Script), Pial, Mont Rose (based on examples published in Script Lettering (1957, M. Meijer)), Barcares, MyBella (a casual calligraphic script), Skyr Pro (handcrafted), Gageac (a decorative didone), Atmosfera (a glamour sans based on didone contrast), Waylom (script).

Typefaces from 2019: Novata, Violant (a medieval script), Manises (inspired by a text written on a 16th century tile), Mostaza (a signage script), Trauville (calligraphic), Magie, Magie Slim, Beauville Script (a retro script), Bovary (a calligraphic script).

Typefaces from 2020: Turer (all caps, in the Tekton or Koch Antiqua genre), Indalo (a casual script), Rhodes (a calligraphic typeface), Calinda, Aulas (a decorative serif), Raspail (copperplate calligraphy), Calagio (a casual script), Clichy (a casual sans), Colomby (copperplate round English handwriting), Rembord (an inclined script), Montigny (emulating an 18th century roundhand script).

Typefaces from 2021: Verbum (a casual bold script), Grao (a casual script), Tarnese (a calligraphic script), Real Blues (script), Brabon (a heavy signage script), Escaut (a wide inky script).

Typefaces from 2022: Cockcrow (a connected sans), Castagna (a calligraphic script). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Carlos Vanwalleghem

Graphic designer in Antwerp, Belgium, who created Blok Font (2013), which is loosely based on blocs of chocolate. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Caroline de Pont

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the experimental font Overlap, an exercise on overlapping Bezier curves. Caroline lives in Antwerpen. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Catapult

Catapult is the graphic design studio of Anton De Haan and Philippe Pelsmaekers in Antwerp. Other people involved in Catapult include Karen Van Puymbroeck, Tom Vanwelkenhuyzen, Omar Chafai and Luk Mestdagh. For the house style of Zonienwoud, they designed Son Grotesque and Son Grotesque Stencil in 2010. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Cédric Van Haecke

Graphic designer in Namur, Belgium, who created the octagonal monoline typeface Shed in 2013 during his graphic design studies at Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Céline van Bakel

Hasselt, Belgium-based student-designer of the experimental typeface Onyx (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Céline Vandermeulen

As a student in Liè, Belgium, Céline Vandermeulen designed a grid-based geometric typeface in 2016. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Cecile Gavage

Namur, Belgium-based designer of Brasero (2011), an experimental typeface.She also created an upright connected school font family. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Celine Chenu

Designer of the free font Trocchou (2014, OFL) during a course at ERG in Brussels. This typeface is a stencil version of Vernon Adams's Trocchi (2012). In 2015, she created Medulla, a modification of Didot Elder. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Charles-J. De Mat

Belgian typefounder in Brussels, about whom John A. Lane writes in Early Type Specimens in the Plantin-Moretus Museum: Little is known about the Joniaux foundry and the possibly related foundry of Charles-J. de Mat, both in Brussels, and their history cannot be written without research in the Brussels archives and a comparison of the few specimens known to survive. This goes beyond the scope of the present catalogue, but I present what little information I can to encourage further study. I have found no record of Joniaux's foundry beyond the information in the present 1828 specimen and the directories for 1830, 1832, 1833 and 1851-1870. The directories for 1826 and 1840 record no foundry bearing Joniaux's name or at the adress he used from 1828 to 1833. The directory for 1833 and type specimens of 1833 and 1837 record C.J. de Mat&Cie, all on Rue de la Batterie, where Joniaux appears in the directories for 1851 and later (though the house number changes several times). This scanty information allows no certain conclusion, but perhaps the foundries of Joniaux and De Mat merged to form De Mat&Cie sometime in the years 1837 to 1839, and De Mat withdrew sometime in the years 1840 to 1850 so that the foundry then continues under the Joniaux name. Since the nature of the relationship between the two firms, if the were related, remains uncertain, I include the De Mat foundry's names and adresses in the chronology above, even for the period before it became De Mat&Cie. De Mat operated a printing office and at least in 1837 also called himself a bookseller and paper maker [boekverkoper volgens mij vanaf 1825!], so the foundry may have taken on a subsidiary role around that time. I know of no specimens by either firm after 1837/38. The present specimen explicitly states that some of its types were cut by Termonia in imitation of Didot's, but I have found no other reference to a punchcutter of this name. The name appears to [be] Belgian, and may come from the area around Hasselt in the province of Limburg. I have not found it in Brussels, so the foundry may have acquired the punches from a punchcutter residing elsewhere. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Charlie S. Romeo

Belgian (?) designer of the free face Lame Bee (2010) and the free face Wild Cat Stencil (2011), a typeface based on a custom font for Puma lettering.

Real Dozy Tracy (2012) is a free look-alike of the Real Madrid 2012-2013 season font. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Charline Dhossche

During her studies at Luca Art in Brussels, Heverlee, Belgium-based illustrator Charline Dhossche created the ornamental caps typeface Het Fobie Alfabet (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Charlotte Gillet

For Ludovine Loiseau's course at ERG in Brussels, Charlotte Gillet created the free font ChaChicle (2014, OFL), a graffiti font that grew out of Chicle (2007, Alejandro Paul). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Chris Brand

Born in Utrecht in 1921, Chris Brand lived in Breda, and died in 1998. He studied calligraphy in 1940, and worked in Brussels from 1948-1953. He taught design at various academies until 1986. Known for book cover jackets, Brand created the clean serif typeface Albertina in 1964-1965 (Monotype). This typeface was first used for a retrospecive on Stanley Morison's work exhibited at the Albertina Library in Brussels in 1966. Dean Allen [Textism]: Working designers should have at least one text family to focus on; to test its idiosyncrasies and stretch its limits, to see how it responds to the unpredictable demands of day-to-day work. Albertina is the family with which I do the most tinkering. It's remarkably flexible, offering a full complement of text and titling figures, roman and italic small caps, as well as supplemental Greek and Cyrillic fonts. It has the sort of strength, or presence on the page absent from most digital type, owing to sturdy construction, and it lacks fussiness.

The digital font DTL Albertina saw the light in 1987 at Dutch Type Library.

Brand also created Veerle Uncialis (1991, named after his granddaughter Veerle Simons) but it is unclear whether this font is his or a reworking of a typeface by the Parisian typefounder Fournier. Finally, he made the coptic font Draguet (1968).

FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Christelle Debono

During her studies at ERG in Brussels, Christelle Debono created a free stencil version, Gentius (2014, OFL), of the well-known Gentium typeface (2003-2008, J. Victor Gaultney and Annie Olsen). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Christina Maria Bee
[Type Destroyers]

[More]  ⦿

Christoph Windmueller
[Kix]

[More]  ⦿

Christophe Heylen

Designer whose fonts may be bought from 2Rebels in Montreal. Some creations: Dynamic (1998). Heylen lives in Rijkevorsel, Belgium. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Christophe Liekens

Brussels-based graphic designer. He created very funny typographic posters to advertise Humo in 2013.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Christophe Plantin

Born in Saint-Avertin, near Tours, in 1514, died in Antwerp in 1589. He left France in 1555 and settled and worked in Antwerp, where he published many books that drew attention because of their beautiful typography. He often used types by Claude Garamond and Robert Granjon. He was the main catholic publisher of the counter-reformation, but he also published material for the protestants. One of his main achievements was the Biblia polyglotta (1569-1573), the eight-volume polyglot Bible in Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Syrica, with text in parallel columns. For two years, from 1583-1585, he was the official typographer at the newly erected University of Leiden. After his death in 1589, his son, Jan Moretus (1543-1610), carried on his work. Successors after that include Jean Moretus II, and Balthasar Moretus I, II III and IV. Plantin's press, Officina Plantiniana, survives in its entirety as the Plantin-Moretus Museum, sold to the City of Antwerp in 1876. This collection of 16th century typefaces (punches, matrices, the works) is a unique historical treasure.

The Plantin typeface was created in the 1570s. The modern day version at Bitstream is called Aldine 721.

Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. Britannica entry. Biography. The Golden Compasses The History of the House of Plantin-Moretus (Leon Voet, 1969, 1972) is freely downloadable. Books on Christoffel Plantijn (in Dutch). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Christophe Vermijlen

Fellow Belgian Christophe Vermijlen (Hasselt) created an experimental 3d typeface called Tilting Type (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Clara Sambot

During her Masters studies at ERG school in Brussels, Clara Sambot designed the monolinear polygonal typeface Cirrus Cumulus (2020, Velvetyne). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Clément Perret

Belgian penman. Clément Perret published the first writing manual in the low countries: Exercitatio alphabetica nova et vtilissima, varjis expressa linguis et characteribus, raris ornamentis, umbris&recessibus, picture, architecturaeque, speciosa (1569, Antwerp---some sources mention Brussels though). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Clementine Hoens

During her studies at LUCA School Of Arts Gent, Belgium, Clementine Hoens designed the chair-themed typeface Tubular (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Clotilde Olyff

Belgian designer (b. 1962) who lives in Brussels where she taught (teaches?) at the École supérieure des arts visuels de La Cambre and at the École supérieure de l'image. Her fonts were published by 2Rebels in Montreal, and by FontHaus in the USA. Her fonts are experimental and geometric in nature.

Some creations: Billes (1995), Boulbar (1995), Boules (1996), BubbleBath (1996), Craaac (1996) Caaarc (1996), Design, Douff, Graphic, Handex (1995; an alphading based on fists), Inbetween (1996), Lines (1994), Lolo (1992, funny figurines), Minimex (1996), Modern (1996), Perles (1995), StencilFull (1997), StencilFullBraille (1997).

She is most famous for her avant-garde geometric fonts Alpha Bloc (1994) and Alpha Geometrique (1994) published by Font Bureau. Alpha Geometrique Compact, for example, is a Bauhaus style stencil face.

FontShop link. Klingspor link.

View Clotilde Olyff's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Coert De Decker
[Kustomtype]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Coline Caillier

During a course at ERG in Brussels, Coline Caillier created the free font ARC Old Standart (2014, OFL). This typeface is based on Alexey Kryukov's Old Standard TT (2006-2008). In 2015, she designed the experimental modular typeface Origami. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Coline Sunier
[C&C (or: Cataloged)]

[More]  ⦿

Corentin Mallet

Graphic designer from INK Studio in Brussels, who studies in Paris. She created Hexo Type (2012).

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Corina Cotorobai

Corina obtained a Masters in type design at the KABK in Den Haag, class of 2001, and an MA in book design and typography from Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem (ArtEZ, 2003). Corina studied Design Management at the EURIB, Rotterdam (2007-2009). Her typography awards include a silver medal for the Best Book Design of the World (Leipzig/Frankfurt, 2004) and Best Book Designs of The Netherlands (2003).

In 2002, Fred Smeijers, Corina Cotorobai, Rudy Geerarts and Martine Leloup (both of FontShop Benelux) co-founded OurType in 2002 [it was formally launched in 2004]. Fred and Corina were the creative lead of OurType, Rudy and Martine were in charge with sales. In 2017 Fred and Corina stopped their collaboration with OurType concentrating on several other projects, including a new type label. Fred and Corina are also co-partners in Type Tailors (established in 2008), offering type design development, publishing, custom type and typographic consultancy. In 2018, she co-founded Type By with Fred Smeijers. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Corina Lupu

Brussels-based designer of Organic font (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Corinne Lavaerts

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the experimental font Estippo 55. Corinne lives in Hove. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Cornelis De Hooghe

Flemish engraver, 1540 or 1541-1583. He worked for Christoffel Plantijn in Antwerp. In 1583, he planned an attack on Willem van Oranje, but was caught and convicted as a traitor. He was quartered and guillotined (it is unclear which of these two punishments came first since the second seems almost irrelevant). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Crabbe & Borremans

Brussels-based foundry. [Google] [More]  ⦿

D. Stiasteny

Typefounder in Brussels. His work can be found in Épreuve des caractères de la fonderie de D. Stiasteny (Bruxelles, Rue de Cerf, no 23, son 1re. 1841). This book, sloppily put together, shows didone influences, typical of the epoch. No full type showings though. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Daan Steegmans

Genk, Belgium-based designer of a display typeface in 2014. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Damien Aresta

Pleaseletmedesign is a duo of Belgian graphic designers comprising Pierre Smeets (b. 1981) and Damien Aresta (b. 1979). They set up their own graphic design studio in 2004 after graduating from Saint-Luc Higher School of Arts in Liège (Belgium) and spending almost a full year in ERG (Graphic Research School) in Brussels (Belgium). The projects of pleaseletmedesign range from graphic design, books, posters, identities and stationnery to exhibition design, signage, titles sequences, and website in cultural sectors as diverse as music, architecture, cinema and advertising clients. Toyota Belgium used a car to design the outlines of an upright script called iQ (2009). Free download. The font was made by Pleaseletmedesign. [Google] [More]  ⦿

DanBetty Studio

DBS is a multidisciplinary visual design studio based between Brussels, Paris and Bordeaux. They are selling three commercial typefaces, Harring Stone (2011, squarish modernist), Aert Deck (2011, Victorian), and Qlacic (2011, more Victorian fare). Qlacic is attributed to Tom Haas.

At Dafont, one can download Art Deck. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Daniel Jean Mensing

Belgian typefounder (b. Antwerp, 1815, d. Rotterdam 1864). He worked as a typefounder in Rotterdam from 1857 until about 1864, running the foundry D. J. Mensing&Co. Specimen in the Amsterdam University Library. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Daniel Pudles

Talented illustrator based in Brussels who has worked for The Guardian, The Economist, The Financial Times and Le Monde. In 2016, he designed a decorative alphabet / typeface. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Darip Kim

Brussels-based designer of the free constructivist typeface Urbanoiz (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dave Rowland
[Eclectotype (was: Schizotype)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

David Alexander Slaager
[David is Creative (was: Fonts of Chaos)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

David Alexander Slaager

Belgian (b. 1978) who lives in Brussels, aka Dasmuse. Designer at FontStruct in 2008 of the robotic dingbat fonts PolyFace, robo, robo2, LostRobo and BlocFace. Alpha 63 (2008) is a fat, futuristic face. In 2009, he added Monsterz and trubik77 (ultra fat techno face).

Creations from 2010: Ikoo (icon font), SayTwo (a gorgeous horizontally striped 3D face; free here), GenzzTop, GenzzBottom, PixyRobo (alphadings), Unik (2009), Unik2 (2011).

In 2012, he made Shaman Regular, Changaa.

Dafont link. Behance link. David Is Creative site, also run by him. Another URL. Another Behance link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

David De Groot
[FontPage v2.0.3]

[More]  ⦿

David is Creative (was: Fonts of Chaos)
[David Alexander Slaager]

Free and commercial font foundry by Zellik, Belgium-based David Alexander Slaager (or: David is Creative): 1654 Brown Street (2012, a rounded informal sans), Discorgasmique (2012, retro-futurism), Science Noire (2012, followed in 2014 by Science White, a connect-the-dots typeface), Bond Is Dead (2012), North 06 (2012, spurred), Ouija & Whiskey (2012, alchemic), The Giant Cowboy Army (2012, a skeletal bone font), Pink Cell (2012, a pixel type), Opium Roadie (2012), Grand Quatre (2011), Vampirr, Unik2, SayTwo, Alpha63, Trubik77, Genz Top&Bottom, Vhia (2011).

In 2012, he started Hand Drawn Font with cheap (ten dollar) quickie fonts. The initial offering in the Fall of 2012 includes Blackwood, Black 45, Royal Goblin, List of Faith, Gazoline, Natural Born Designer, Pulp Hill, Stylo Standard, Atlantic Avenue (a font made with paint brush on wood), Kancell (free) and Zombie Sunrise.

Typefaces from 2013: Supernational 261/262, Signs of Faith, Hollywood 99, Hollywood69, National, Enfant du Chaos (gothic, dark), Brutaal (+XX, +VV: one weight of this dquarish typeface is free), Bliss Yeah, Traum-A (a hand-drawn poster font), Enfant du Kult (alchemic), Daryl is Parano.

Typefaces from 2014: Koton, Supernational 264, Super Head Club (sketched typeface), Nina Ketchup (scratchy hand), Dead Meal, Opus Theorem (a condensed squarish typeface family), We Are Tom Jones (described as a disoriented typewriter font), Shay Man (an alchemic typeface), Hackney Night, Arizona Futur (pixel alphadings), Atuvuta (heavy metal band font).

Typefaces from 2015: Hello Bravo (squarish), King Kong Street Propaganda.

Typefaces from 2016: Cake Sans (octagonal), Jimgarr, Tokyo Sam (slabby poster typeface), Bambi Neue (brush font), Queens 68.

Typefaces from 2019: Hello Walter. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

David Roelands

Belgian penman who published t'Magazin OftTac-huys der Loffelycker Penn-const . . . Ghepractizeert Door David Roelands van Antwerpen, Fransoijschen School-Mr. binnen Vlissinghen in 1616. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Davy Meykens

Belgian designer, b. 1987. He made the handwriting font King Dirt Royal (2009), Fantasta (2009), the ransom note font Krooked (2009, Fontcapture), Officer Down (2009, grungy; Fontcapture), the hand-printed Something Olde (2009, Fontcapture), the children's hand Not Really (2009, Fontcapture), the printed outline typeface Whypo (2009, Fontcapture), the counterless fat typeface Comic Dandy (2009), and the grungy Parents Suck (2009, Fontcapture). He lives in Hoeselt. Dafont link. Fontspace link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

De Passe&Menne
[Jean Baptist De Panne]

Dutch foundry from 1842-1856, bought by Nicolaas Tetterode in 1856. Formerly, De Passe&Cie in 1841. Jean Baptist De Panne (b. Brussels, ca. 1806, d. Amsterdam, 1844) was a Belgian who had been a foreman of Firmin Didot in Paris. Kornelis Elix, an Amsterdam based typefounder, asked him to come to Amsterdam, where De Passe worked for him from 1837 on. In 1841, De Passe created his own foundry, only to die in 1844, a year after his first specimen was published. That specimen derived mostly from the Th. Lejeune foundry in Brussels, which was active there from 1836-1838. Specimen in the Amsterdam University Library. [Google] [More]  ⦿

deFUNKT
[Stijn De Lathouwer]

deFUNKT is the design company of Stijn De Lathouwer from Lier, Belgium. He created the black display typeface Cardboard (2003). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Delphine Lemaitre

During her studies at Saint-Luc in Liège, Belgium, Delphine Lemaitre designed an experimental modular typeface (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Denis Liegois

Page in French by Denis Liégois on unicode polytonic (classic) Greek fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Denis Moyogo Jacquerye

Denis Moyogo Jacquerye is the Belgian co-leader of the DejaVu font project (free fonts based on Bitstream Vera), the default GUI for fonts on several Linux OS distributions. He is working on extending various Open Source fonts to support African orthographies in Latin script. He is collaborating with a network of experts in African languages localization as part of the Pan Africa localization Network (ANLoc). Denis, with a Bs.C in Computer Science and a minor in Linguistics from McGill University, has experience in the Language Technology industry, Open Source software, Font Engineering and Unicode software support for African language. Denis currently lives in Brussels.

He designed the open license font family Molengo (2010, sans), which is part of the Google open font directory. He also participated in the GNU Freefont project, where he added new glyphs and corrected existing ones in the Latin Extended-B (U+0180-U+024F) and IPA Extensions (U+0250-U+02AF) ranges.

Speaker at ATypI 2008 in St. Petersburg on African fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dennis Bernaers

Graphic designer in Antwerp, who created a straight-edged caps typeface called MyHandwriting (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Derek Brouwers

Belgian typophile. Interface builder and designer at i-Merge. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Devroye, Imprimeur du roi

Thanks to Google books, I learned that Devroye, possibly one of my Belgian ancestors, was the king's printer (imprimeur du roi) in Brussels in 1858. Other books from that printer date from the period 1844-1859. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Didones
[Ludwig M. Souzen]

A list compiled by Ludwig M. Souzen, a typographer and printer in Bertem, Belgium:

  • VII.1 Giambattista Bodoni (ca 1791)
  • VII.1.A ORIGINAL
  • VII.1.A.a Giambattista Bodoni, Manuale Tipografico)
  • VII.1.B METAL REVIVALS
  • VII.1.B.a Morris Fuller Benton (ATF, 1907)
  • VII.1.B.b Monotype, 1930s
  • VII.1.B.c Bauer Bodoni (Bauer, Heinrich Jost, 1926)
  • VII.1.B.d Berthold Bodoni Antiqua, 1930s
  • VII.1.B.e R.H. Middleton (American Ludlow foundry, 1930s)
  • VII.1.C PHOTO COMPOSITION
  • VII.1.C.a Berthold Bodoni (Gunter Gerhard Lange, 1970)
  • VII.1.C.b Berthold Bodoni Old Face (Gunter Gerhard Lange, 1983)
  • VII.1.C.c IBM corporate identity (Karl Gerstner, 1980s)
  • VII.1.D DIGITAL REVIVALS
  • VII.1.D.a Monotype 135 Bodoni (Monotype, 1921)
  • VII.1.D.b Bauer Bodoni Std (Heinrich Jost, 1926)
  • VII.1.D.c Monotype 357 Bodoni Std Book (Monotype, 1932)
  • VII.1.D.d Bodoni Std
  • VII.1.D.e WTC Our Bodoni (Massimo Vignelli, 1989)
  • VII.1.D.f Berthold Bodoni
  • VII.1.D.g Berthold Bodoni Old Face
  • VII.1.D.h Bodoni Old Fashion (URW++)
  • VII.1.D.i Bauer Bodoni URW
  • VII.1.D.j Bauer Bodoni BT (Bitstream)
  • VII.1.D.k EF Bodoni
  • VII.1.D.l EF Bauer Bodoni
  • VII.1.D.m FF Bodoni Classic [+ Swashes&Chancery] (Gert Wiescher, 1994)
  • VII.1.D.n ITC Bodoni (three opticals: six, twelve&seventy-two; Sumner Stone e.a. 1994)
  • VII.1.D.o Linotype Bodoni Classico (Franko Luin, 1995)
  • VII.1.D.p Linotype Gianotten (Antonio Pace, 2000)
  • VII.1.D.q Filosofia (Zuzanna Licko, Emigre)
  • VII.1.E INTERPRETATIONS (bodoniennes)
  • VII.1.E.a Fenice (Aldo Novarese)
  • VII.1.E.b Iridium (Adrian Frutiger, Stempel, 1972)
  • VII.1.E.a FF Acanthus (Akira Kobayashi, FontFont)
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Didot

Bios of the main members of the Didot family: François Didot (1689-1757), François-Ambroise Didot (1730-1804), his son, Pierre-François Didot (1731-1795), the second son, Pierre Didot (1761-1853), the oldest son of François-Ambroise, and Firmin Didot (1764-1836), the second oldest son of François-Ambroise. Belgians may be interested in Pierre, who used the fonts of his brother Firmin and had them improved by Vibert. Pierre Didot published Specimen des caractères and Specimen des nouveaux caractères in 1819. His son Jules (1794-1871), who succeeded him in 1822 in the Didot foundry, moves the foundry to Brussels in 1830 and sells it to the Belgian government to start its "imprimerie nationale". Jules returns to Paris, sets up a new printing shop, loses his mind in 1838, and sells all his material. The Didot family: extracted from the forthcoming "Bibliography of printing" (Bigmore, E. C. (Edward Clements), 1838?-1899; Wyman, C. W. H. (Charles William Henry), 1832-1909; book published by Wyman&Sons in 1878). Scan of the original Didot typeface. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Diego Calvo

Liège, Belgim-based designer of the decorative caps typeface Memphis (2014), which is inspired by Memphis Furniture. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dimitri Castrique

Belgian designer of Androgyne (2009), Qlassik (2007), Raspoutine (2006, a clean face), Gauntlet (2006) and Edifice (2006).

Dafont link. Yet another URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dimitri Van den Broeck

Graphic designer in Lier, Belgium, who created several geometric and poster typefaces in 2015, including one called Easy Grid. He also made the stencil typeface Stenson (2015). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dirk Zwaneveld

Maastricht, The Netherlands and now, Antwerp, Belgium-based designer of the commercial typeface L'Oiseau de Feu (2013), a mysterious vintage typeface with a Russian look. Human Made Font (2013) was inspired by gothic architecture.

In 2014, he designed the creamy typeface Goggles.

In 2016, he designed the constructivist typeface Stookplaats for the renovation of an old military hospital in Antwerp.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Distype
[Nicolas Deslé]

Distype was a small Belgian pixel typeface foundry in Antwerp that specializes in both functional and aesthetic pixel typefaces for online and mobile use. Its typefaces were made by Nicolas Deslé. In 2004 he designed Forma, Norma, Nova, NovaBold, NovaExpanded, NovaExpandedBold, Supra7, Supra7Bold, Supra7Expanded, Supra7ExpandedBold, Supra8, Supra8Bold, Supra8Expanded, Supra8ExpandedBold, Supra9, Supra9Bold, Supra9Expanded, Supra9ExpandedBold, Croma, Dura, Plura. The company is related to the Antwerp-based design company Dislogic. A renewal took place in 2008, with many new typefaces, such as DT Lectrum (legible text family), DT Quartz, DT Corsa, DT Ciny, DT Courriel, DT Domo, DT Punta, DT Libra, DT Ampla, DT Crypt, DT Modula, DT Roma, DT Recta and DT Meta. Some are free, others are not.

In 2011, Deslé went commercial at MyFonts and changed his focus, away from ixel typefaces. His commercial fonts include Love Supreme (2011, minimalist sans) and Highriser (2012, a highly legible, uppercase-only bold condensed sans).

In 2013, he designed the experimental slab serif typeface La Raza (free download).

Typefaces from 2014 include Strima (2014, a clean geometric sans).

Typefaces from 2016: Komet (an uppercase condensed sans), Pantra (wonderful geometric sans).

Typefaces from 2017: Jade Acres (signature font), Funkturm (a free heavy all caps sans).

Typefaces from 2018: Brasley (a geometric sans).

Typefaces from 2020: Claspo ND (a neo-grotesque).

Typefaces from 2021: Brasley (a clean geometric sans).

Type Department link. Home page. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Dominic Somers

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, who lives in Edegem. Creator of the hookish font Mics. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dr. Lex's fonts
[Alexander Thomas]

Alexander Thomas at the University of Leuven, Belgium, created these freeware fonts: DigitalDisplay, Eurosign, AntiqueGerman. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dr. Maurits Sabbe

Curator of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in the early part of the 20th century, and author of Antwerpsche Druckerye (Brussel, N. V. Standaard-Boekhandel, and Amsterdam, P. N. Van Kampen en Zoon, and Antwerpen, J. E. Buschmann, s. a.), a 153-page book on foundries and printers in Antwerp. Coauthor with Marius Audin of Die Civilité-Schriften des Robert Granjon in Lyon und die flämischen Drucker des 16 / Jahrhunderts (Wien, Bibliotheca Typographica, Herbert Reichner, 1929). That last book is a German version of Les caractères de civilité de Robert Granjon et les imprimeurs flamands (1921). Some of the findings in that beautiful book are reported here. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dries 007

Belgian creator of the free counterless constructivist typeface Semi-Russian (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dries Wiewauters

Belgian designer who has a bachelors in graphic design from St. Lucas, Gent (Belgium) and ArtEZ Arnhem (The Netherlands), and a Masters in the same area from both places. He lives in Gent and loves mussels (or, at least, he loves to make posters of mussels). The list of his typefaces:

  • Nib (2019, Colophon). A wedge serif originally designed for the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent. It was developed in close collaboration with Ruud Ruttens, the head of their design department.
  • LUCA School of Arts. A custom typeface, ca. 2015.
  • Newkirk (2012). A custom all-caps stencil typeface for Scott Newkirk Art Studio in New York.
  • PDU, or Plaque Découpée Universelle (2010, Colophon). Dries writes: After reading the excellent essay by Eric Kindel: The Plaque Découpée Universelle: a geometric sanserif in 1870s Paris (Typography Papers 7, Reading, 2007), both James Goggin and I got fascinated by the idea of a stencil with which you can draw every letter of the alphabet: uppercase, lowercase, numbers, punctuation. The original stencil was invented in 1876 by Joseph A. David (USA). In order to experience the stencil first hand and because the original is really fragile and very hard to come by, 3 prototypes were laser cut out of 0,5 mm steel. To comply with friends' demand, a small edition of 50 copies was made. To enable smoother drawing these were cut out of 0,2 mm flexible steel.
  • PDP, or Plaque Découpée Personnalisée, is the result of further experimentation with the Plaque Découpée Universelle. These 18 fonts were made as part of Feed the Library, an installation by the Werkplaats Typografie during the 2010 NY Art Book Fair.
  • Norwich (2005, pixel family).
  • Gütz (2006, blackletter).
  • Rietveld Fatface (2007, fat sans titling face).
  • Hafssól (2007, pixel face).
  • Grey Text, Grey Display, Ultra Black (2008-2009). Done for his Masters at St Lucas Academy in Ghent, and The Grey Press. Grey Text is a text face, Grey Display a set of six inline / blackboard bold typefaces, and Ultra Black a fat brush poster face.
  • Interieur2010 (2010): a type family that started out by modeling a chair.
  • MAD (2009). A multiline typeface family started from Machine Aided Design typefaces. It evolved over the years into MAD Sans ans Serif and now includes Fill versions well. It will be published by Colophon in 2017.
  • Scribe. A custom typeface for the identity and house style of Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent.

Home page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dung van Meerbeeck

Vietnamese/Belgian designer (b. Saigon, 1958) who used brushes and pens to create handwritten fonts in 1994 such as DuMathieu, DuMifu, DuBrush, DuTurner, DuGauguin, DuDuchamp, DuMoore and DuChirico.

His fonts have perfect rhythm, and were published by FontShop in the FontFont collection.

View Dung van Meerbeeck's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Duvel

In 2015, a Dutch designer created a new logo for the Belgian beer brand, Duvel. He asked that I not mention his name. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Echopraxium
[Michel Kern]

Belgian designer (b. 1962) of Go Braille (2019), a Braille font designed with the look of the Go Game. Lowercase glyphs use black stones while uppercase use white stones. In 2020, he published Ma Braille, Stack Braille, Hex Braille and Kernig Braille. These fonts can be used to make great hexagonal and rectangular patterns.

In 2021, he published Lorraine Braille and the alphading typeface Atom Braille. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Eclectotype (was: Schizotype)
[Dave Rowland]

Type foundry in Sheffield, UK, first called Schizotype, and in 2021 renamed Eclectotype because this is not a foundry that likes to stick to trends or expectations. Its designer, Dave Rowland (b. 1982, Chesterfield) grew up in Sheffield, UK, but was based in Japan, the Philippines, Liverpool, Surat Thani, Thailand, and Koh Samui, Thailand [where he presently lives]. MyFonts Interview.

He created these fonts in 2009: Quesadilla (signage type, Mexican simulation face), Quesadilla Shadow, Schizotype Scrolls, Quiff, Toothpaste, Astroboy (connected script), Decolletage (art deco), Kazumi Sans, Acid Haus, Dr. Black, Dr. Eric, Soyo Gogo, BMX radical (brush), Team, Miami Hopper, and Tubularis (multiline face), Sickle, Klique (futuristic display face), Uncle Eric (a cartoon face), Praline Smooth (connected script in the style of Mistral), Kwaktur, (blackletter typeface based on the logo of Belgium's Kwak beer), Blackball (another blackletter) and Modulogue (a modular display family).

Additions in 2010: Christmas Tuscan (a modular Tuscan), Masonic Lodge, Mook (a retro, unicase, bubble font), Toothpaste 2, Gaden Sans (organic monoline typeface that includes a hairline weight), Sizemore (all caps slab headline face), Quickscript (signage face), New Wave.

Fonts designed in 2011: Brag Pro (like Brag, a Cooper Black alternative), Brag Stencil Pro, Chestnut (curly, hand-printed), Brag (a fat round face in Cooper Black style), Gelato Script (a connected signage face), Brag Stencil (2011), Streetscript (2011, brushy signage face).

In 2011, he created a quaint text family, Vulpa, with quirky foxtail terminals.

Typefaces from 2012: Margot (a rounded slab serif described as a lovechild of American Typewriter and Cooper Black), Range Serif (an angular typeface), Pastiche Brush (a brushy connected script inspired by the titles of the 1959 movie Imitation of Life (Wayne Fitzgerald)), Quayside (a bulbous baseball or signage script).

Typefaces from 2013: Alight Slab (hairline slab), Anultra Slab (a heavy bold slab serif), Ollie (a connected baseball or signage script), Urge Text (an extensive modern text family with ample language support and plenty of mathematical symbols, and large ball terminals).

Typefaces from 2014: Range Sans (a grotesque sans family with the quirky angular cutouts inherited from Range Serif), Samui Script (upright connected script), Streetscript Redux (signage script), Price Didone (created for setting elegant price tags).

Typefaces from 2015: Oldskool Script (a connected signage script; one of many quite different commercial fonts with the same name), Hazel Script (a great flowing calligraphic script designed around the time of the birth of his first child, Hazel; the name may create confusion as there is a famous BB&S metal font with the same name), Mastadoni (a fat didone for headlines and fashion mags), Kake (a great creamy sign-painting font), Bali Script (creamy signage script), Flat Sans.

Typefaces from 2016: Cinema Script (retro movie script), Chill Script (a retro non-brush signage script), Blanket (a soft cursive font, ideal for children's books), Schizotype Grotesk (a very original angry geometric grotesk, with bucketloads of pizzazz), Astrid Grotesk, Asterisk Sans Pro (a versatile humanist sans family for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic), Strelka Ultra (a retro space age typeface), Revla Serif (beatnik style, emulating randomly positioned handlettering).

Typefaces from 2017: Duckie (a bubblegum or creamy signage script), Tusque (a layered decorative Tuscan typeface), Ekamai (a tight non-connected creamy signage script), Quinella (seventies script), Delfino Script (retro signage script), Tchig Mono (a special, almost hipster monospace typeface family), Revla Sans (beatnik style), Revla Sans Text, Eroika Slab (a robust wedge serif family).

Typefaces from 2018: Aziga (descrived by Dave as a high (occasionally reversed) contrast, postmodern, deconstructed-reconstructed, serifless (mostly), fashion didone), Revla Slab (bouncy, beatnik), Galix (subdue futuristic sans family), Gelato Luxe (an update of his earlier Gelato Script), Engria (an angular brush-inspired text typeface).

Typefaces from 2019: Gelato Fresco (a warm flowing script), Amica Pro (a stocky part humanist part geometric workhorse sans), Galix Mono, Backstroke, Gigantic (an exercise in ultra-fatness).

Typefaces from 2020: Gelica (a 14-style retro soft serif family influenced by Cooper Black, Goudy Heavyface and Ludlow Black), Capsule (a reverse-stress high-contrast rounded sans-serif), Sausage (a friendly fat rounded typeface that is is unapologetically bold and bulbous. Influenced by magnetic fridge letters, hot dogs and 70s phototype fonts, it is retro, but not cloyingly so).

Typefaces from 2021: Revla Round (a child-friendly version of Revla Sans), Megumi (a formal hairline fashion mag script), Yink (a bulbous psychedelic experiment).

Klingspor link. Behance link.

Showcase of Schizotype's typefaces at MyFonts. Fontspring link. MyFonts interview. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Edouard Lallemand

Charleroi, Belgium-baseddesigner of the polygonal typeface Blek (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Egon Swaels

During his studies at ECV in Lille, France, Egon Swaels created an untitled stencil sans typeface (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Einbein Anubis

Belgian creator of the pixel typeface MsPain (2008). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Eline Cornelissen

Graphic designer in Leuven, Belgium, who created the watercolor splash typeface Sam Francios (2015). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Elise Geijsels

Based in Aarschot, Belgium, Elise Geijsels created the paperclip typeface One Line Font (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Elke Nelen

For a school assignment, Antwerp, Belgium-based Elke Nelen designed Louis Cookie (2017), which is named after Louis Lefevre Utile, the inventor of the Petit Beurre cookie. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Elodie Poulin

Brussels-based designer of the octagonal typeface Beck (2013), which is named after Harry Beck, the architect who drew the first plan for the London Subway. She also designed the experimental rhombic typeface Rhombicuboctaèdre (2013) and the wedge serif caps typeface La Roseraie (2013).

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Els Bauwelinck

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the experimental pixel font Metric, and the font Metround. She lives in Temse. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Els Broodthaers

Belgian designer of Re-Venge and Mallarme (2006). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Els Leclercq

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the experimental handwriting font Somethingels, an interesting overlap of thick and thin strokes. She also made Elsans. Els lives in Bornem. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Elsa Z. Mersayeva

Belgium-based Elsa Mersayeva is unique. She writes about herself: I'm all about typography, matryochkas, Paris, pirates, funny people, urban culture, Bukowski, red nails&messy hair, gangsters' bandanas, huge golden earings and unicorns. Her Chambéry typeface (2011) has elements of the Arts&Crafts movement. Sailor (2011) is an ornamental caps face. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Elzevir family

Elzevir is an oldstyle typeface style related to garaldes. Elzevir was also the name of a renowned family of printers in the 16th and early 17th century in Leiden, The Hague, Utrecht, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The first one, Louis (1540-1617), was the son of a Belgian printer in Leuven and established a print shop in Leiden in 1580. Other members include Isaac Elzevir, Bonaventrura Elzevir, and Abraham I Elzevir. They were operational until 1712.

The Elzevir style was promoted by Louis Perrin in Lyon, France, in 1846. In the United States, this style is known as DeVinne. Britannica link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Emilie Campion

Brussels-based designer of a thin display sans typeface in 2016. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Emilie Dubois

Brussels-based designer of the deconstructed typeface Caravaggio (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Emma Hovel

Brussels-based designer who studied at the University of Minnesota in 2008. Home page. Creator of Three Sided Square (2008), a caps font based on a triangulation of the outlines of letters. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Emy Poncelet

Graphic designer in Liège, Belgium, who created an experimental alphabet using only ink and soap (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

ENSAD

This is a gallery and a discussion of the fonts created by the students at ENSAD since 1997. A partial list with the original (now defunct) links:

  • Bitmap (2003): a pixel typeface by Isabelle Guizard, Vladimir Mavounia Kouka, Grégoire Pierre, Gaëlle Richard.
  • Caffeine (2003): an experimental typeface by Benjamin Raimbault, Eric Bricka, Stéphane Elbaz.
  • Zinzolin (2003), a stencil typeface by Brieuc Dupont, Zai Jia Huang, William Hessel, and Cyrille de Jenken.
  • Cooker Black (2004): a take on Cooper Black, by Isabelle Guizard, Adrien Portehaut, Grégoire Pierre, Zai Jia Huang, Brieuc Dupont, Odile Delaporte, Boris Petrovitch-Njegosh, Vladimir Mavounia Kouka, William Hessel, Eric Bricka, Stéphane Elbaz, Gaëlle Richard
  • Bertrand (2003): A typeface by Grégory Bantzé, Étienne Chaillou, Vincent Défossé, Anne Denastas, Marielle Durand, Alicia Garcia Garcia, Anja Linke and Gabriel Pistre, based on work at the Fonderie bertrand in the late 19th century.
  • Rosart (2002): A font by Aiko Oshima, Vincent Ciccone, Franck Kauffman and Delphine Cordier, based on lettering by the famous 18-th century Belgian typographer.
  • Scripte (2002): By Sarah Fouquet, based on her own handwriting.
  • Cargoth (2001): By Amélie Boutry.
  • Jannet (2001): By Sandrine Auvray, Julia Cochonet, Sarah Fouquet, Boris Igelman, Jérôme Vogel, Yu Sou Yeon, based on Jannet's garalde revivals, ca. 1860.
  • Recréation (2000): A Garamond typeface recreated by Amélié Boutry, Germain Caminade, Laurence Cordellier, Boroka Gergely, Paule Palacios Dalens, Gilles Vacheret.
  • Poinçons (1999): Based on a Fournier font, implemented at ENSAD by Caroline Laguerre, Virginie Aiguillon, Maureen Valfort, Johanne Blain, Pierre Schnebelen, Cédric Murac, Alexandre Le Saulnier de Saint Jouan, Laurent Mészaros, Thibault Laurent.
  • Métis (1998): By Anne-Mari Ahonen, Dorothé Billard, Yolanda Gil, Maria Körkel, Isabelle Maugin, Juliette Poirot, Jennifer Ward.
This is a successor of the Collectif ENSAD, which was energized by Jennifer Ward, Maria Körkel, Dorothée Billard, Isabelle Maugin, Anne-Mari Ahonen, Natalia Suarez, Yolanda Gil and Juliette Poirot. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Enschedé: Civilité

Excerpts of the book Enschedé. Spécimen des Lettres françoises dites Caractères de Civilité des XVIme et XVIIme Siècles dans la Collection Typographique de Joh. Enschedé en Zonen (1926, Haarlem: Joh. Enschedé en Zonen). This collection contains six different Civilité fonts, five from the 16th century (numbered 8, 9, 11, 12 and 14) and one chiefly from the seventeenth century (No. 30). The first maker and user of Civilité was Robert Granjon of Lyon, France, in Dialogue de la vie et de la mort (1557, Lyon), where he calls it his lettre françoyse. Plantin purchased some of Granjon's letters, and Granjon engraved even more more new letteres d'escriture in Antwerp for Plantin. Many imitations were made in Antwerp and Ghent, both in present day Belgium. Notes on the six Civilité types in the Enschedé collection:

  • No. 8 and No.9: Almost identical fonts engraved by Franco-Flemish engraver Ameet Tavernier (b. Belle, ca. 1526) who worked as a typefounder and printer in Antwerp.
  • No. 11: The author guesses that it is either Granjon's la petite françoise (ca. 1566) or Pierre Hautin's (aka Hamon) work. Pierre Hautin also sold lettres façon d'écriture to Plantin. The cursive françoise in the Manuel Typographique of Fournier le Jeune possesses many points of resemblance with No. 11.
  • No. 12: The author credits this either to Granjon (ca. 1566) or to Henric vanden Keere of Ghent (aka Henri de la Tour). It is found together with Initials No. 10. The author thinks that vanden Keere is probably right since Jan van Hout, the secretary of the town printer of Leyden, seems to have purchased the same letter (i.e., No.12) from vanden Keere.
  • No. 14: By vanden Keere, ca. 1575. A copy of the original specimen is still in the Plantin Moretus Museum.
  • No. 30: The model for No. 30 was used before 1600 by Plantin in Antwerp and Jan van Hout in Leyden. It is possibly due to vanden Keere. It became popular in The Netherlands in the 17th century.
  • Initials No. 13: Engraver unknown. Frequently used by Plantin and made in the 16th century.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Etablissements Plantin

Brussels-based foundry operational in the early part of the 20th century. (Metal) typefaces by them include the art deco beauties created by Dick Dooijes: Carlton (1932) and Bristol (1932). Further examples of these typefaces: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Etienne Desclides

French designer of Pix Chicago (2006, pixel font). Dafont link. Yet another URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Eve Kuypers

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the hookish experimental font Naeve Groovy. Eve lives in Pulle. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Evelien Veltjen

Heusden, Belgium-based creator of a modular typeface in 2013. Behance link. Maber (2013) was designed by her specifically for iPhones. Caberino (2013) is an art deco marquee typeface. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Evelien Veltjen

Belgian graphic designer, b. 1991. She created the art deco typeface family Caberino (2011). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Evelyn Uyter Hoeven

Lier, Belgium-based designer of the display typeface Quetzal (2016). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Evi Leuridan

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the experimental font Roller. Evi lives in Gistel. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fabian De Smet

French graduate of ESIAJ (Albert Jacquard), class of 2014, who works in Brussels. In 2015, he designed the (great!) free 14-style typeface family Butler, which was influenced by Bodoni and Dala Floda, and includes great styles for use in fashion magazines and on posters, in addition to several stencil styles. Open Font Library link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fabian Penay

Liège, Belgium-based designer, b. 1974, of the free Bitfontmaker font Alphax (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fabien Despinoy

Graduate of St. Luc, Tournai, Belgium. Graphic designer in Lille, France, since 1997. Creator of the rounded monoline organic sans typeface family Fabiolo (2014), the free organic sans typeface family Cryptéo (2015), rhe free handcrafted Froggy Princess (2015, by Jeanne and Fabien Despinoy), and the free connected script typeface Fabfelt Script (2015). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Félicie Bouckaert

Overijse, Belgium-based designer of the free display typeface families Amalgame (2015, modular design) and Carpathe (2015). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fernand Baudin

Belgian typographic expert and writer (b. Bachte-Maria-Leerne, 1918, d. Grez-Doiceau, July 16, 2005), and author of "How Typography Works (and why it is important)" (New York: Design Press). This is a translation of La Typographie au Tableau Noir (Retz, Paris, 1984), a book entirely written by hand! Uitgeverij de Buitenkant published "Fernand Baudin, typograaf, typographiste, book designer". Baudin wrote "L'Effet Gutenberg" (1974, Editions du Cercle de la Librairie). He was active in the Rencontres de Lure, the ATypI, and was instrumental in the creation of the curriculum of the Plantin Genootschap in Antwerp. Another reference. Exposition Fernand Baudin from April 14 until May 27, 2000 at the Royal Library of Belgium. In 2004, he received the Laureate Honoris Causa award from the Plantin Society's Institute of Printing and Graphic Arts. CV (doc file in French). CV (txt file in French). Elly Cockx-Indestege et Georges Colin wrote Fernand Baudin ou La typographie au service du lecteur (2000, Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Brussels). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Ferre Leriche

During his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Gent, Belgium, Ferre Leriche (Mechelen, Belgium) created a squarish typeface (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fieke Clinckemalie

As students at LUCA School of Arts (Gent, Belgium), Fieke Clinckemalie, Ida Stemgée, Flor De Pauw and Tijn Bakker co-designed the rounded modular typeface Keeskap (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fien Robbe

Brussels, Belgium-based designer of the nibbed calligraphic typeface Exclipse (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Flandra Esperanto Ligo

Esperanto, South-European fonts. Latin-3 encoding. Page run by Roland Rotsaert from Brugge. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Flashy Fonts

Supposedly a big archive. Browsers need Macromedia's Flash3 Plugin in order to access, though. Maintained by Kenny Van Bogaert. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Flore Levrouw

Belgian designer of the modular typefaces Gridfont (2018) and HTML (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Florent Schirrer

Mons, Belgium-based creator (b. 1985) of the free hand-drawn didone typeface BodoFlo (2013), ABlockyFont (2014, iFontMaker font), and of Hipsterish Pro (2015; buy it here; despite the name, the typeface is closest to the arts-and-crafts style of 1895), Marker Pen (2015), Feltipen Pro (2015), Thin Font (2014), Tape Type (2015, iFontMaker), and Large Font (2014).

Aka Hello I'm Flo. Jellycube link. Dafont link. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fnkfrsh (was: French Toast)
[Tarek Okbir]

Tarek Okbir (or Fnkfrsh) is a graphic designer in Liège, Belgium. He designed the free hipster style display sans typeface Original (2016), and the modular techno typeface Gent (2014).

Behance link. Facebook link. Dafont link. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonderie Louis-François Clément
[Louis-François Clément]

Type foundry in Brussels, Belgium, active in the 19th century. Books by them include Épreuves des caractères de la fonderie de L.-F. Clément: lettres à deux points, gothiques, fleurons, vignettes religieuses et autres (1838, Delevingne et Callewaert, Brussels). The text typefaces in this book are basically didones, as Didot influenced the entire type business in Belgium at that time. Most of the book consists of fleurons, ornaments and vignettes. PDF file of this book.

Digital descendants include Clement Numbers (2013, Pablo Impallari), which is a set of didone numbers. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonderie Normale
[Jules Didot]

Foundry in Brussels, which published a specimen book entitled Specimen des caractères de la Fonderie Normale à Bruxelles, provenant de la fonderie de Jules Didot et de son père Pierre Didot (1819). Like so many printers in Belgium at the time, its foundry was heavily influenced by and dependent upon Didot.

In 1914, Enschedé republished it with a foreword that tells the story of the Fonderie Normale: i, ii, iii. Some sample pages from that book: Ecriture, Ecriture, Fantaisies, Gothique, Gothique Ornée No. 1489, Grec, Romain, Didot. Link to the 1914 text. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonderie Plantin

Belgian foundry in Antwerp, which was active since the 16th century. They published "Fonderie typographique Plantin, S. A.; caractères de texte modernes et classiques, ornements, filets en cuivre, initiales et vignettes. Supplément au catalogue général", a 116-page book, in Brussels in 1935. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonderie typographique Van Loey-Nouri
[Henri Van Loey]

Fonderie typographique Van Loey-Nouri was Henri Van Loey's foundry in Brussels around 1900. They published Spécimen des caractères (1905). According to some sources, their other book, Spécimen de la Fonderie Van Loey-Nouri dates from ca. 1930. One of their art nouveau typefaces from 1900 was digitized by Dan X. Solo as Welcome 1 (Solotype). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonderie Vandeborght

Belgian foundry. They published a 297-page book called Spécimen (Bruxelles). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonderie Vanderborght
[Michel-Joseph Vanderborght]

Brussels-based foundry established in 1834 by Michel-Joseph Vanderborght (1801-1870). His early goal as to make better types than the ones being imported at the time. They developed and built their own machines for this. In the last year of his life, Michel-Joseph cedes the reins of his company to his sons, Alexandre Vanderborght (1841-1918) and François Vanderborght (1844-1930), and the firm was renamed A. & F. Vanderborght. In 1901, François retires, and Alexandre joins forces with Jean Dumont (1853-1927), and the business is now called A. Vanderborght et J. Dumont.

Publications by Vanderborght:

  • 1836, juin. Premiers essais de caractère de la Nouvelle fonderie et spécimen de ceux de l'imprimerie cessante de Vanderborght fils ; A Bruxelles aux Fossés aux loups, section 5, N17.
  • 1839: Caractères de la fonderie M.-J. Vanderborght, Epreuves, deuxième édition, Bruxelles, rue Fossés aux loups, N17, en face de l'église. Spécimen format grand in 4o complèté en 1846.
  • 1846: épreuves des caractères de la fonderie M.-J. Vanderborght à Bruxelles, Faubourg de Cologne, rue des plantes, 15 Près la station du nord, premier cahier.
  • 1855: Spécimen format Jésus in 8 oblong.
  • 1861: Spécimen format Jésus in 4o complèté en 1867.
  • 1878: Fonderie & gravures Typographiques, A. & F. Vanderborght, Bruxelles. Spécimen format carré in 4.
  • 1880: Quatre pages de luxe avec armoiries de Belgique en Chromo-Typographie, imprimé pour l'Exposition Nationale.
  • 1883: Premier complément au spécimen de 1878.
  • 1884: Deuxième complément au spécimen de 1878.
  • 1885: Tableau de quelques caractères, publié à l'occasion de l'Exposition Universelle d'Anvers.
  • 1886: Troisième complément au spécimen de 1878.
  • 1887: Revue typographique, publication périodique & gratuite tirée à 2000 exemplaires.
  • 1888: Participation au Livre Belge: 10 pages en chromo typographie.
  • 1889: Fonderie et gravure typographiques A. & F. Vanderborght. Notice Historique (par Jean Dumont) ; Bruxelles imprimerie spéciale de l'établissement, 52 pages encadrées d'un filet d'or, vue de l'établissement et 3 portraits hors-texte, figures dans le texte, culs-de-lampe, etc. in-quarto.
  • 1889-1890: En préparation, spécimen format in-plano.
  • 1910: A. Vanderborght & Dumont, Rue Verte, Bruxelles, Ancienne firme A. & F. Vanderborght.
  • 1910: Notice historique de la fonderie A. Vanderborght et Dumont, par Jean Dumont.

Digital revivals of their work include Vanderposter (2014, Julien Wendé). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Constructor
[Frederik Berlaen]

A free standalone Mac application for building fonts in an intuitive way. By Frederik Berlaen of TypeMyType in Belgium. The only thing I can say is wow. It is a small tool, but the speed with which one can create outlines is fantastic. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontasia
[Bart Claeys]

Bart Claeys reserved this domain name. He will start some type pages here. But that was promised back in 2002... In the meantime, the domain name has been hijacked by the internet sharks. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontcaster
[Mårten Thavenius]

After completing a B.A. in Philosophy and Aesthetics, Swedish designer Mårten Thavenius (b. 1965) began working as an interface designer with IBM as senior GUI architect. In 2009, he left IBM to work as an independent web solutions consultant and typeface designer. His most popular designs are the comprehensive families Aptifer Sans and Aptifer Slab. He lives in Belgium and Sweden, and his foundry is called Fontcaster. Mårten Thavenius has a side-interest in screen typography.

He designed these typefaces:

  • FF Rattle Script (2000).
  • In 2006, he created two legible families (28 styles in all), Aptifer Sans and Aptifer Slab, both published via Linotype.
  • In 2010, he created Skilt Gothic (Font Bureau), about which Font Bureau writes: In the 1920s, Danish architect, printer, and designer Knud V. Engelhardt (1882-1931) prepared a series of striking types for signage, including those for the street signs in Gentofte, north of Copenhagen. Swedish designer Mårten Thavenius built upon some of the structural elements from Engelhardt's work to arrive at Skilt Gothic.

FontShop link. Klingspor link. FontFont link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

FontPage v2.0.3
[David De Groot]

David De Groot's Belgian outfit (BlueFive Software) gives away FontPage, a font viewer and manager. Free! Alternate site. Alternate site. Alternate URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

François Guyot

French punchcutter who lived in the first part of the 16th century. In 1539, he became a resident of Antwerp, and from 1558 until his death in 1570, he delivered letter types to Plantin in Antwerp. His creations were used all over Europe and even in Asia. In his day, he was one of the greatest punchcutters. Day Roman (2002, Apostrophe) is described as follows by its designer: Day Roman, is a digitally redrawn version of what has come to be historically known as the "Two Line Double Pica Roman", a typeface designed by 16th century French punchcutter François Guyot, and used in numerous books between 1535 and 1570, most notable of which are J. Steelsius's printing of The Bible (1541) and Frisius (1551), Gillis Coppens van Diest's printing of Erasmus (1544), Georgius (1544), Serlio (1550) and Horatius (1552), and Rotarius's printing of Livius Brechtius (1549). The type was also used extensively by H. Dunham, and later J. Day, in London (the name Day Roman is simply a reference to J. Day having used the type). Original matrices of Guyot's roman type are now in the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp. A 1782 "Sale Catalog&Specimen of the James Foundry" shows a reproduction of that same type under the name "Two-Line Double Pica Macilent". Some specimens from unknown English printers dating back to circa 1650 also show the same typeface, but no proper references were given. The last recorded reference to Guyot's type can be found in "Type Specimen Fascimiles, vol. 1, No. 1-15," by John Dreyfus et al, printed in London circa 1963. See also here.

In 2003, Frank Heine published Tribute at Emigre as a creative revival of a 1565 typeface by Guyot. I received this email from a typographer: Did you see Frank Heine's Tribute font at Emigre? They're claiming that it's a Guyot! What a slaughter! I don't know what he was thinking when he made the A, V and W there... and why use a Century Q in a Garalde?. Bill Troop calls Tribute a Frankenstein of a font: see here or here. He supports Apostrophe's interpretation of the Roman and Frank Blokland's interpretation of the Italic. The lower case letters of the italic of DTL VandenKeere are based on Guyot's Ascendonica Cursief of 1557.

In 2017, Ramiro Espinoza selected the most interesting elements from the Gros Canon and Ascendonica sizes and assembled them into a consistent family of contemporary detailing, called Guyot Headline. Guyot Text followed later in 2017---it is very legible even at small print sizes and is a sturdy workhorse overall.

Sample of his Ascendonica Romaine (Gros Parangon). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Francisca Zaunberger Melo

During her studies in Linkebeek, Belgium, Francisca Zaunberger Melo designed the neautiful color poster entitled Anatomie de la Lettre (2015). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Francisco Santamouris

Brussels, Belgium-based designer of Oliner (2017, a simple sans typeface developed during his studies at La Cambre Superior School of Visual Arts) and Leopold (2017, a paper-fold typeface). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Francisco Torres

Aka Senhor Baltazar. At Type@Paris 2016, Francisco Torres (Antwerp, Belgium, and Porto, Portugal) designed Emigrant Serif for small wine companies in Portugal.

In 2020, Iñigo Jerez (Extratype) released the 56-style text family Chamberi (co-designed with Francisco Torres) and wrote: ChamberĂ­ is designed to be Vogue Spain's bespoke typeface. An ambitious typographic branding projeect made for one of the most iconic magazine headers of the world, it defines the Spanish edition's personality through a blending of the functionality of 19th century modern romans (also known as Scotch typefaces) and the gestural expressiveness of typographic Baroque. Chamberi is a peculiar combination of the rational and the delicate, the sturdy and the feminine. It is offered in Text, Headline, Display and (fashion mag) Super Display sub-families. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fre Lemmens

Fre Lemmens (Zolder, Belgium) made the custom font family SKDR in 2012, and the custom handcrafted typeface Bar Marie in 2016. He designed Rotring (2016) based on the Rotring letter stencils, used to create technical drawings and plans. His typographic work for Apotheek Gijsenbergs and Belle & Belge (2016) is also noteworthy (and beautiful).

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fred Smeijers
[OurType]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Frederik Berlaen
[KalliCulator Automatic Calligraphy]

[More]  ⦿

Frederik Berlaen
[TypeMyType]

[More]  ⦿

Frederik Berlaen
[Font Constructor]

[More]  ⦿

Frederik De Bleser

Belgian graphic designer and software specialist who is assiocated with the Sint Lucas Hogeschool voor Beeldende Kunsten in Antwerp, Belgium. He designed various experimental types at these workshops. Speaker at the ATypI meetings in 2004 and 2005 in Prague and Helsinki. Developer of NodeBox, an app for creating generative design.

Speaker at ATypI 2016 in Warsaw on Advances in JS-based font creation technologies and tools. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FUNDP: Tablinum
[Paul Pietquin]

Nikos Goulandris's modern Greek font Ismini was adapted by Paul Pietquin at the Département de Langues et Littératures Classiques des FUNDP (University of Namur, Belgium), which led to the Greek fonts Isminipc and SuperIsmini. Mac and PC. [Google] [More]  ⦿

G. Rize

Belgian creator of the pixel typeface Typo pixel (2008). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gaëlle Jollivet

Belgian designer in Brussels of the organic typeface Trocchi Bold Sans Serif (2014, OFL), Trocchi Bold Stencil (2014, OFL) and Trocchi Bold Oblique Stencil (2014, OFL). This typeface extends Trocchi, a typeface made by Vernon Adams in 2012. It was developed in a course of Ludivine Loiseau at ERG Brussels. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gaia Van der Zeyp

During her studies at Sint-Lucas Antwerpen, Belgium, Gaia Van der Zeyp created the free gridded typeface Typit (2015, FontStruct). FontStruct link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Garaldes
[Ludwig M. Souzen]

A list compiled by Ludwig M. Souzen, a typographer and printer in Bertem, Belgium:

  • I.1 Claude Garamond (italics: Robert Granjon)
  • II.1.A ORIGINAL
  • II.1.B REVIVALS
  • II.1.B.a Deberny&Peignot Garamond (George&Charles Peignot, 1912-28)
  • II.1.B.b Nebiolo Garaldus (Aldo Novarese, 1957)
  • II.1.B.c Linotype Granjon LT Std (George W. Jones, 1928-31; Linotype)
  • II.1.B.d Linotype Estienne (George W. Jones, 1930)
  • II.1.B.e Stempel Garamond (D. Stempel AG, 1925)
  • II.1.B.f Berthold Garamond
  • II.1.B.g Garamond 3 LT Std (Linotype)
  • II.1.B.h ITC Garamond Std Lt (Tony Stan, 1976)
  • II.1.B.i Adobe Garamond Pro
  • II.1.B.j Simoncini Garamond Std. [A clone is Italian Garamond by Infinitype / Softmaker]
  • II.1.B.k 1503 Garamond (Ross Mills, 1994; Tiro Typeworks)
  • II.1.B.l Amsterdammer Garamont (URW++)
  • II.1.B.m URW Garamond
  • II.1.B.n Augereau (George Abrams, 1989)
  • II.1.B.o Envoy (Tim Rolands, 2001)
  • II.1.B.p Adobe Garamond Premier Pro (Robert Slimbach)
  • II.1.C INTERPRETATIONS
  • II.1.C.a Sabon (Sabon-Antiqua) (Jan Tschichold, 1964/7; Stempel, Linotype, Monotype)
  • II.1.C.b Sabon Next (Porchez)
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Gauthier Vanweerst

Digital artist and motorcycle enthusiast in Verviers, Belgium. His first font, Cafe Racer (2012) is an art deco beauty with a blackboard bold style called Cafe Racer Alternative. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Geen Bitter
[Thom Janssen]

Geen Bitter (Den Haag, The Netherlands) consists of Thom Janssen (b. 1984, Maastricht), Jorn Henkes and Rogier van der Sluis. All three are graduates of the Graphic Design course at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, The Netherlands. Thom Janssen is a graduate of the TypeMedia program at the KABK in The Hague in 2017. The work of Geen Bitter has a strong typographical influence and covers designing typefaces, books, websites and identities, all with a typographic approach. Late in 2014, Geen Bitter disbanded. Thom currently works as a freelance type designer and as a researcher at PXL, Hasselt University, Belgium.

In 2013, they published Gewone letters Gerrit's early models. The blurb: A couple of years back, while cleaning the letterpress workshop at the KABK in The Hague, we had an amazing find. A package that hasn't been opened for some time. We opened it and found eighteen printing plates in mint condition. The printing plates, we soon found out, were made by Gerrit Noordzij and date back to the late 1960s. They contain a brief lesson about writing with the broad nib and, once familiar with this basis, writing and drawing some different techniques. Since it seemed the plates are never published before, we decided to do so and made a book containing prints from the plates. Next to the plates we asked former students if they still had old work and sketches with comments by Gerrit Noordzij. The result is a collection of sketches and material, together with five writings about the plates, Gerrit Noordzij and his contribution to the field of type and typography. The text has contributions by Albert-Jan Pool, Frank E. Blokland, Aad van Dommelen, Huug Schipper, and Petr van Blokland. It was published in 2013 by Uitgeverij De Buitenkant, Amsterdam.

Thom's graduation typeface in 2017 at KABK was Rikhard. He wrote: A variable font project with letter shapes inspired by English letter forms from around the 1780s, mainly Richard Austin, hence the name. With a weight axis for hierarchy in texts and an optical size axis in order to make small and larger text sizes look good. This project is an exploration in variable fonts. The goal was to learn about it, build workflow solutions, and have fun. This project is meant for typography on the screen. Browsers can take advantage of variable fonts, optical size can be automated and with CSS and JavaScript all the styles of the variable font can be accessed. One font, many styles: the future.

Their commercial typefaces:

  • Bex (2013). This sans typeface family is based on Thom Janssen's graduation project.
  • Cramp (2012). A casual hand-printed typeface by Rogier van der Sluis.
  • Herman (2013, Rogier van der Sluis). An elliptical monospaced signage typeface family with possibilities of layering and shadow effects. It is quite attractive and one of the finest typefaces in its genre.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Georges Close
[Smile Graphic Design]

[More]  ⦿

Georges Lemmen

Belgian who worked with Henry Van de Velde. He was born in 1865 in Schaerbeek, and worked as a painter and designer. He died in 1916 in Ukkel. Creator of Argos (1908, W. Drugulin, an art nouveau alphabet).

For a free digital version, see Rick Mueller's Argos or Dieter Steffmann's Argos George (1999). For a commercial digital version, see David Nalle's Bucephalus (1993). Dan Solo calls it Argos George. Berthold AG's phototype collection has it as Georges Lemon. However, the original name, according to Klingspor, is George-Lemmen-Schrift. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gerardus Mercator

Flemish cartographer, b. Rupelmonde (as Gheert Cremer), 1512-1594. Educated at the University of Leuven, the alma mater of Luc Devroye, he lived in Duisburg (now Germany) from 1552 and is remembered for the Mercator chart named after him. Author of Literarum Latinarum, quas Italicas cursorias que vocant, scribendarum ratio (1540), which contains some beautiful alphabets, and teaches cursive writing [see Cursiv Latein].

Digital mapmaking fonts based on Mercator's chancery hand include Mercator (1995, Arthur Baker; see also the P22 version from 2001), and Ribbon Cursive (2009, Natsuko Hayashida). A scan of his 1540 book led Gilles Le Corré to 1540 Mercator Script (2010).

A full scan of Gerardus Mercator's 1595 cosmographic atlas. Portrait.

View typefaces related to Mercator. A list of typefaces related to Mercator. More typefaces based on Mercator's chancery hand. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gilles Nuytens

Brussels-based designer of the free font Stargate Atlantis Glyphs (2007). He also has a Star Wars / Sci Fi font archive. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Gilles Pegel
[Trypo]

[More]  ⦿

Gilles Verschuere
[Wildstripe]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Godelief Tielens
[Kalligarfie 't Veertje]

[More]  ⦿

Gody Laplanche

Gody recently posted a great common sense advice to type designers: if I would create a font, I would like to be respected in this way:

  • if somebody uses my font and earns money with it, I should have my part in the earnings (basic justice)
  • if somebody uses my font not earning money with it, my name should be mentioned as the creator
  • if somebody uses a "bad" version of my font, I don't know if I would like my name being associated with bad quality, maybe something like "based on the original work of" to still have a reference but with a distance
  • if nobody uses my font, I open a second bottle.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Gravual
[Sander Legrand]

Antwerp-based creator (b. 1990) of some free fonts, who went commercial in 2011 as Gravual.

Creator of the hand-printed Tuscan typeface Lullaby (2010), the oldtimer signage family Frizton (2011), the retro signage brush script Gasoline (2011), the crazy wood-style typeface Board Contest (2011).

Typefaces from 2012: The Nest (octagonal slab face), The Wolf (display sans), Bones (a stylish art deco capital set published by Gravual).

Web site. Dafont link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Greek Grammar on the Web

Fantastic Greek font page by Professor Marc Huys from the University of Leuven, Belgium. This page had (has?) Supergreek (copyright Payne Loving Trust) and many other Greek fonts, and an extensive discussion on Greek fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Griekse Lettertypes

Bart van Beek from the KU Leuven provides a thorough list of links for Greek fonts. In Flemish. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Griet Welters

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, who lives in Putte. She designed the gothic/Klingon typeface Tribe. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Grigoli Kopaliani

Antwerpen, Belgium-based designer of Fluky (2015), a set of experimental fonts obtained by automating the process of cutting up existing typefaces and recombining them. Anther experimental typeface is Ha (2015). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Guillaume Benhamou

Guillaume Benhamou (aka Zmo) was born in Marseille, France, and studies Graphic design and Typography at E.R.G. in Brussels. In 2010, he created a monoline typeface in which each letter was made with one stroke, called D'un trait. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Guy Schockaert
[Ad Hoc Design]

[More]  ⦿

H. Remy

Belgian printer who printed proofs for Théodore Simon Gando in 1828 in Brussels. Gando was French but operated out of Brussels in that year (rue Notre-Dame-aux-Neiges). Remy was located in the rue des Paroissiens in Brussels. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hanne Schoolmeesters

During her studies at MAD in Hasselt, Belgium, Hanne Schoolmeesters (Rotselaar and now Leuven, Belgium) created the calligraphic typefaces Madelien (2013) and Koulu (2013). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Harrisson
[Open Source Publishing (or: OSP)]

[More]  ⦿

Hendrik D.L. Vervliet

Prolific Belgian type expert (b. 1923, Antwerp; d. 2020) who graduated in philology from the University of Leuven. He became adjunct director of the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp and was on the board of governors of the Plantin Instituut voor Typografie, which he helped renovate after the second worrld war together with Albert J.M. Pelckmans. Vervliet became librarian and lecturer at the University of Antwerp, and professor at the University of Amsterdam. Obituary that uses a text by Ludo Simons at the Plantin Instituut voor Typografie. Considered as the world's top expert on 15th and 16th century typography, Vervliet leaves a wealth of books on type from the renaissance era, and book history in general. Author of

  • Sixteenth-Century Printing Types of the Low Countries. With a Foreword by Harry Carter, Amsterdam: M. Hertzberger, 1968. This book has 267 facsimile-illustrations depicting 147 typespecimens. It was translated from the Dutch manuscript by Harry Carter.
  • Civilité Types (with Harry Carter, 1966, Oxford, University Press), for The Oxford Bibliographical Society).
  • Cyrillic & oriental typography in Rome at the end of the sixteenth century: an inquiry into the later work of Robert Granjon (1578-90) (1981, Berkeley Poltroon Press, 55+3 pages).
  • The Palaeotypography of the French Renaissance Selected Papers on Sixteenth-Century Typefaces (Library of the Written Word, 2008, and Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008). This is a 565-page 2-volume oeuvre about which the publisher writes: This collection of thirteen essays examines sixteenth-century type design in France. Typefaces developed during this period were to influence decisively the typography of the centuries which followed, and they continue to influence a great many contemporary typefaces. The papers' common goal is to establish the paternity of the typefaces described and critically to appraise their attributions, many of which have previously been inadequately ascribed. Such an approach will be of interest to type historians and type designers seeking better-documented attributions, and to historians, philologists, and bibliographers, whose study of historical imprints will benefit from more accurate type descriptions. The papers and illustrations focus on the most important letter-cutters of the French Renaissance, including Simon de Colines, Robert Estienne, Claude Garamont, Robert Granjon, Pierre Haultin, and also include a number of minor masters of the period.
  • French Renaissance Printing Types: A Conspectus (New Castle, Delaware, and London: Oak Knoll Press, The Bibliographical Society, and The Printing Historical Society 2010). This conspectus aims at surveying exhaustively and regardless of aesthetics, all Roman, Italic, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic typefaces made in France during the sixteenth century. Such a survey will be of interest to historians, bibliographers, and philologists wishing to identify the types used in the imprints they are investigating, as well as to type historians or type designers wishing to base their attributions on documentary evidence. The conspectus consists of introductory chapters on the sources available, the evolution of sixteenth-century type-casting and letter-engraving, biographical notices of 17 punchcutters (both famous ones, such as Colines, Garamont, Granjon, and lesser known ones, such as Vatel, Gryphius, or Du Boys) and the methodology used. The main part of the book consists of the facsimiles of 409 typefaces (216 Romans, 88 Italics, 61 Greeks, 41 Hebrews, 2 Arabics, and one phonetic) each with a short identifying notice, describing their letter family, size, punchcutter (or eponym), their first appearance in books or type-specimens, the surviving materials such as punches or matrices, and finally (for about two-thirds of them), the recent literature. Every typeface has been illustrated, several with multiple examples of their use.
  • Vine Leaf Ornaments in Renaissance Typography: a survey (2012, New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press and HES & DE GRAAF Publishers). Oak Knoll writes about this 416-page book: This new survey deals with the birth and early history of the typographical ornament commonly known as a vine leaf or Aldine leaf. Starting in 1505, the introduction sketches the fleurons beginnings in handwritten form onwards to printed epigraphical handbooks. These small ornaments originated as type-cast sorts in the first decade of the sixteenth century in Augsburg and Basle at presses that attended to the interests of a humanist reading public. From the 1520s onwards, the design evolved into an all-purpose decorative motif fitting for any publication. Venice and Paris designers, such as Garamont and Granjon, cut new designs that can still be found in most digital fonts today. The main part of this book is a comprehensive catalogue of all sixteenth-century type-cast vine leaf designs. It provides a descriptive notice of each fleuron, irrespective of its aesthetic merit or country of origin.
  • Robert Granjon, letter-cutter, 1513-1590: An oeuvre-catalogue (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2018, 200 pages).
  • Granjon's Flowers Am Enquiry into Granjon's, Giolito's, and De Tournes' Ornaments, 1542-1586 (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2016, 248 pages). The contents include a chronology of Granjon's ornaments (1544-1586), ornaments used by Gabriele Giolito in Venice (1542-1550), and flowers and ornaments used by de Tournes in Lyons (1544-1577). Appendices include illustrated lists of ornaments by size, width, and date.
  • Post-incunabula en hun uitgevers in de Lage Landen: een bloemlezing gebaseerd op Wouter Nijhoff's L'art typographique. Post-incunabula and their publishers in the Low Countries: a selection based on Wouter Nijhoff's L'art typographique (Den Haag-Boston-London: Martinus Nijhoff, 1978, 205 pages).
  • Gutenberg of Diderot? De typografie als factor in de wereldgeschiedenis (Deventer: Van Loghum Slaterus, 1977, 33 pages). This is the speech he gave when he became professor of book history at the University of Amsterdam on May 16, 1977.
  • Liber librorum : 5000 jaar boekkunst (by Hendrik D. L. Vervliet, Fernand Baudin and Herman Liebaers, Brussel: Uitgeverij Arcade, 1972). The French translation: Liber librorum: cinq mille ans d'art du livre., Bruxelles: Arcade, 1972. Engelse vertaling: The book through five thousand years London-New York: Phaidon, 1972. Duitse vertaling: Liber librorum: 5000 Jahre Buchkunst, Genève: Weber, 1973.
  • Reproductions of Christopher Plantin's Index sive specimen characterum 1567 & Folio specimen of c. 1567, together with the Le Bé-Moretus Specimen, c. 1599 (by Hendrik D. L. Vervliet ans Harry Carter, London: Bodley Head, 1972).
  • The type specimen of the Vatican Press 1628. A facsimile with an introduction and notes by H.D.L. Vervliet (by Andrea Brogiotti and Hendrik D. L. Vervliet, Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1967).
  • Orientaliste [1882-1967] Specimen (by Hendrik D. L. Vervliet and René Draguet, Leuven: Drukkerij Orientaliste, 1967, 64 pages).
  • Danfrie Reconsidered. Philippe Danfrié's (d. 1606) Civilité Types, in: The Library, vol 21:1, pp. 3-45, 2020.

Wikipedia link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hendrik van den Keere

Born in Gent (now Belgium) around 1540, and aka Henry du Tour, he died in 1580. He delivered letters to Plantin (and exclusively so between 1570 and 1580). Enschedé's specimen book lists his 1575 Civilité as Civilité No. 14.

His lettering was revived in 1994 by the Dutch Type Library as DTL VandenKeere. Myfonts.com writes that Van den Keere's 2-line Double Pica Roman (Gros Canon), cut around 1570 and shown in Plantin's c.1585 folio specimen, is the basis for Fred Smeijers' recent face, Renard.

In Sixteenth-century Printing Types of the Low Countries (H.D.L. Vervliet, Amsterdam, 1968), van den Keere is called the best punchcutter of the Low Countries in the sixteenth century, being the link between the French, who dominated the 16th century, and the Dutch who led in the 17th century. In 1575, he made a Civilité, the "Van den Keere Civilité" (see here for more on that story). Matthew Carter's DTL Flamande (2004, Dutch Type Library) is based on a Textura by Hendrik van den Keere. DTL Flamande is available from URW++ since 2018. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Henri Felix Borremans

Belgian typefounder (b. Brussels, 1812, d. some time after 1861). He lived in Breda in 1840, worked for some time for Tetterode in Rotterdam, and set up his own foundry in Rotterdam in de Groote Kipstraat in 1857. It lasted about ten months--at the end of 1857, he returned to Brussels to work at the Brussels type foundry Crabbe&Borremans, 1859-1861. Some specimen at the Amsterdam University Library. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Henri Van Loey
[Fonderie typographique Van Loey-Nouri]

[More]  ⦿

Henric Pieterszoon Lettersnijder

Aka Henric Pieterszoon. Dutch letter cutter ("lettersnijder"), d. ca. 1511. He made a textura some time before 1492

Sixteenth Century Printing Types of the Low Countries (H.D.L. Vervliet, 1968) mentions that he was from Rotterdam, and cut letters. Occasionally, he printed as well, in Antwerp from 1496-ca. 1500, in Rotterdam from 1504 until 1509, and in Delft from 1508 until some time after 1511. It is estimated that he cut a third to half of all the type used in the Low Countries at that time. These typefaces, including the Textura, remained popular there from 1492 until about 1550-1560, when they were superseded by the blackletter type of Ameet Tavernier and Hendrik van den Keere. His son was Cornelis Henricszoon Lettersnijder, who also cut type, starting out in Delft.

Digitizations: Oude Hollandse (2012, Alter Littera; after Henric Pieterszoon "Lettersnijder"'s 1492 typeface), Initials Gothic C (2012, Alter Littera, based on a 1508 type by Pieterszoon), English textura. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Herbert Binneweg

Belgian graphic designer, typographer and type designer, and a professor at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp) and at the Institute for Graphic Arts of the Plantin-Genootschap, also in Antwerp. He designed three experimental fonts and many book covers and posters. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hugo Puttaert

Hugo Puttaert was born in Brussels in 1960. He studied art and worked as an artist before starting his own design studio, visionandfactory which was set up in 1990. He is also responsible for graduation projects in Sint Lucas Antwerp (art department Karel de Grote-Hogeschool), where he teaches typography and graphic design. He was also in charge for the Citype Conferences in Antwerp (1997,1999). Speaker at ATypI 2005 in Helsinki. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Icograda

International Council of Graphic Design Associations, based in Brussels. Publishes once in a while a feature article on typography. Alternate URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ignace De Keyser

Ceramist and architect based in Antwerp, Belgium. Creator of Annotate (2021: a handwritten, monospace blockletter font that shows his architectural background). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Imane Ben

Antwerp, Belgium-based designer of Arabista (2016), an Arabic typeface influenced by Islamic architecture. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Imprimerie Georges Thone

Foundry/printer in Liège, rue de la Commune, 15, around 1930. Specimen book (80p.) printed in 1932 available at the Bibliothèque royale de Belgique in Brussels. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ine Beerten

Graphic design student in Antwerpen, Belgium, who made this gorgeous faux Hebrew and faux Arabic typeface in 2004. Hrant Papazian raves about it, and calls its competitor, FF Falafel (Per Jorgensen, 2002), unsatisfying. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ingrid Bourgault

For Ludovine Loiseau's course at ERG in Brussels, Ingrid Bourgault (b. Quebec) created the free font Brush Lettering One (2014, OFL), which is based on Eben Sorkin's Merriwaether Bold Italic (2013). In 2015, she drew an experimental alphabet based on the grid system of the excellent Belgian newspaper Le Soir [on par with De Standaard], and created an experimental multicolor modular typeface. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ink Magazine
[Pierre Delmas Bouly]

Design magazine. Graphical concept by Patrick Lallemand and Pierre Delmas Bouly. They designed the random modular font Minimal Bloc (2007, Superscript): here modularly decomposed letters can switch between various geometric forms. This was followed in 2008 by Basics, another modular design. Superscript is located in Lyon. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Irina Kopytina

Graphic design student at ArtEZ school in Arnhem, Netherlands, who is originally from Moscow. She created the italic typeface Arnhemse jochies (2010) and the experimental typeface Breadclip (2012).

In 2014, we find her in Brussels, Belgium, where she created a gridded octagonal typeface.

Behance link. Old Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Iris Billiauw

At Luca School of Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, Iris Billiauw designed the tall techno typeface Nervo Lit together with Laura Gieseke, Monica Kopka and Rodrigo Fraga. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ivan Louette

Belgian designer of the free dingbat font Botarosa (1999-2000). Louette lived in Chaumont-Gistoux, where he was affiliated with Roseraie communale de Terre Franche. He now resides in Louvain-La-Neuve and will soon move to Liège. His typefaces:

  • In 2014, he set out to improve on Georges Auriol's art nouveau type, Auriol, and created Blobby Georg Gras, which is based on Auriol's original idea---a predecessor of Auriol---that was used, e.g., in J.K. Huysmans's 1903 novel A Rebours. This typeface is more rounded, warmer and stencilized---a real charmer. In the end, the typeface was renamed George A Rebours (2015). Other Auriol revivals include French Light 2 Regular (2014), French Light 4 Regular (2015), French Elongated Bold (2014), French Elongated 4 Bold (2015), George Labeur Corps 10 (2015) and Georges Labeur Corps 8 (2015).
  • Cabotine Sans Asymetrique 2 et 3 Medium (2015), Cabotine en Stress (2014) and Cabotine en Plastoc (2014).
  • Geranium (2015-2017) is Louette's take on Venetians, influenced by typefaces such as Centaur and Hightower Text---it is rounded like liquid drops, subtly curvaceous as if Goudy himself held his pen, yet very Venetian. Not surprisingly, he then set his eyes on a revival of Goudy Village (2016), which led to Village 1903 (2019).
  • In 2018, he designed the Jensonian typeface family Uccello.
  • In 2020, he added a garalde typeface, Gustine, which was inspired by 16th century punchcutter Pierre Haultin's Augustine.
  • Hilfea is a tall text family designed in 2021. It revisits Francesco Griffo's Bembo.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Jacobus Houthusius

Belgian penman who published Exemplaria sive Formulae Scripturae Ornatioris XXXIV. In quis, praeter diuersa Litterarum genera, varij earumdem ductus structurae & connexiones in Antwerp in 1591. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jacques Richez

Jacques Richez (b. Dieppe, France, 1918, d. Brussels, 1994) studied at Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Mons, Belgium. After WW2, he started his own studio in Brussels where he mostly worked in advertising. He designed famous logos such as for Belgian Generale Bank (1965), Iris of Brussels (1991) and Expo 58. He became well-known for his poster and identity work for the 1958 Brussels Expo. In 1973 he was chosen as one of the 40 most original artists in experimental photography by Time-Life in their Photography Annual. Jacques Richez wrote Graphic Art Applied to Communication (1964) and Texts and Pretexts: 25 Years of Reflecting on Graphic Design (1980). In 1967 he became vice-president of Icograda and from 1972-76 of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale), where he preached ethics and professional integrity.

In 1996, Johnny Bekaert designed the Bruxell typeface, which is modeled after a typeface reated by Jacques Richez, ca. 1957, for the Brussels World Exhibition of 1958. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jacques-François Rosart

Belgian punchcutter and typefounder (b. Namur, 1714, d. Brussels, 1777). His early life was spent in Namur, Belgium. In 1740, he started out in Haarlem as a punchcutter, and published twelve type specimens in 1741, as well as 14 ornaments. From 1746 until 1752, he cut another thirteen different alphabets. In 1749, he cut several sets of musical characters. He had a contract with Enschedé, where he made the gorgeous shaded capital typeface Rosart in 1759, aka Enschedé no. 811. He moved back to Brussels in 1759 where he ran his own foundry. He published books with specimens in 1752, 1761 and 1768.

F. Baudin and N. Hoeflake published the facsimile The Type Specimen of J.F. Rosart, Brussels, 1768 (Amsterdam, London, New York, 1973). The original book by Rosart, Epreuve des caractères, qui se gravent et fondent dans la nouvelle fonderie de Jacques François Rosart has been scanned in. Download his 1761 specimen book. Download his 1768 specimen book. Local downlload of his 1768 book.

Metal typefaces influenced by Rosart include a couple of typefaces by Douglas C. McMurtrie, McMurtrie Title (1922) and Vanity Fair Capitals (1923), and Stuyvesant (1942-1947) by W.A. Dwiggins.

Mac McGrew: Stuyvesant and Stuyvesant Italic were designed in 1942-47 by William A. Dwiggins, inspired by a quaint Dutch type cut by J. F. Rosart about 1750, and used in 1949 in The Shelby Letters, from the California Mines, 1851-1852, published by Alfred Knopf. An entirely different Stuyvesant, a novelty design, was made by Keystone before 1906, perhaps before 1900.

Mac McGrew: McMurtrie Title is a font of highlighted roman capitals, based on a typeface created by the eighteenth-century Dutch founder, J. F. Rosart. The source of the first line of the specimen, a major typographer, shows no characters except the alphabet and three points. But the cases of a prominent printer include the points and figures shown on the second line. Although the letters seem to be identical, each size is on the next larger body compared to the first showing (thus the second specimen line is on 30-point body). The second line seems to be a little less compatible with the capitals, and perhaps was substituted from another source. Compare Caslon Shaded, Cameo.

Mac McGrew: Vanity Fair Capitals were adapted by Douglas C. McMurtrie in 1923, from a type of J. F. Rosart, an eighteenth-century Dutch typefounder, and were privately cast for distribution by Continental Typefounders Association. They are a set of shaded italic capitals, with tendril designs used as serifs and breaking the main stems. John S. Carroll, then operating a private type foundry in Miami Beach, cut much the same typeface in 1964-65; the specimens here show both cuttings. Carroll's cutting is closer to the original, and true to the Dutch originals, smaller sizes are simpler, lacking the mid-stem ornamentation.

List of digital typefaces based on Rosart's work:

  • The 2-line great primer letters of Enschedé no. 811 were digitized by ARTypes in 2007 as Rosart811.
  • In 2012, the Enschedé no. 811, which was made for the Enschedé Printing House, was revived at Cyreal / Google Web Fonts by Alexei Vanyashin and Manvel Shmavonyan.
  • In 2002, four students at ENSAD in Paris co-designed Rosart.
  • Rosart (1995) by Roger White.
  • Rosart (1991, Alfac, Thierry Gouttenègre).
  • DTL Rosart by Antoon de Vylder at Dutch Type Library.
  • Rosart Initials (2010, Dick Pape).
  • Rococo Titling (2001): ornate titling caps by Lars Bergquist.
  • Reiher Headline (2018, Ramiro Espinoza) contains a set of ornaments that are based on Rosart.
  • In 2017-2018, Michel Paré, as a Dutch participant in the Expert Type program at the Plantin Institute in Antwerp, designed a font with most of Rosart's ornaments, and Rosart's floriated initial caps.
  • Yulia Gonina, a Graphic designer in Saint Petersburg, Russia, published a thesis entitled Jacques-François Rosart Revival (2018) that documents not only Rosart's life but also some of her revivals of Rosart's typefaces. Hers are called Rosart Text and Display and include italics.
  • Rosart (2011, Camelot Typefaces), by Katharina Köhler.

Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jan Brito

Jan Brito (Jean le Breton) was born around 1415 in Pipriac (Brittany) and moved at a young age to Bruges, the Venice of the North and cultural capital of Europe at the time. There he lived his life and printed in French and Flemish. His publications included the poems of Jacob Van Maerlant. In the 19th century, M. Gilliodts published a thesis that would put Brito's first mobile metal characters around 1445, about ten years ahead of Gutenberg, but that thesis was refuted later on, and the date was changed to 1464. The first printer is probably Johannes Genfleisch (aka Gutenberg) in Mainz, but the Dutch claim it is Laurent Coster from Haarlem. Work by Brito can be found in Kortrijk, Brugge, Edinburgh and the national library of France. Brito, also called the Gutenberg breton, died in Bruges in 1484.

There is a Musée Jan Brito in Pipriac. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jan van den Velde

Or Jan van de Velde the Elder. Famous Dutch (Belgian?) calligrapher and penman (b. 1568, Antwerp, d. 1623, Haarlem) who worked first in Rotterdam (1592-1620) and then in Haarlem (1620-1623). Author of the writing manual Spieghel der Schriftkonste in den welcken ghesien worden veelderhande Gheschriften met hare Fondementen ende onderrichtinghe. Ut ghegeven door Jan van den Velde Fransoysch-School M. binnen Rotterdam (1605, Haarlem). He wrote a second penmanship book, Exemplaer-Boec Inhoudende alderhande Geschriften zeer bequaem ende dienstelijck voor de Joncheydt onde' alien Liefhebbers der Pennen (1607, Haarlem).

Samples of his engravings: Duytsche Exemplaren (1622). Sample of his calligraphy on paper, done in Antwerpen in 1622. [Large image at the University of Amsterdam Special Collections].

His work is extended---modernized---in the extensive ligature-laden Jan van den Velde Script type family by Intellecta Design (2011) and in DTL VandenVelde (2015, Jeroen Koning). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jan van \der Linden

Program director of the type expert program at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Belgium. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jasper Joris

During his graphic design studies at Sint Lucasin Antwerpen, Belgium, Jasper Jors created an untitled experimental monogram typeface (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jawher Matmati

Creator of high quality music typefaces. Belgium-based designer of the one-weight Roman Ionic (2017) who explains: Roman Ionic is a unique revival of a typeface that was once popular and used in many late 19th century and early 20th century music publishing houses, such as Durand et fils. It displays a happy marriage between the beautiful features of the Clarendon type and the legibility of the Scotch roman class and is thus aimed to work for titling and body text.

Other music typefaces by Jawher Matmati: HP Diagram (Jawher Matmati: a font for harp pedal diagrams). His fonts can be bought at Abraham Lee's Music Type Foundry. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jaxkes Creations

Belgian and/or British creator of the free condensed headline sans typeface Soundgarnden Badmotorfont (2014) and the slab serif typeface Carrera Jones (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jérôme Clinquart

Liège, Belgium-based designer of a nice decorative poster illustrating the letter R (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jean Baptist De Panne
[De Passe&Menne]

[More]  ⦿

Jean-Louis de Boubers

One of the two main typefounders in Brussels in the late 18th century. Fernand Baudin and Netty Hoeflake write in "The Type Specimen of J.F. Rosart": "This descendant of a family of printers at Lille, after a setback in 1766, had obtained, in 1768, an exemption and the permission to set up a type foundry in Brussels. In Hellinga, we find in 1776 the address 'Au bas de la rue de la Magdelaine', and in 1177 'Rue de l' Assaut, pres de Ste Gudule'. In the foreword to his Specimen Book of 1776 De Boubers summarizes the types cut by Gillé, in Paris, and by Matthias Rosart against the numbers of the examples. In the Specimen Book of 1777 the names of the punch-cutters are printed at the bot- tom of the showings. De Boubers further informs us that he had punches cut 'exactly the same' as Baskerville's. In 1779 he issued another specimen book, some time later followed by a Premier supplement, and by a second supplement in 1781. One may read in an advertisement in the Gazette de Liège dated 19 September 1781: 'J. L. DE BOUBERS, Printer-Bookseller and Typefounder at Brussels, has just issued to the public the second supplement to his Foundry Catalogue, containing all known types, such as French, Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, music, fleurons, and in general all that concern this line of business. He also casts Tarot for playing-cards. He is not afraid to claim that his foundry is one of the finest and largest in Europe', etc. J. L. de Boubers was very different from J. F. Rosart. He was a businessman on a grand scale. In a very short while he compelled recognition as printer and publisher as well as founder and paper-maker. He also enjoyed the favour of the government (see: A. Vincent, op. cit., P.I9). One should not fail to recall here that he printed the handsomest edition known of the works of J.- J. Rousseau and that he had it illustrated by Moreau Le Jeune. He, too, expected to become the greatest typefounder in Europe."

He died in 1804, and his widow carried on until 1821.

His work can be seen in Épreuves des caractères de la fonderie de J.L. de Boubers (1779, Bruxelles), Premier supplément aux Épreuves des caractères de la fonderie de J.L. de Boubers à Bruxelles (1779) and Épreuves des caractères de la fonderie de J.L. de Boubers (1777, Bruxelles). In the foreword of the last book, he brags about the material strength of his metal typefaces, which are "as strong as those used in Holland and Frankfurt, stronger than those in France". He continues: "jaloux de rendre ma Fonderie la plus belle de l'Europe, j'ai associé à mes travaux les plus célèbres artistes ...". Some of the type shown is by M. Rosart, fils, and Gillé. Local download of his 1779 specimen book. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jean-Michel Verbeeck

Jean-Michel Verbeeck (Konstruktiv, Mol, Belgium) made the experimental font Konstruktiv (2010) which he says can be downloaded here (but I could not find it). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jean-Pierre Lacroux

Jean-Pierre Lacroux (1947-2002) had a wonderfully informative site with tons of useful links, many to French sources, and many concerned weith orthotypography. Subpages: Bibliography on pens, paper and writing. Bibliography on ancient and modern typography. Sadly, on November 12, 2002, Lacroux passed away. His pages remain on the web, a testimony to the many hearts he touched with his kindness. A tribute entitled Typographique tombeau de Jean-Pierre Lacroux (148 pages, 2003, PDF file) was published under the editorship of Thierry Bouche and Éric Angelini. Look for Lacroux's principle: the minimal typographic quality of a text is inversely proportional to its literary value. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jeep Vermeulen

Brussels-based designer. He created a custom font for a perfume shop called La Galerie (2013). Bebat (2013) is a modular custom font. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jeffrey Bellaert

Graphic designer in Gent, Belgium, who created an untitled counterless typeface in 2014. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jelle van Garderen

Jelle van Garderen (Bilzen, Belgium) created Jelle (2012, experimental typeface). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jens Wijnendaele

Graphic design student at KASK, Gent, Belgium. At FontStruct, he created the modular typeface DIF86 (2010). He also did a hilarious type drawing for his school called Aztec robot God of fertility Gill Sans (2010). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jeroen and Daisy's website

680+ archive of truetype fonts collected by Jeroen Toelen. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jirs Huygen

Codesigner (in Antwerp, Belgium) with Joke Gossé of Bakelandt (2014). This comic book typeface family with four sets of glyphs was custom-designed for comic book artist Hec Leemans based on the artist's handwriting. Bakelandt is the name of the Flemish comic book series. Huygen also made the rounded sans typeface Cosmonaut (2014), the pixel typeface Scrntype (2014) and the squarish typeface Profunda (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jo de Baerdemaeker
[Studio Type (or: Typojo)]

[More]  ⦿

Joachim Roussel

Belgian designer in Schaerbeek (b. 1970) who created the beautiful brush / charcoal typeface Holmes Titling (2010).

Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joern Oelsner

Jörn Oelsner (b. 1981, Flensburg, Germany) is a German type and graphic designer based first in Antwerp, Belgium, and later in Vegby, Sweden, and Ulricehamn, Sweden. He graduated at the Design Factory International in Hamburg, Germany. While studying he worked for URW++, Hamburg. After graduation he worked in several graphic design studios in Europe. His own design studio is OE Design. He mainly develops corporate typefaces, and now lives in Ulricehamn / Gothenburg, Sweden.

Some of his projects are the corporate typeface of Sport 2000 (in cooperation with URW++, Hamburg), the corporate typeface of the Andorra Telecom SOM and the corporate typeface of the National Television and Radio Spain RTVE (both in cooperation with Summa, Barcelona).

His type designs at URW++ include Ruca (2010, blackletter), Neustadt (2010, URW++: a legible elliptical monoline sans family, which was originally designed as a corporate font for Sport 2000), Stina (2012, a stitch font done for profonts), Ribera (2012, a contemporary sans) and Bloket Pro (2013: a piano key typeface).

In 2014, he created the layered typeface family Graphique Pro Next (Profonts), which is a revival and extension of the famous Graphique Pro designed in 1945 by Hermann Eidenbenz.

His main contribution in 2015 is the 20-style URW Geometric typeface family, which is modeled after the German geometric typefaces from the 1920s. In 2016, he added URW Geometric Condensed and URW Geometric Extended to that family.

Typefaces from 2018: URW Dock (a contemporary geometric type family inspired by the square sans typefaces of the 60s, and in particular Eurostile), URW Dock Condensed. In 2020, 20 Extended styles were added to URW Dock.

Typefaces from 2020: Cerco (a 12-style warm rounded geometric sans).

Typefaces from 2021: Cromlin (a stylish sans typeface at FontPeople). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Joffrey Martin

Brussels-based desiger of Constructivo (2017). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Johan Giraud

Brussels, Belgium-based designer of the backslanted typeface Thirty Degrees (2016). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Johann Theodor de Bry

Belgian-German copper engraver (b. Liège, 1561, d. 1623), who worked most of his life in Frankfurt am Main. His vast oeuvre includes a human figure alphabet [see also here], which appeared in his book Alphabeta et characteres, iam inde a creato mundo ad nos- tra usq. tempora; apud omnes omnino nationes usurpati; ex variis autoribus accurate depromptj. artificiose et eleganter in aere efficti et recens foras dati (1596), and shows many influences of similar alphabets of Peter Flötner in Germany. The alphabet plates in the book include representations of Chaldaean, Syriac, Hebrew, Coptic, Arabic, Samaritan, Greek, Illyrian, Croatian, Armenian, and Roman, among others, many of these in several different varieties, as well as national varieties of lettering styles (German, Flemish, French, etc).

In 1595, he published a thick Alphabetbuch, in which we find elaborately ornamented caps. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Johnny Bekaert

Freelance graphic artist in Gent, Belgium, who won many awards for his design of posters and poster typefaces. He specializes in book cover, poster and cartoon types, and excels in all. Many of his fonts have a Kafkaesque slightly threatening look, while others are satirical and delightfully funny. His magnificent posters showcase the Belgian humor that is undoubtedly inherited from growing up during the golden era of Belgian cartoon and comic strip design that included Tintin / Kuifje, Lucky Luke and Robbedoes / Spirou.

Author of Font Design (2018, Huis van het Beeld, Brussels).

Johnny Bekaert designed these fonts: Oneline (1971), Urbas (1976), Scrittostyle (1985), Fridabrush (1986), Plowboys (1988), Hibblesibble (1990, deco style), Xorkaz (1991), Thingydingy (1992), Bruxell (1996, a redesign of a font by Jacques Richez, 1957), Zuzulma (1997, angular and expressionist), Razor Dina (1998, dada style), Cakewalk (1999), Theo & Phil (2000), Gasbangers (2002), Blind Liddy (2003), Archie Teck (2003), Fridadida (2005), Bettsie-X (2008), Tweedledum (2010), Roswellian (2013, a UFO font), Struktura (2013-2014), Blacknoir (2014), Blackblanc (2014), Enozeno (2015, a compass-and-ruler typeface), Kublar (2015), Zapristie (2014-2015), Delphis (1993), Quodic (2015), Oscura (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joke de Winter
[Spilling Type]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Joke Gossé

Born in 1984, Joke Gossé is Professor at Sint Lucas Antwerp and KDG Hogeschool, and is a graduate of type design at Reading, 2007-2008. She has her own type blog, and lives in Antwerp. Her typefaces:

  • For her Masters at Reading, she created Melville (2008), a contemporary book and poetry typeface for Latin and Cyrillic, which models the oblique axis structure of oldstyle typefaces.
  • Nostalgia (2009-2010) was intended for the cover of a book on glorious past of restaurants and hotels at the Belgian coast. It is an art deco all caps typeface based on stone inscriptions done by an architect in 1939 on a house in Knokke on the Belgian coast.
  • Codesigner with Jirs Huygen of Bakelandt (2014). This comic book typeface family with four sets of glyphs was custom-designed for comic book artist Hec Leemans based on the artist's handwriting. Bakelandt is the name of the Flemish comic book series.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Jolien Brands

During her studies at Sint Lucas in Antwerpen, Belgium, Jolien Brands designed a geometric display typeface called Fragmental (2013) and the figurines typeface Wrestling (2012), possibly called La Lutte.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jolien Van Puyvelde

During her studies in Ghent, Belgium, Jolien Van Puyvelde created the foliate typeface Botanical (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joos Lambrecht

One of the first Belgian printers and typefounders, who lived and operated in Gent, Belgium, in the early 16th century. Born in Gent in 1491, he died in Wezel (Wesel) in Germany in 1556 or 1557. Peter Van Lancker describes his contributions. In 1539, he introduced the roman letter form in Gent, and even proposed an upright italic (IT 16 in Vervliet, It57 in Machiels, according to Van Lancker) in the publication Refereynen int Vroede, int Zotte, int Amoureuze. To read about Lambrecht, besides the plentiful of information on Van Lancker's page, one can also consult the thick opus by Dr. Hendrik D.L. Vervliet, Sixtienth-Century Printing Types of the Low Countries, Menno Hertzberger&Co, Amsterdam 1968, who wrote: Son of Jan Lambrecht, he came, it would seem, from a family long established in the town, engravers of seals and of marks for authenticating the renowed Ghentish cloth. Certainly Joos was successor to Vincent Lambrecht who performed this office from 1512 until 1537-1538. During the nearly 20-year period (1536-1553) of his activity at Ghent Joos Lambrecht proved to be a many-sided man typical of the Renaissance, poet, schoolmaster, seal-engraver, printer and punchcutter. As printer he came to be known for the outstanding quality of his presswork, the best of the Netherlands of his century, Plantin was de tweede helft? nvdr), and for his numerous mint-ordinances with woodcuts of coins that were copied until late in the century, by Jan Ewoutszoon of Amsterdam and others. His capacity of punchcutter is quite firmly established by the colophons in his numerous books, where he calls himself "lettersteker, typoglyphus, tailleur de lettres", by entries in the town's taxation, where he is described from 1540 onwards as "letterstekere", by a contract of 7 April 1548 binding Lambrecht to deliver new founts of type to Cornelius Manillus, printer at Ghent. Moreover, it is known that in 1553 Lambrecht sold his printing-office and type foundry to Pieter van den Kere, the father of Hendrik van den Keere the elder (and great-grandfather of the famous Dutch map engraver Pieter van de Keere, alias Kaerius), that Ameet Tavernier learned punchcutting from him, and that in 1580 Hendrik van den Keere the younger had several sets of matrices that he described as Lambrecht's. Van Lancker discusses several sources and analyzes Lambrecht's oeuvre. Some types by Lambrecht (not all cut by himself though):

  • T37, "Lambrecht's Pica Textura" (after 1541). Vervliet is not sure this was done by Lambrecht.
  • T48, "Lambrecht's Brevier Textura" (after 1541). Same doubts in Vervliet's mind.
  • T25, "English-bodied French Textura" dates 1499-1500. Used by, but not cut by Lambrecht.
  • R12, "Lambrecht's 2-line Great Primer Lower-Case" was probably cut by Lambrecht in 1546.
  • R23, "Lambrecht's English Roman" (after 1543).
  • R25, "Lambrecht's Pica Roman" (after 1536).
  • R30, "Lambrecht's Roman Capitals on Bourgeois" (1545).
  • IT16, Lambrecht's Bourgeois Italic (after 1536). Vervliet: Lambrecht was the only printer to use this small Italic, which for its time is not without merit, and he did so from the beginning of his career in 1536. In a book of 1538 a set of narrower capitals occurs as well as the original capitals. In his well-known Refereynen of 1539 Lambrecht used this type for the passage in which he expressed his preference for Roman (and Italic) letters and his objection to the Gothic; but for this passage he used it with Gothic capitals and a few variant lower-case sorts. In the inventory of the remaining stock in Van den Keere's type foundry drawn up by Thomas de Vechter soon after 1581, there is an entry, 'An old Brevier by Joos Lambrecht', probably referring to matrices for this face. One of Lambrecht's italics inspired Laurent Bourcellier in 2009 to create Joos.

Some scans courtesy of Peter Van Lancker who researched Lambrecht's work: Bastaard Mediaan (1548), Grieks Mediaan (1536), Italiek Bourgeois (1536), Italiek Mediaan (1541), Romein Augustijn 91543), Romein Mediaan (1536), Schwabacher Augustijn 91550), Textura Augustijn (1539), Textura Bible (1541), Textura Gros Paragon (1551), Textura Gros Romain (1541), Textura Mediaan (1541), Textura Moyen Canon (1539). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joren Peters

Belgian graphic designer. In 2010, he created the typeface Matches. Joren lives in Bilzen, Belgium. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joris De Raedt

Joris De Raedt is a Belgian conservation photographer, scientific illustrator and graphic artist in Antwerp, Belgium. He created the hand-drawn dragonfly-inspired typeface Libel (2013).

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Joris Dockx

Belgian (?) FontStructor in 2011 of Wine Gums, Chuck Barry (kitchen tile face), Jungen Werther (pixel face), Chicago Shootout, Contagious Basterds, and Kwartel. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jos Dufour

Belgian graphic designer and painter. With Dutch artist and graphic designer Joan Collette, he created the gorgeous ultra-fat art deco display typeface L'Indépendant (ca. 1930). It was done at Etablissements Plantijn, a foundry in Brussels affiliated at the time with Lettergieterij Amsterdam. Specimen at the University of Amsterdam library. The name and the year of release were chosen to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the independence of Belgium (from the Netherlands). It was made into a font by Monotype in 1999. Implementations of Independant include Independant (free; by Phynette and Apostrophe), Dujour (by Steve Matteson), Sid The Kid NF (free; by Nick Curtis), Collette (2007, by Anton Scholtz), Dufour (2011, Anton Scholtz; +Condensed, +Outline), Condensed Outline, and Jumbo Mumbo NF (2006, Nick Curtis).

Klingspor link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Josse Pyl

Graphic design student at KASK Ghent, Belgium, b. 1991. Sinaai, Belgium-based designer of Permeke Bold (2013, a great wedge serif text typeface), Ensor Book (2013, sans), and Wasco Book (2013, a sans done with Stef Michelet and Timo Bonneure). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jozef Peeters

Jozef Peeters (b. Antwerp, Belgium, 1895, d. 1960) was a Belgian painter, engraver and modernist graphic artist. In 1918 he met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who convinced him to join the futurist movement. With Edmond Van Dooren and Jan Cockx, Jozef Peeters established the Modern Art group in September 1918. The group was able to establish international contacts with the "Der Sturm" Gallery in Germany. It also organized three art congresses with exhibitions. In 1920, Jozef Peeters presented his first abstract painting. With Karel Maes, he is considered one of the first Belgian abstract painters. In 1921, he published his first album with six linocuts. In April 1925, Jozef Peeters created "De Driehoek", a magazine that was into constructivist art.

Digital typefaces based on his work:

  • A postcard handlettered by Peeters in 1923 led to the constructivist typeface Comrade (1998) by Jim Parkinson for Font Bureau.
  • STF Portfolio Peeters (Ron Ruedisueli (Sed4 Type Foundry), 2018). Based on the folder art for his 1921 linocut portofolio.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Jules Didot

Fourth generation Didot dynasty member in Paris, 1794-1871. Son of Pierre Didot. Jules Didot is famous for his invention of round-edged initials, to take the place of the sharp-edged ones. In 1817, he took over his father's foundry and ran it until 1825. In 1824, he published two identical books, Livre pour un petit garçon bien sage and Livre pour une petite fille bien sage (both printed by Nepveu, Paris), to help children read. In 1825 he took his printing plant to Brussels and founded the Royal Printing House there. Relevant here is the publication Specimen des caractères de la fonderie normale à Bruxelles, provenant de la fonderie de Jules Didot et de son père Pierre Didot (Haarlem: Joh. Enschedé en Zonen, 1914).

After a few years in Brussels, he returned to Paris and published many books and engraved several typefaces, which were shown in Spécimen de la nouvelle fonderie de Jules Didot l'ainé (1842, imp. Bethune et Plon, Paris).

Jules Didot had a neurological disease that forced him tto spend the latter part of his life in a psychiatric hospital. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jules Didot
[Fonderie Normale]

[More]  ⦿

Julie Vandebosch

Belgian of a very experimental minimal typeface called Modular (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Julien Adam

Belgian designer (b. 1978) of Lazy Sunday (2007, octagonal, mechanical) and SNC Bishop (2007, grunge). Dafont link. Goes under the alias Magic Chicon. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Julien Lepoivre

Mons, Belgium-based graphic designer who created an unnamed monoline octagonal typeface in 2013.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kaan Eke

French-Turkish graphic designer. During his studies at CAD in Brussels, Kaan Eke created the experimental geometric typeface The Grid (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kaen Graphics
[Tahar Azzaoui]

Kaen Graphics is a French studio based in Lille and/or Brussels. He also opertates as Benelux Graphic Designer. They created the experimental typeface Paintedfonts (2012) and the outlined WeWork (2008). Trustin (2012) is a display typeface created for Advertising Brands Magazine.

In 2014, Kaen Graphics published Wiggle Font (2014).

Behance link. Cargocollective link.

Run by Tahar Azzaoui (b. 1968). [Google] [More]  ⦿

KalliCulator Automatic Calligraphy
[Frederik Berlaen]

Software tool for calligraphy developed in 2007 by Frederik Berlaen (Belgium) as his final project at the TypeMedia program of KABK. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kalligarfie 't Veertje
[Godelief Tielens]

Fantastic Belgian site on the history, teaching and understanfing of calligraphy. Run by Godelief Tielens in Halen. Three subpages worth visiting include Humanist Cursive, Anglaise/Copperplate, and Uncial. The pages are in Flemish. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Karel van der Waarde

Karel van der Waarde studied graphic design in the Netherlands and the UK. In 1995, he started a design research consultancy in Belgium specializing in the testing of pharmaceutical information design. This company develops patient information leaflets, instructions, forms, protocols, and the information architecture for websites. Karel van der Waarde publishes and lectures about visual information. At that time, he was based in Elewijt, Belgium, and edited Information Design Journal. Old URL.

Currently, he teaches (part time) at the Basel School of Design (FHNW, Switzerland). Since 2017 he is professor Visual Communication at Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Karen Devroe

During her studies, Antwerpen, Belgium-based Karen Devroe created the sans typeface Magirus (2015) which was inspired by Conrad Dietrich Magirus, the inventor of the Ulmer Ladder. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Karolien Pauly

Typographer and (hilarious) illustrator in Riemst, Belgium. She made Triangle Font (2011), Gradient Font (2011) and Circle Font (2011). Later in 2011, she made an untitled multiline display face.

Typefaces from 2012: Hurumufu (paperclip face).

In 2013, she made the monoline rounded geometric typeface Ziuxoa.

Home page. Behance link. Hellofont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kat DC

Belgian designer of Katz (2005, handwriting), Katz (same name) (2005, handwriting), GewoonFont (2005), Krobb (2005, handwriting), and Love Font (2005, handwriting). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Katia André Dumont

Brussels-based designer of an untitled display typeface in 2014. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Katleen Vander Waeren

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, who lives in Tielt. Creator of Part. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Katrien Impens

FontStructor who made a series of fonts in 2010 simply numbered in Flemish, Een, Twee, Drie, Vier, Vijf (horizontal stripes), Zes (a typeface for plumbers?), Zeven, Acht (fat, slightly rounded), Negen. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Katrien Van de Vyver

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed Maddic. Katrien lives in Borgerhout. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kelly Verstraeten

Designer in Gent, Belgium, who created the typeface Constru (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kenneth Vanoverbeke

During his studies, Heppen, Belgium-based Kenneth Vanoverbeke designed the deco typeface Basylisk (2018) and the medieval typeface Sanguine (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kevin Frouin

During his design studies in Liège, Belgium, in 2013, Kevin Frouin created a modular typeface. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kevin L

During his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine-Arts of Brussels, Kevin L designed the experimental typeface Zwanze (2018), which is named after the favorite pastime of the people of Brussels. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kim Matthé

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where he designed the experimental font mbrace (letters made from pieces of braces), and Dr. Style. Kim lives in Rijkevorsel. The Typolis is a virtual project of his while he was a student. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kim Torfs

Antwerpen, Belgium-based designer of Doublet (2015) and Mix and Match Alphabet (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kix
[Christoph Windmueller]

German designer in Recklinghausen, Germany of First Strike (2008, FontStruct) and First Strike Spaced, a grid-overlay of First Strike. Other FontStruct fonts from 2008: Aria Penci Roman (sketched font), Canned Heat (dingbats), Guttermouth (slab serif), Guttermouth Spaced (dashed version), Guttermouth Bold, Bloc Party Outline Shadowed, BabyBaby (toy blocks), Possibly Winged Polepieces, Skylines, Canned Heat, Simplicity, Stadium, Brussels (inspired by the Atomium), Cardboarder (nice 3d face), Crazytown (a Western font, an hommage to Maurice de Bevere, creator of Lucky Luke, 1923-2001), Itallica, Orica*cut, Orica, Pavement, Moduli, Tinka, Tinka Filled, Moduli, Loreylane, FS United One, (gorgeous sketched letters), babybaby, bellevue, bloc-party-outline-shaded, brussels-contourized, elceedee, eurofiction, horrorhouse, plenum, scratch-me-if-you-can, simplicity, skylines, sophia---superlight (hairline), stadium, werkshalle (Ferrari lettering font?), schachmatt (stitching font).

In 2009, he added Terence Kill (blackletter), Cellophone, Amanerd (texture face), Drenama, Poster Classic, Midnight Diner, Sunburst, Signo, Multiverse (Basic, Striped, Alaska, Couch), Pointless Task, Broadway (dotted outline), Mostly, Terence Kill (blackletter), Pole Position (dot matrix), Antares 37 (Startrek font), Figure Collection Part 1 (dingbats), and College Pornmag.

In 2010, he made Motown Motel, Olympic Spirit (dot matrix outlined), Cyclobe Pro (octagonal), Gappy, Burtonesque.

In 2011, he FontStructed the gorgeous typeface Vuvuzela, Dance (dancing men), and Zapotek (elliptical face), Asgardian, Legendary (eleven movie stars).

In 2012, he created CMND (outline face) and Equinoxe.

In 2013, Christoph made the crayon font Grungarian and Histamic.

Typefaces from 2014: FS Dark Shogun, FS Galaxy Epsilon (3d font), FS Tigerwood (striped font), FS Orica Stencil, FS Moduli, FS Underworld (blackletter), FS Pointless Task (dot matrix font), FS Horrorhouse, FS Werkshalle (one of my favorite fonts in this collection), FS Brussels (connect-the-dots typeface inspired by the Atomium), FS Skylines, FS Signo, FGS Orica, FS Plenum, FSAntares37, FS Old Brewhouse, FS Commander.

Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kong Le Foudeur

Liège, Belgium-based creator of the perturbed hipster typeface ADLT (2014). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp has a graphic design program in which typography, book design and type design are taught. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kristina Drozdovskaya

During her studies in Antwerpen, Belgium, Kristina Drozdovskaya created the ornamental typeface family Candy (2015). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kristof Decloedt

Zedelgem, Belgium-based designer (b. 1984) of the hand-printed typefaces Geschrift (2012) and Pleej (2012).

Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kristof Van Proeyen
[Punch]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Kristoffel Boudens

Broken link. Kristoffel Boudens is the youngest of five children of Belgium's most famous calligrapher, Jef Boudens. Two of his siblings are calligraphers and two are lettercarvers. He studied fine arts and painting in Ghent and the writings of American painter Ad Reinhardt kept his thoughts busy for seven years. In the meantime he decided to "earn an honest living." He followed in his brother Pieter's footsteps and became fascinated by designing and carving letters by hand. After an apprenticeship with Pieter, Kristoffel studied with Gaynor Goffe&Tom Perkins and was influenced by the French lettercarver Jean Claude Lamborot. Since 1989, he has been running his own workshop, first in Antwerp, where he also taught lettering at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and now in Bruges. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kristophe Swaans

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, who lives in Turnhout. Creator of Groovy. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kurt Cornelis

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where he designed the curly (octopussy?) experimental font Octopus. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kustomtype
[Coert De Decker]

Kustomtype is Coert De Decker's type foundry in Otegem, Belgium. Coert (b. 1966) created KTF Roadbrush (2014) and KTF Roadstar (2012, a retro connected script).

Coert started his career as an assistant type cutter and stone carver in 1983, and founded the Kustomtype foundry in 2011.

In 2013, he published the frame family Label Pro XL, the stencil typeface family Bomber TV and the stencil typeface Crate Pro. The Far West poster style and circus font styles are recalled in the 19th century wood type revivals Wood Factory, Buffalo Western and Buffalo Circus.

Typefaces from 2014: Atlantic Cruise (avant garde), Copperhead (a titling all-caps typeface influenced by Goudy's Copperplate), Biscuit Pro (monoline sans), Medoc (a didone titling face).

Typefaces from 2015: Starbounder (stencil), Integra Chic, Chic Chalk, Romantico, Annexxus, Beatboy.

Typefaces from 2018: Fontwax (inspired by 1960s sign painting), Luckystrikes (a heavy comic book style typeface that was inspired by 1950-style advertising of these well-known American cigarettes), America Line (based on posters from the 1930s for the Holland-America Line made by Dutch graphic designer Wim ten Broe), New York Line (based on the Holland America Line inscription at Hotel New York in Rotterdam), Comicblast (based on the style of several Belgian comic book artists), Steampunk (a slab serif inspired on sixties hand-lettered French movie poster of Charles Bronson).

Typefaces from 2019: Newbeats (based on a poster of the film A Hard Day's Night starring the Beatles), Burlesk (Regular and Inline; based on the paper cutout letters in a 1950s Bollywood movie poster), Soundboy (a beatnik typeface that pays homage to Elvis Presley: it was drawn by hand from a number of images from Elvis's Blue Hawaii film), Poppin (a beatnik family), Sunbeam (a branding sans), Stonetype (an all caps for stonemasons, by an ex-stonemason), Initials BB (a hand-printed typefaces; BB stands for Brigitte Bardot).

Typefaces from 2020: Doggybag, Strak (a squarish typeface family that celebrates the tight, precise lines in the work of Belgian comic strip artist Eddy Vermeulen), Deaffont (an experimental font specially designed for a music video and album concept by the metal band Deafcon), Mars Model (futuristic, sci-fi). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

L' Imprimerie Paul Daxhelet
[Paul Daxhelet]

Paul Daxhelet's printing shop in Hannut, Belgium. Paul designed the striped currency typeface Ecuyer DAX in 2004. Masonic Tattegrain (2013) are lettrines maçonniques, ornamental caps, based on work by Henri Tattegrain (1874-1944).

Dafont link. Aka Daxad. Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

La Cambre

Located in Brussels, this is the main place in Belgium for studying typography. The teachers are / were Claude Stassart, Clotilde Olyff, Sophie Bertot, Aimé Radermaekers, and Donald Sturbelle. Also called Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels. [Google] [More]  ⦿

La Classe

Developers of Pack Scola, a set of school fonts for use in France and Belgium. [Google] [More]  ⦿

La Fonderie des Frères Delemer (or: Fonderie typographique royale)

Belgian printer and typefounder in Brussels. It published Recueil des divers caractères, signes, fleurons, vignettes et ornemens de la fonderie des frères Delemer, Fonderie typographique Royale (1821). Local download. [Google] [More]  ⦿

La Veuve Decellier

Successor of the foundry of J.-F. Rosart in Bruxelles after his death in 1777. In December 1779, we find Epreuve de la Fonderie de la Veuve Decellier, successeur de Jacques-François Rosart. Troisième édition augmentée. A Bruxelles, rue ditte Vinckt, près du Marché aux Grains., which reproduces all typefaces and fleurons of J.-F. Rosart. Local download. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laetitia Levan

Antwerp-based designer of the flared typeface Victor Horta (2015), in honor of the famous Belgian architect and designer (b. Gent, 1861; d. Brussels, 1947) who put his stamp on the art nouveau architecture that makes the center of Brussels so spectacularly beautiful. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lander De Wandel

Belgian artist, b. 1993. Creator of the pixelish typeface Sticky Bits (2014). Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laura Declercq

Belgian designer in Hong Kong, who created the dot matrix typeface Bulle in 2014. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laura Engels

Bornem, begium-based designer of Keybrix (2016, FontStruct). Behance link. FontStruct link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laura Knoops

Laura Knoops is a French-Belgian designer based in Berlin, Paris and Lille. She created the display typeface I Shot The Courier (2014). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laure Morsaint

During her studies at Saint Luc in Brussels, Laure Morsaint designed the rounded all caps sans poster typeface Midi (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laurens Leurs
[Prepressure]

[More]  ⦿

Laurent

Brussels-based Belgian art student. Creator of the modular font Eko (2005) (no downloads, just a jpg). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laurent Bourcellier

A resident of Aulnay-sous-Bois, he specializes in scientific typefaces. Laurent lives in Scherwiller, France. He is a freelance graphic and type designer who is working at Porchez's foundry in Sèvres. Graduate of Ecole Estienne in 2006, where his thesis was entitled Gothiques et XXe siècle. Création, propagande, détournement. In 2008, he cofounded Typographies.fr with Jonathan Perez in Paris. His typefaces:

  • The Latin italic typeface Joos (2009). Joos won an award at TDC2 2010. It was inspired by an italic created in 1536 by Joos Lambrecht, from Gent, Belgium, who was one of the great printers and punchcutters of the 16th century.
  • Unicopte (for Coptic, 2008). He co-designed Copte Scripte in 2008 with Jonathan Perez. Copte Scripte won an award at TDC2 2009. His thesis at Estienne was about the development of Unicopte.
  • Luciole (2019). he explains about this free monolinear sans family: A typeface for visual impairment. Word massing, spacing, the structure of the letters: the concept for Luciole adheres to a dozen specific design criteria to provide the best possible reading experience for the visually impaired. Particular care has been taken in drawing the figures, mathematical signs, and punctuation. Each style of Luciole contains over seven hundred characters and supports almost all European languages. The character set also includes many Greek and mathematical symbols for scientific notation. Luciole aims to facilitate both optimal readability for visually impaired students and efficient deployment by publishing professionals. For the development, he had help from DIPHE laboratory at the Université Lumière Lyon 2.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Laurent Doucet

Brussels, Belgium-based designer of Eko Regular (2011, a circle-based monoline font).

Abstract Fonts link. Devian Tart link. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laurent Dubois

Spa, Belgium-based designer of two innovative experimental typefaces in 2017. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laurent Lacroix

Belgian graphic designer from Huy. Some of his posters, such as Typographisme Escher and Al Capone, are typographically interesting. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Laurent Verbeke

During his graphic design studies at ERG in Brussels, Laurent Verbeke created Unvoll (2013), a stencil version of Vollkorn by Friedrich Althausen. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Le 75

Belgian site where students display their freely downloadable typefaces. A partial list as of 2020:

  • Acte-Regular. By Sandrine Embreckx.
  • Barlaxent. By Jeremy Tribby.
  • Barlowflow. By Victor Dubien and Andrea Bonetto.
  • Barlow-TypoDesBois. By Sofia Pimentel David.
  • Barlow Elasticc. By Dries Hamels, Olivia Marly and Florjent.
  • Brutuswriter (2019). By Alexandra Lambert.
  • Der75. By Derreto Sonny.
  • Infini. By Andre Ferreira.
  • PantonAMBlack. By Audrey Bukeye and Alice Lejeune.
  • Scolaire New. By Naomi Desmedt.
  • Signale. By Marie.
  • Space-Notorious. By MichaĂ«l Van Wilder.
  • Space-Notorious-Rounded. By Clothilde Mespouille.
  • Squared (+Shadow). By Spenta Parsa.
  • Stairs. By Elodie Goldberg Jacquemain.
  • Super Dot. By Victor Lefebvre de Ladonchamps.
  • SuperNotoriousTordue. By Clementine Remy.
  • Super Notorious. A polygonal typeface by Structure Baton.
  • Supertramp. By By Clothilde Mespouille.
  • Wavy. By Lucas Watteau and Julien Beyls.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Leila Heuse

During her studies, Liège, Belgium-based Leila Heuse designed the surrealist decorative caps Alphabet Illustré (2017) and the textured typeface family Veliquid (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lennart Schoors
[Lensco.be]

[More]  ⦿

Lennert Bourgonjon

Lokeren, Belgium-based designer of the display sans typeface Lebou (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lensco.be
[Lennart Schoors]

Creator of the web icon font Fico (2011). Lensco is Lennart Schoors in Ghent, Belgium. It specializes in fron-end development for web and mobile. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Leonor Cogneau

Brussels, Belgium-based designer of an octagonal modular typeface in 2015. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Letter-kunde
[Patrick Goossens]

Patrick Goossens, a historian of printing technology (Universities of Antwerp and Louvain), is writing a doctoral thesis on the introduction of innovative printing technology in 19th-century Belgium. He acquired the matrix-making equipment of the Dale Guild Type Foundry and completed an extensive collection of print-historical artifacts. He organizes gatherings of punch- and matrix-making practitioners worldwide. Goossens is a board member of the Friends of the Plantin-Moretus Museum and of the Association of European Printing Museums. Speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp: The Benton Engraver, making type today at Project Letter-Kunde. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lilly Toppo

Brussels-based designer of a modular typeface in 2015. [Google] [More]  ⦿

L'Imprimerie de F.J. Bogaert-de-Clercq

Print shop in Gent, Belgium, active ca. 1805, owned by François-Jacques Bogaert who learnt his trade under J. Begyn. In 1802 he acquires the printing material of J.F. Van Schueren and the privilege of the Gazette van Gend. He quits his profession in 1825 and dies in Gend in 1849. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lisa Christiaens

During her graphic design studies in Hasselt, Belgium, Lisa Christiaens designed a monoline display typeface called Le Chien Qui Fume (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lisa Jeannin

Belgian. Organizer of Animalphabet (2007), a typographic project and a collaboration between 26 artists: Steven Harrington (US), Lisa Jeannin (BEL), Jan Kruse, Human Empire (GER), Mike Perry (US), Christopher Davison (US), Andy Rementer (IT), Rui Tenreiro (NO), Stuart White (UK), Maja Sten (SWE), Geoff Mcfetridge (US), Megan Whitmarsh (US), Chris Hopkins (JP), Misaki Kawai (US), Evan B Harris (US), Luke Best (UK), Espen Friberg, Yokoland (NO), Sara Nilsson (SWE), Joseph Hart (US), Nan Na Hvas, Sofie Hannibal (DK), Kristoffer Busch (SWE). Each participant is in charge of one glyph. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Livres Anciens&Belgicana

Rare type books at this Belgian bookstore. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Loemer

Ghent, Belgium-based creator of Mawe (2012), a font used for readability experiments. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Loris Arnoux

As a student at Ecole Supérieur de Saint-Luc Liège, Belgium, Loris arnoux designed a handcrafted typeface (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Louis François Clément

Typefounder in Ixelles, Belgium, active ca. 1838. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Louis Garrido

Brussels-based designer (b. 1991) of the black art deco sans typeface Olula (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Louis Van den Eede

Belgian typographer (b. 1929) and member of the board of directors of the Plantin Genootschap in Antwerp, Belgium. He lives in Hove. The book Louis Van den Eede: een halve eeuw typografie in Vlaanderen (Antwerpen: Mercatorfonds, 1999) by Pierre Delsaerdt and Tonia Dhaese describes his contributions. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Louis-François Clément
[Fonderie Louis-François Clément]

[More]  ⦿

Love Letters
[Sebastien Sanfilippo]

Sebastien Sanfilippo founded Love Letters in Brussels, Belgium, under the motto Single-handedly drawing letters for world peace. He designed these open source typefaces:

  • Polsku Regula (2010).
  • Reglo (2009). Free at OSP and at Open Font Library).
  • Bagnard (2016). A wedge serif typeface inspired by the graffiti of an anonymous prisoner of the Napoleonic wars. The sans serif version, Bagnard Sans (2016), was developed jointly by Sebastien Sanfilippo, Doug Thomas, Chris Fodge and May Kim. Github link.
  • Cotham Sans (2016). A grotesque typeface. Github link.
  • Grotex (2018).
  • Kvetch (2018): Monospace extended is the new reverse contrast. Kvetch is named after the Yiddish word for being a pain in the you know what. Initially started as a bit of a joke, this monospaced and extended typeface combines two unlikely ideas. Brutish but with calligraphic roots, Kvetch is Frankenstein in a ballerina costume. A commercial font family.
  • Agrippa (2019). A playful ultra-fat stencil typeface.
  • Blimey (2019). Intended to become a 2-axis variable font, Blimey is inspired by art nouveau and psychedelia. Variable font version. Future Fonts link.
  • Mint Grotesk (2019) and its sturdy, no-nonsense sans-serif companion, Mint Book (2022).
  • Tatras and Tatras Shaded (2021). These typefaces pay homage to eastern European design and its socialist heritage. The typeface takes its inspiration from the lettering that is emblematic of mid-century design in Hungary, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and the Balkans.

Behance link. Personal home page. Git repository. Future Fonts link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Luc Delincé

Liège, Belgium-based designer of the watercolor brush typeface Oléique Fantaisie (2016) at Saint-Luc Liège. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Luc Van Mingeroet

Belgian graphic designer who made a grotesk logotype called Black Balloon (2011). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Lucas Nijs

Belgian graphic designer (b. 1955) whose typefaces may be bought from 2Rebels in Montreal. His creations include Almost Twelve, a jagged font at any point size. He teaches at the Sint Lucas Hogeschool voor Beeldende Kunsten in Antwerp, Belgium, and at the Plantin Genootschap. At ATypI 2004 in Prague and the ATypI 2005 meeting in Helsinki, he spoke about experimental typeface design workshops. He organized several in Finland (Lahti98, Lahti99, Lahti00, Lahti02, Lahti03, Lahti04), Belgium (ETS00, Outlaws, rawhide, Re:) and Ireland (Dublin), accled . Tens of experimental typefaces resulted from these workshops. A sampling:

  • Lasse A. Kangasmaa (Finland): Feelings (1998).
  • Penttinen Heli (Finland): INFOTEX (1998).
  • Sami Saramäki (Finland): Styrox (1998, letters out of styrofoam).
  • Jussi Karjalainen (Finland): Melba (1998).
  • Janne Harju (Finland): Polis (1998, advertised as the love font).
  • Petteri Tikkanen (Finland): Staples (1998).
  • Sami Kortemäki (Finland): Essence (1999, letters from circles).
  • Kustaa Saksi (Finland): Rubik (1999).
  • Ilmo Mikkola (Finland): Hive (2000).
  • Nils Kajander (Finland): Makkinen was here (2000).
  • Hans Nissen (Finland): Mr Chickendance (2000).
  • Antti (Finland): Water (2000).
  • Tuomi Erkki (Finland): Wallpaper (2000).
  • Teemu Suviala (Finland): Goodiebag (2000).
  • Types done at ETS2000 by Belgian design students David Boon, Marthe Van Dessel, Joke Hautekiet, Veerle Claes, and Leen Ruyters.
  • Bob De Schutter (Belgium): Chainiac (2001, a space invaders typeface), Jellybounce (2003, a font for the blind and the seeing).
  • Nico Potvin (Belgium): Ghetto (2001, a 3d typeface based on things seen from his rooftop).
  • Dennis Schmitz (Belgium): Inbetween (2001).
  • Lindroth Tinka (Finland): artsy type (2001).
  • Salmi Pauli (Finland): Malabar (2001).
  • Karsikas Ilja (Finland): Shadowhand (2001).
  • Matti Riikonen (Finland): Reaper (2001, a font made to kill).
  • Eija Pimiä (Finland): Schema (2001, a shrink's font).
  • Aki Scharin (Finland): TuuKomplex (2001).
  • Frederik De Bleser (Belgium): Archetype (2002), Typolution (2003).
  • Els Broodthaers (Belgium): Re-Venge.
  • Experimental typography by Alexander Ka Cha'Ban, Tom De Smedt, Valerie Seys, Stefan Van Loon, and Ine Beerten, all from Belgium.
  • Tom De Smedt (Belgium): Industrial Type (2003).
  • Gary Gill: Chuck (2003, paint a typeface in letters).
  • Alexander Ka Cha'Ban: Hypnotype (2003).
[Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Lucia Moita Pedras

Graphic designer in Brussels who created the experimental circle-based sans typeface Lettres Imaginaires (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ludivine Loiseau

Born in Besançon, France, in 1983, Ludivine graduated from Ecole Estienne in Paris in 2006 and now lives and works in Brussels as a freelance graphic artist and illustrator for the Speculoos agency. Font creations include the handwritten Alphajet (2005) and the Ethiopian/Latin/Turkish/Hebrew mixed experimental font Kassidy. In 2008, she made NotCourier Sans (Open Font Library, a free typewriter family based on Nimbus Mono; Cyrillic glyphs added by Valek Filippov).

Kernest link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ludivine Schmidt

During her graphic design studies in Brussels, Belgium, Ludivine Schmidt created an experimental multiline typeface (2014). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ludwig M. Souzen
[Garaldes]

[More]  ⦿

Ludwig M. Souzen
[Didones]

[More]  ⦿

Luuse

Luuse, a group of designers based in Brussels who care about methods, processes, tools and documentation. Designer of the Hershey Noailles font family in 2020, which revives the Hershey Fonts, stroke-based fonts created in 1967 by naval scientist Dr. A.V. Hershey.

Gitlab link. Library Stack link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

M. Moullet

Author of 100 Alphabets Publicitaires Dessinés par M. Moullet (1946, Editions Caboni, Bruxelles). Alphabets from that book include Letters in relief, Fancy Character, Ornamental Antique (art deco), Fancy Antique (multiline art deco), Fancy Antique 2 (a different style altogether), Pochoir (stenciled).

Some of Moullet's fonts were digitized by Dick Pape in 2011 and 2012 and can be downloaded here. Pape's fonts: FAA3DLettresEnRelief, FAAAllongees, FAAAllongeesBold, FAAAntiqueAllongee, FAAAntiqueGrasse, FAAAntiques, FAAAntiquesGrasses, FAABaroque3DInitiales, FAABlockLettresEnRelief, FAACameoHollow, FAACaracteresdeFantaisie, FAAChevauchantes, FAACubiques, FAAEcossaises, FAAEcritureGrasseEmoussee, FAAEgyptienneGrasse, FAAEgyptiennesEmoussees, FAAFantaisie, FAAFantaisieBlaireau, FAAFantaisieHardi, FAAFantaisieHaut, FAAFantasio, FAAFloralGothiqueInitiales, FAAFrenchMecane, FAAItalianHeavySlab, FAALettresAuCrayonItalic, FAALiberty, FAANormandes, FAANormandesAllongees, FAAOmbreeEnRelief, FAAOnciale, FAAOrientales, FAAPochoir, FAARomainClassique, FAARomainTypographique, FAScenesPaysannes, FAASerifEgyptienne, FAAVetteFantasieAntieke. Download page.

Jeff Levine revived some of Moullet's typefaces: Silly Behavior (2019), Old Sport JNL (2018), Relaxation JNL (2017), Peppermill JNL (2017), Script Spot Initials JNL (2017), French Lettering JNL (2017), Martial Arts JNL (2017, an oriental simulation font), Relaxation JNL (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maarten Denaeyer

During his graphic design studies in Leuven, Maarten Denaeyer designed the curly display typeface Burles (2013), which combines two themes--ball terminals and quirkyness. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Madeline Dubuisson

During her studies at ESA Liège, Madeline Dubuisson (Namur, Belgium) designed the swimming human figure typeface Alphabet Illustré (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maksim Goffin

Based in Mechelen, Belgium, Maksim Goffin designed the free slab serif typeface Plots (2015). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Manuele Mascheroni
[Oven Foundry]

[More]  ⦿

Marc Borgers

Belgian-born Paris-based designer and painter whose fonts may be bought from 2Rebels in Montreal. Some creations: LeScript, Manosk (1995, irregular hand), Marker, Maria's Font, Napoléon, Vintage Gothic. His work for Swatch. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Marcel Cros

I will take a wild guess and say that Marcel Cros was a Belgian illustrator and/or poster artist. In 1937, he did the lettering of an airline timetable "Sabena 1937 horaires et tarifs du 5 Avril au 9 Octobre" for (now bankrupt, thanks to our Swiss friends) Sabena Airlines. That beautiful poster led Nick Curtis to design his Sabrina Zaftig NF font in 2002. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Marcus Dandy

Brussels, Belgium-based student-designer of SquadBats (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Margo Rulens

Graphic designer in Brussels, who created the paperclip typeface Light in 2018. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Marie de Bourgogne

Aka Maria von Burgund, or Maria duchess of Burgundy. Born in Brussels in 1457, she died tragically in Brugge in 1482 when she fell off her horse, which fell on top of her. Only daughter of the duke Karl of Burgundy. The so called Gothic Alphabet of Marie de Bourgogne is shown in a Dutch manuscript, ca. 1480, that is found in the Louvre (collection Rothschild), and is dedicated to the duchess. On this French calligraphy site, there is speculation that the author of that book/alphabet would not be Nicolas Spierinc (known in the period 1450-1499), a talented Flemisch scribe employed by the house of Burgundy. Spierinc was a student of medicine in 1455 at the University of Leuven. From 1460-1470 onwards, he collaborates often withthe famous illuminator Lieve van Lathem. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Marie Van Belleghem

Designer in Brussels, who created the connect-the-dot font Point DIN (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Marieke Crabbé

Graduate of Sint-Lukas Academy in Brussels in 2011. For her Masters project in 2011, she created Minimal, a type family in which parts of glyphs are omitted without jeopardizing legibility too much.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Marieke Deckers

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the squarish experimental font Construct. Marieke lives in Meerhout. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mårten Thavenius
[Fontcaster]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Mario Beernaert

Belgian designer at FontShop in 1993 of the FUSE font TV27. Born in 1971, he studied at St Lukas in Gent, and works as a freelance designer. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Marion Mottart

During her studies, Wavre, Belgium-based Marion Mottart designed the all caps art deco typeface Mens sans (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mart Van Elzen

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, who lives in Kontich. Creator of If, a very interesting font that might be considered a simulation of Cyrillic. She also made Ana. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Martin Hons

Brussles-based designer of the modular typeface CQFD (2017) for a children's TV chain. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Massimo Berti

During his studies in Hasselt, Belgium, Massimo Berti designed Two For All (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mathias Vandenbempt

Graphic design student in Hasselt, Belgium, who was inspired by a World War I monument when he created the typeface 1948 (2012, Ten Dollar Fonts).

He designed the DIN-like corporate typeface Belgie (2012) for Kunstencentrum Belgie, which is based on Bebas. Diano (2012) is a blackletter typeface. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mathieu Lauwers

During his studies at Sint Lucas in Antwerpen, Belgium, Mathieu Lauwers created a lava lamp trynd a hybrid typeface (combining Adonis and Eagle) in 2015.peface [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mathilde Bureau

Belgian designer of the illustrated alphabet Ombre (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Matt Jackal

Belgian creator of Grunge (2009, Fontcapture). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Matthias De Vylder

Aka Klomer. Zele, Belgium-based designer of the free modular display typeface Barque (2013).

Dafont link. Behance link. His studio is called Pantra Type. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Matthias Rosart

Matthias, or Matthieu, Rosart is the son of J.F. Rosart, who carried on with his father's foundry in Brussels after his death in 1777. Before that, he had a rough relationship with his father, lived for a while in Amsterdam, and even worked for a competing typefounder in Brussels, J.L. de Boubers starting in 1772. In 1789, Matthias Rosart published his specimen book, Epreuve des caractères. There he announces that he can supply all the fonts and fleurons to be found in the catalogue of his father. This seems to indicate [according to Baudin and Hoeflake] that the foundries of de Boubers and J.F. Rosart in Brussels joined. Indeed, in December 1779, we also find an Epreuve de la Fonderie de la Veuve Decellier, successeur de Jacques-François Rosart. Troisième édition augmentée. A Bruxelles, rue ditte Vinckt, près du Marché aux Grains, which reproduces all typefaces and fleurons of J.-F. Rosart. On page 12 of "Blackletter" (Peter Bain and Paul Shaw, 1998), Matthias Rosart is credited with Gros Romain Civilité (1777, Brussels), one of the most readable Fraktur fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Matthieu Regout

Belgian designer in Brussels who is a partner at Club Sandwich, an ensemble of creative independents dedicated to help organisations better understand themselves. His typefaces are all of the display type and are often commissions for agencies and companies. These include, in 2017, Gamatik (a modular 3d typeface), Vroomi (a custom typeface for a karting company, Wik, based in Brussels), Ronbun (a dadaist typeface designed for the visual identity of "Knees to Chin", a restaurant that offers a range of delicious Vietnamese rice paper rolls). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Matthijs Janssens

Graphic designer in Antwerpen, Belgium, who created the display typeface Fat Royal Coockie (sic) (2015). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mattias D'Haene

During his graphic design studies, Ghent Belgium-based Mattias D'Haene created the gothic typeface Orakol (2015, FontStruct) and the display stencil font SPIQ (2015), designed for a fictitous car wash center. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maud Kremer

During her studies in 2017, Verviers, Belgium-based Maud Kremer designed these experimental or hyper-geometric typefaces: Grille Modulaire, Triangula, Alphabet Illustré. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maurice Gilliams

Belgian writer and typographer (b. Antwerpen, 1900, d. Antwerpen, 1982). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Max Brolet

During his studies at Saint-Luc in Liège, Belgium, Max Brolet designed the experimental typefaces Futumaliste (2016), Blocs (2016), Alphabet Pour Les Sourds (2016), and Deep Chocolate (2015). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Max Rooses

Author (1839-1914) of Le musée Plantin-Moretus (1919, G. Lazzarini, Anvers). The images below are all from this wonderfully laid out and researched book. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maxim Segers

Belgian designer of the high contrast typeface Uptight (2011). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maxime Dardenne

Liège, Belgium-based designer of who studied at Saint-Luc in that city. Designer of the decorative typeface Comp (2016), which is inspired by Kandinsky's Composition 8. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maxime De Greve

Ghent (Belgium)-based digital photographer and type designer. His type creations include Cool (2009) and Z (2009): both are ultra-fat and have digestive problems. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maxime Delporte

Brussels-based designer who made some fonts, which include Ressasser (2007, experimental), Typo Training (2007, many hand-printed or hand-drawn types), Bolt (2007, a pixel font family), Culbuto (a pixel face). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maxime Tolbecq

Brussels-based creator of No Way Back (2012, dadaist titling face).

Dafont link. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maybe Kennedy

Liège, Belgium-based designer of the stick figure font Alphabet Illustré (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Meline, Cans & Co

Brussels-based foundry. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Melissa Jans

Belgian art director who created an experimental typeface using only two shapes (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Meredith Roturier

Brussels-based designer of the art deco typeface Bruxelles Bouge (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Merijn Dietvorst

Dutch graphic designer, who graduated in 2008 from the AKV St Joost in Breda, The Netherlands, and is now at the Plantin Genootschap in Antwerp. At St. Joost he wrote an interesting thesis (in Dutch) on type revivals. Alternate URL. An excerpt from his thesis on Garamond revivals: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Michael C. Place

Michael C. Place (founder of Build, a graphic design studio in London, in 2001) who used to represent Designer-Republic, shows this ultra ultra black face designed for the Computerlove International Graphic Design Exhibition, November 2003, Brussels. He created B-HMMND (2008) for the covers of the Faber Finds books (elsewhere the font is attributed to Corey Holms). Creator in 2001 of B-FUQ 01 and B-FUQ 02. Typedia link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Michael Delaet
[Refugeek]

[More]  ⦿

Michaël Mahaux

Graphic designer in Liege, Belgium. He created the ornamental caps typeface Typographie Organique in 2012.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Michel Kern
[Echopraxium]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Michel Paré

Michel Paré studied graphic design and technique at the Art Academie Artibus, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and has worked as a graphic designer and web designer. He attended the Expert Class Type Design at the Plantin Institute of Typography in Antwerp, Belgium. Paré conducted research in the history of typographic ornaments, especially those of J.F. Rosart.

In 2017-2018, Paré digitized 800 of Rosart's typographical ornaments and some of the 18th-century Belgian punchcutter's flourished capitals. The digitized ornaments and an accompanying publication will be published by the Dutch Type Library. Plantin Institute link. Speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp (with Walda Verbaenen). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Michel Welfringer
[AP Fonts]

[More]  ⦿

Michel Welfringer
[Typografix]

[More]  ⦿

Michel-Joseph Vanderborght
[Fonderie Vanderborght]

[More]  ⦿

Mickael Hoebregs

Belgian typographer, type designer, painter, sculptor, graphic designer, teacher, and artist from Berloz, Belgium, who is now based in Liège. He teaches typography and designed several experimental typefaces between 2002 and 2017: Hoebregs Didone, Hoebregs Grotesk, Incise, Azur Classical, DIN Serif, Architype Hoebregs (Alpha, Beta), Architype Gamma, Architype Delta, and Architype Epsilon. He studied at Ecole de Recherche Graphique Belge de Bruxelles, and took courses from Neville Brody and Lucas de Groot in the late nineties. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Microvector

Designer of hundreds of black and white, and color vector icon sets in or about 2020. These include Animal Tracks Icon Set, Arrows Icon Set, Bacteria Germ Icon Set, Belgium Icon Set, Dandelion Icon Set, Diamond Icon Set, Flamingo Icon Set, Funny Monsters Icon Set, Gender Symbols Icon Set, Germs Icon Set, Memphis Graphic Elements, Optical Military Aims Icon Set, Sexual Positions Icon Set, Web Loading IconSet. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Midia Coste

Midia Coste created the painted look typeface Blaxt (2013). She lives in Antwerp, Belgium. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mieke 3000

"Free fonts, 3D-alphabets, animated fonts!" 1st lines, Xlines, MikTik, Warts, Avelgem, Hands, Mikbol." [Google] [More]  ⦿

Milan Pietaerents

Born and raised in Ghent (Belgium), Milan Pietaerents is now based in Bangkok, where he designed the all caps fashion mag titling typeface Drouwel in 2017 under the art directorship of Sumpatheee Jadee. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mimosa Viljanen

Brussels-based designer of an untitled typeface in 2016 and some constructivist posters in 2019. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mirei Sugimachi

During her studies at CAD Brussels, Mirei Sugimachi designed the monoline display typeface Outkast (2017) and the multilined art deco typeface Fitzgerald (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Monobrauw

Monobrauw is a type foundry est. in 2010 by Jorge Páez, a student of graphic design at CEDIM in Monterrey, Mexico. Behance link. He made a typographic phot reportage of Bruges in 2010. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Morgans&Wilcox Mfg Co.
[William T. Morgans]

American wood type manufacturer from the 19th century, set up in 1880 by William T. Morgans and H.K. Wilcox. The latter had taken over Young's shares at Young and Morgans Mfg Co., prompting a company name change. It was located in Middletown, NY. Morgans and Wilcox was absorbed by Hamilton Manufacturing.

On-line 1890 catalog by Robert Lee. On page 22, that 1890 catalog even shows a typeface called Belgian.

Digitizations:

    HWT Geometric (2013, James Grieshaber, Hamilton Wood Type Foundry). This is a squarish wood type family based on a design by Gustave F. Schroeder from 1881, as explained by HWT: Geometric began its life as a metal typeface from the Central Type Foundry, circa 1884. Soon after, this design was officially licensed to Morgans & Wilcox and was shown in their 1890 catalog in Regular, Light and Condensed Light variations. After acquiring Morgans & Wilcox, Hamilton Manufacturing offered Geometric Light Face Condensed as their own No 3020 and the Geometric Light Face as No 3021. HWT Geometric has been expanded digitally to include a Regular Condensed version.
  • Dick Pape designed AWT Morgans Wilcox Doric Cond in 2013.
  • Matt Braun (Wood Type Revival) designed French Octagon (2016) based on a Morgans&Wilcox model.
  • Cosmopolitan (1890s) was revived by Matt Braun in 2016.
  • HWT Tangent (2021, Patrick Griffin at P22) revives a Morgans & Wilcox wood typeface known as Tangent in the Hamilton Manufacturing collection (after Hamilton took over Morgans & Wilcox).
[Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Mr. Eel

Belgian creator (b. 1998) of the free modular typeface Number One (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Muriel Logist

Ixelles, Belgium-based designer and illustrator. She drew several alphabets in 2015. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Museum of Industrial Archeology and Textile (MIAT)

Museum in Ghent, Belgium, dedicated to the industrial revolution, and many of its aspects, including the recent history of printing and typesetting. They have a fine collection of antique presses. In July 2007, Peter Van Lancker, Erik Desmyter, Patrick Goossens, Gilbert Decorte and Jos Pastijn organized a spectacular event, called Fata Morgana, in which over 1000 newspapers were printed of The Bornhemsche Gazet of 1831, in letter types of the era (Monotype Modern Extended, specially founded by Gilbert Decorte for the event) on a Perreau&Brault stop cylinderpress, which, for the occasion, was restored by volunteers at the MIAT. Video of the Perreau&Brault in action. Peter Van Lancker's videos of this event. [Google] [More]  ⦿

MyFonts: Plantin

The main typefaces at MyFonts that are related to Plantin, either Granjon's original (which is still at the Plantin Museum), or the version by Frank Pierpont Hinman for Monotype, done in 1913-1914. Plantin-like typefaces. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Nadia Tweepenninckx

Brussels-based designer of The Fishy Font (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Naomi Desmedt

During a type design workshop in 2016, Brussels-based Naomi Desmedt created the school script typeface Scolaire. She also designed a heavy titling typeface that same year. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Naomi Quartey

Antwerp, Belgium-based designer of the brush typeface Samba (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Natasa Gondry Denic

Graphic designer and typographer in Belgrade and Brussels. She created some counterless experimental typefaces in 2009 such as FullMetalTypo. The experimental (2d and 3d) typeface CF followed in 2010, and the hairline art deco typeface Chaplin in 2013. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Nathan Haaren

Antwerp, Belgium-based designer of the amoebic typeface Yoyo Ma (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Nele Reyniers

Belgian codesigner (with Mark van Wageningen) of Leonora Gagarin and Magda Gagarin (2005). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Nestra's Star Trek Voyager page

StarTrek font archive run by "Nestra" out of Belgium. One font zip file of almost 3MB will help your Startrek font collection. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Nicholas Gando

Or Nicolas Gando. French calligrapher, engraver and type founder, d. ca. 1767. He acquired the types of Claude Lamesle: Épreuves générales des caracteres provenants de la fonderie de Claude Lamesle, lesquels se trouvent présentement dans celle de Nicolas Gando, l'aîné (Paris, Cloître S. Julien le Pauvre, 1758). See also Epreuve des caractères de la fonderie Gando (Paris, Cloistre Saint Julien le Pauvre, imprimerie Jacques Guerin, 1745; local download), Recueil d'ornemens qui comprennent les différentes combinaisons des vignettes de la fonderie de N. Gando (1745; local download), and Epreuves des caractères de la fonderie Gando, père et fils (Paris, Cloître Saint Julien le Pauvre, 1760).

His son is Pierre-François.

He was involved in music typography and wrote an angry response Observations sur le traité historique et critique de M. Fournier (1766) as a reaction to accusations of plagiarism made by Pierre-Simon Fournier in 1765 in Traité historique et critique sur l'origine et les progrès des caractères de fonte pour l'impression de la musique. A 170-page specimen book was published in 1810: Specimen des caractères de la fonderie de N.P. Gando à Paris et de son fils TH. S. Gandon à Bruxelles. [facsimile reprint in 1992 by Lane and Lommen] This shows that his son, Th. S. Gando, had set up shop in Brussels.

Nicolas Gando is often associated with the upright connected script style. Digital versions of his typefaces include Gando Ronde (a formal script by H.J. Hunziker and Matthew Carter in 1970; Linotype), French 111 (at Bitstream) and Gando BT (at Bitstream). Typo Upright / Linoscript is a genetically slightly different family of rondes (compare the k's). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Nico Verhaegen

Nico Verhaegen (Allow Studio, Rotselaar, Belgium) designed the free font Metro Paris (2013) in a Victorian / art nouveau style. In 2014, he proposed Ancienne Belgique for the rebranding of the concert hall by that name in Brussels. In 2015, he designed Relic. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Nicolas Deslé
[Distype]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Nicolas Martin
[Nicolas Martin]

Belgian creator of the free typeface Durselinvenice 2015 (2013). Explanation: Laurent d'Ursel is about to be selected for the Biennale of Venice (2015 edition).

Fontspace link. Open Font Library link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Nicolas Martin
[Nicolas Martin]

[More]  ⦿

Niko Geens

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where he designed the experimental font Grid. Niko lives in Sint-Katelijne-Waver. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ninke Janssens

At the Koninklijke Academie Antwerpen, Ninke Janssens (Sint-Job-in-'t-Goor, Belgium) designed the deco typeface Sax (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

N.J. Brassart

Typefounder in St. Joost ten Noode, Belgium, active ca. 1838. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Omar Chafai

Omar Chafai (b. 1977) graduated in 2009 with an MA in graphic design from KASK (the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Gent, Belgium), with a thesis project entitled De ontwikkeling van het Arabische schrift in relatie tot het Latijns schrift. His graduation project involved the development of the very readable text typeface Nelson. Before that, he designed Duo, a typeface that was influenced by Josef Albers' Kombinationsschrift. Currently he is a freelance graphic designer. [Google] [More]  ⦿

oOlKatlOo

Belgian designer (b. 1992). She created the handwriting font Kat (2006). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Open DIN

A project started by Open source supporters in Belgium (Pierre Huyghebaert, Harrisson, Philip May, Nicolas Maleve and Femke Snelting) and executed by Paulo Silva in Portugal in the form of the free typeface OpenDinSchriftenEngshrift (2009), which is based on the master drawing of DIN for the Prussian Railways.

They state: In the coming year, we will be working on a new digital rendering of the classic DIN font with the aim to release it in the public domain. We chose DIN (often referred to as "the German Autobahn typeface") as a starting point for a few reasons. First of all, because it is one of the rare typefaces that was released into the public domain from the moment it was designed in 1932. While the original drawings remain freely available, various type foundries have copyrighted digital renderings (such as FontShop's FF DIN). Secondly because its particular history brings up many questions about standards, their political implications and relations to use. In 1936 the German Standard Committee decided DIN should be employed in technology, traffic, administration, and business, with the idea to facilitate the development of German engineering and industry. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Open Source Publishing (or: OSP)
[Harrisson]

Free software project based in Belgium and run by four people (and I quote from their web page):

  • Harrisson: Graphic designer and typographer, based in Liege and Brussels. Started to use as much Open Source software as possible on his Macintosh, as part of a research project The Tomorrow Book at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht.
  • Pierre Huyghebaert: Exploring for eighteen years several practices around graphic design, he currently drives his own studio Speculoos. Interested to use free sofware to re-learn to work in others way and collaboratively on cartography, type design, web interface, schematic illustration, teaching and book design.
  • Nicolas Malevé: Systems- and software developer from Brussels with a long interest in the politics and practice of software. Uses Linux since 1998 and makes publishing- and distribution systems for collaborative work.
  • Femke Snelting: Graphic designer and artist based in Brussels. Most of her current work is for the web. Recently switched to Linux after using Apple Macintosh for more than ten years.
Alternate URL. They also describe interesting autotrace software included in Inkscape and UNIX batch tools for good autotracing of images. Designers of free fonts:
  • Alfphabet (2009). Based on the Belgian road signage system in use from 1945 until 1975. It came from Minneapolis to Brussels with 3M.
  • Broodthaers.
  • Cimatics (2009). Totally experimental. This font was designed in July 2009, for the graphic identity of Cimatics A\V Platform. It gathers glyphs from FreeSerif, FreeSerifItalic, DejaVuSans, DejaVuSerif, the OSP_frog mascot, the Cimatics two piece heart, a baronchon_palm_tree from Open Clip Art Library and private use dingbats drawn for Cimatics (Cimatics_scare_eye, white_pentagon).
  • Crickx. A digital reinterpretation of a set of adhesive letters.
  • Distilled Spirit and Whisky Jazz. In September 2009, Harrisson and Jean Baptiste Parre from LPDME remixed URW Gothic (Avant Garde) and published the free fonts Distilled Spirit and Whisky Jazz.
  • DLF. DLF stands for Dingbats Liberation Fest.
  • Libertinage. In August 2008, Harrisson designed 26 variations on Philipp H. Poll's 2006 font Libertine, and called the new family Libertinage. It covers Greek, Latin and Cyrillic.
  • Limousine. This font was made for a poster to support nine people accused of "criminal association for the purposes of terrorist activity". They were arrested the 11th of November 2008, in France. They and others are the victims of a witch-hunt where the word "terrorism" was applied to any idea or practice which challenges the status quo. An international movement is emerging in their support. For the poster, we re-mixed an open font, the Free Sans from Free UCS Outline Fonts. Open Font Library link.
  • Logisoso. Logisoso is a reinterpretation of the Delhaize logo lettering.
  • NotCourierSans. NotCourierSans is a reinterpretation of Nimbus Mono and was designed in Wroclaw at the occasion of Linux Graphics Meeting (LGM 2008). We took Nimbus as the base of the design. We proceeded to remove the serifs with raw cuts. We did not soften the edges. We are not here to be polite.
  • OSP-DIN (2009). The first cut of OSP-DIN was drawn for the festival Cinema du réel.
  • Polsku Regula (2010). Polsku Regula is inspired by polish signage, street signs and shop windows lettering.
  • Reglo (2011) was used for the new identity of Radio Panik.
  • Sans Guilt (2011). The three Sans Guilt fonts have been produced during "Read The Fucking Manual", an OSP workshop at Deparment 21 (Royal College of Art), using Gimp, Fonzie and Fontforge. They are different versions of Gill Sans based on three different sources. Sans Guilt MB: based on a rasterized pdf made with the Monotype Gill Sans delivered with Mac OSX. Sans Guilt DB: Based on early sketches by Eric Gill Sans Guilt LB: Based on lead type from Royal College of Arts letterpress workshop. Open Font Library link.
  • Univers Else (2010-2012). A geometric sans, about which they write: Univers Else is an experiment, a first attempt to escape the post ’80 era of geometrical purity that is so typical of Postscript vector based font drawing. The shapes of Univers Else were obtained from scanning printed textpages that were optically composed by cheap phototypesetting machines in the sixties and seventies. Some of Univers Else beautiful features are: round angles, floating baselines, erratic kerning. More precisely in this case, George Maciunas of the Fluxus group used an IBM composer (probably a Selectric typewriter) for most of his own work, and as a former designer, for all Fluxus work. In the 1988 book Fluxus Codex, kindly given to Pierre Huyghebaert by Sylvie Eyberg, the body text is typeset in a charmingly rounded and dancing Univers that seems to smile playfully at its dry swiss creator. Different scans were assembled by Grégoire Vigneron following different grids. These huge bitmaps were processed with appropriate potrace settings by the Fonzie software* through a .ufo font format as a working format, and an OpenType as output. Some testing and fine-tuning was done by Pierre Marchand, Delphine Platteeuw and Pierre Huyghebaert in FontForge and the font was ready, in a finished state enough to typeset the book. The oblique versions was simply slanted on the fly.
  • VJ12 (2009).
  • W Droge. In 2008, they ran a workshop in Wroclaw, Poland, to design a font in a day with the free tools Inkscape, Gimp and FontForge---called W Droge. It was based on Polish traffic signs. Cooperation with Dave Crossland, Alexandre Prokoudine and Nicolas Spalinger. The designers were Malwina Pukaluk, Marcin Wajda, Anna Bartoszek, Kacper Lenczuk, and Ludivine Loiseau.
  • Le Patin Helvète (2011) is a slab typeface derived from Nimbus L. It covers Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew: Patin Helvete is a attempt to turn the slick propergol purity of the modernist lines back to the coal dirt of the iron horse by going backward in time and space through little pieces of rail. Designed by Harrisson, Ludi Loiseau and Sebastien Sanfilippo.
  • Mill (2012) is an architectural style typeface that has been created for engraving building instructions into the wood of a bench.
  • Sans Guilt Wafer (2012) is described by OSP as follows: Gill Sans eats a Gaufrette.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

OSP

OSP stands for Open Source Publishing (Design Tools for Designers). It is a blog and a news site based in Belgium. OSP is also an open source type foundry. [Google] [More]  ⦿

OSP and Monotype: An open letter

On April 9, 2011, the people at OSP, an open source foundry in Brussels, sent an open letter to Monotype in which they ask for permission to use the digital data of Gill Sans to make a reiniterpretation called Sans Guilt. See also here. It is unclear how Monotype replied. Whatever happened, we find the result for free download at Open Font Library in 2015: Versions of Gill Sans based on three different sources. Sans Guilt MB: Based on a rasterized pdf made with the Monotype Gill Sans delivered with Mac OSX. Sans Guilt DB: Based on early sketches by Eric Gill. Sans Guilt LB: Based on lead type from Royal College of Arts letterpress workshop. [Google] [More]  ⦿

OSP Foundry

Belgian type foundry established in 2006 that tries to promote libre fonts. They explain and motivate their approach nicely:

Here you find all fonts produced by OSP. Some of them are complete typefaces, others works in progress. They are all Libre Fonts, meaning they are released under libre software licenses that allow modification, re-distribution and use.

For us, typography is more than the work of solitary masters passing on their secret trade to devoted pupils, committed as they are to a specialist work overlooked by most common people. This image that is carefully preserved in the closed world of type design, obscures the fact that typography today is lightweight and widespread. It certainly contrasts with the invitation of Free Software to anyone to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve.

Could the production and distribution of Libre Fonts turn this patriarchal system inside out? What if expert and amateur users work together and make improvements to the typefaces they use, what if they share these fixes with others? What if the design of a typeface would benefit from the many eyes of designers working around the world? What if a typeface was not a fixed entity, but a networked set of elements, responding to context and types of use?

At OSP we feel typography is inherently generative, especially since digital files have everything to gain from being copied and re-mixed. We would rather work with their constraints and affordances, than rely on a contradictory business model that invests more in copyright enforcement than in creative development itself. Typographers forge by nature and (sadly often without credit) appropriate the ideas and designs of their colleagues. We prefer to be explicit about the provenance of our glyphs and curves and hope you enjoy the result as much as we do.

The OSP members, also called the caravan include Colm O'Neill, Sarah Magnan, Gijs De Heij, Eric Schrijver, John Haltiwanger, Seb Sanfilipo, Stephanie Vilaphiou, Alexandre Leray, Pierre Marchand, Ludivine Loiseau, Ivan Monroy Lopez, Yi Jiang, Pierre Huyghebaert, Nicolas Maleve, Harrison, and Femke Snelting. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Otis Verhoeve

Otis Verhoeve is a graphic and type designer from Brussels, Belgium. In 2022, he released LD Display at Type Department, an all-round serif font family, especially suitable for longer ranges of text setting. Its design started in 2019 as a revival project for LUCA School of Arts Ghent. It was originally based on Light Dorsey (1910) by Inland Type Foundry and the American Type Founders Company. [Google] [More]  ⦿

OurType
[Fred Smeijers]

OurType was Fred Smeijers' web site and foundry established in 2002 (formally launched in 2004). OurType was set up by four partners: Fred Smeijers, Corina Cotorobai with Rudy Geerarts and Martine Leloup (both of FontShop Benelux). Fred and Corina were the creative lead of OurType foundry, Rudy and Martine were in charge with sales. In 2017 Fred and Corina stopped their collaboration with OurType concentrating on several other projects, including a new type label. Fred and Corina are also co-partners in Type Tailors (established in 2008), offering type design development, publishing, custom type and typographic consultancy. Smeijers's fonts can now be found at Type By.

Smeijers is research fellow at Plantin Museum in Antwerp, and professor of type design at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, and visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. In April 2018, Fred Smeijers and Corina Cotorobai announced that they would be starting a new foundry. Fred Smeijers (b. 1961) studied at the School of Art at Arnhem, and he worked as a typographic advisor to the reprographic company OcĂ©, then became a founding member of the graphic design practice Quadraat, which provided the name for his first published typeface (FontFont, 1992).

He created the following typefaces:

  • The huge (and growing) text family Quadraat (1998-2001). It has as subfamilies FF Quadraat, FF Quadraat Sans and FF Quadraat Sans Mono, and was developed from 1997-1998 as part of the FontFont library.
  • Renard (at Enschedé, after letters by Hendrik van den Keere, 1998; see discussion here).
  • DTL Nobel (with Andrea Fuchs, 1993, at the Dutch Type Library). Not to be confused with the geometric sans family Nobel, also created in 1993, by Tobias Frere-Jones (Font Bureau).
  • Arnhem (1998-2002) and Arnhem Fine, which are historically related to the Romain du roi. These were developed in collaboration with Werkplaats Typografie (Karel Martens and Wigger Bierma)---Andy Crewdson provides an insightful discussion of it. Smeijers: Arnhem was designed in 1999 for the Nederlandse Staatscourant, the daily newspaper of the Dutch state. It can be classified as a very functional design---Arnhem has been conceived for, and does work best in large quantities of running text.
  • Fresco (1998), Fresco Sans, Fresco Condensed, Fresco Informal, Fresco Informal Sans, Fresco Script (+Sans), Fresco Plus, a work horse of a family at OurType.
  • Ludwig (2010), modeled after the 19-th century grotesks.
  • Monitor (2000-2004, a sans family at OurType). Not to be confused with earlier commercial typefaces with the same name, like Henryk Sawanda's Monitor (1975-1980) or BB&S's Monitor No. 5 (1890s).
  • Eva (2010: an informal sans, done with Merel Matzinger at OurType).
  • The sans family Sansa (2005, OurType) was followed by Sansa Slab and Sansa Soft in 2006. Sansa and Arnhem are available from FontShop since 2005.
  • In 2002, OurType created the gorgeous Custodia family for use in publications of the Custodia Foundation. The typeface is called Custodia 17 because it was inspired by 17th century Dutch styles. Peter Gabor and Jonathan Munn claim that Custodia is too close to Monotype Van Dijck. However, OurType explains that this was the intention: Its pleasantly uneven rhythm captures the not-quite-perfect lettershapes of master punchcutters working in Delft, Rotterdam, Amsterdam or Haarlem in the later seventeenth century: Christoffel van Dijck, Dirck Voskens, Johan Michael Smit, Jean Baptiste van Wolschaten.
  • Denda New (2000), a family made specially for Canon. In his book, Type Now, Fred Smeijers says: A contemporary sanserif initiated in 2000 by TBWA\Designers Company for their redesign of Canon Europe packaging. This typeface comes in four weights, in roman and matching italics: for use by Canon Europe in general publicity, manuals, and packaging. It is a custom-made design, not publicly available.
  • Puncho (2012) by Fred Smeijers is based on stencil letter punches made by S.M. Spencer of Boston.
  • Bery Roman (2012): Bery Roman is based on the stencil letters of Jean Gabriel Bery. Bery Roman is part of OurType's Stencil Fonts Series of 2012. Jean Gabriel Bery was a Paris stencil maker whose atelier was located on the Pont Notre-Dame. His work is mainly known from the stencil set he supplied to Benjamin Franklin in 1781, now at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Bery's confident sense of design and the excellent production of his stencils rank him among the best stencil makers of any period. Accompanied by the calligraphic Bery Script (2012).
  • Haultin (2011) is a private, unreleased typeface that is based on renaissance types cut by Pierre Haultin. The second edition of Fred's book Counterpunch is set in it.
  • His custom type designs include bespoke typefaces and lettering for Philips Electronics, Tom-Tom, Samsung, Porsche, and Canon-Europe.

FontShop link.

Author of Counterpunch: Making type in the sixteenth century, designing typefaces now, London, Hyphen Press, 1996 [PDF file] [a second edition followed in 2011], and Type Now: A Manifesto (2003, London, Hyphen Press; reviewed by John Berry).

In February 2001, Smeijers received the (second) Gerrit Noordzij Award 2000 (an initiative of the post-graduate department Type&Media at the Royal Academy in The Hague in cooperation with the Museum Meermanno). In 2016, the Society of Typographic Aficionados awarded Smeijers the SOTA Typography Award.

OurType's offices were in DePinte, Belgium.

Speaker on historical stencil forms at ATypI 2006 in Lisbon. Currently he also is professor of digital media and Dean at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. Speaker at ATypI 2011 in Reykjavik. Speaker at ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam (on Spatial relationships among 16th-century matrices (and what they tell us), a close look at surviving matrices at the Plantin-Moretus Museum) and keynote speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp (on zooming in and zooming out; and old beer, new type). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Oven Foundry
[Manuele Mascheroni]

Manuele Mascheroni is a freelance designer and founder of Oven Foundry, born in 1988 with Italian and Belgian origins. While based in Bologna for his MA degree in Design Management, he designed the German expressionist typeface Weiss (2013) and Explorer (2013: a grotesk).

Earlier, he created the interesting blackboard bold typeface Lione (2010, free at Dafont). Other typefaces include Bitto, Clemens, Meander, Norma, Occupied, Oven, Wildness.

Behance link. Cargo collective link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Patrick Goossens
[Letter-kunde]

[More]  ⦿

Patrick Rijks

During his studies in Antwerp, Patrick Rijks created the condensed sans typeface Baanhoek (2013) and the beautiful geometric sans typeface Le Biot (2013). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Paul Daxhelet
[L' Imprimerie Paul Daxhelet]

[More]  ⦿

Paul Pietquin
[FUNDP: Tablinum]

[More]  ⦿

Paul Vanderstraeten

Aka Polleke, Paul Vanderstraeten (Antwerp, Belgium) created the display typefaces Quaker (2013) and Skeleton (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Pauline Goeders

In 2016, Pauline Goeders (Belgium) designed an experimental alphabet entitled Art Génératif. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Pedro Sorto

Art director in Brussels, who designed GEO type (2013, a geometric experimental typeface). Before Brussels, he worked in various studios in San Salvador and Barcelona.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Père J.-Laurent-M. Perquy

Author of "La typographie à Bruxelles au debut du XXe siècle" (1904, Oscar Schepens, Bruxelles). This book describes the situation of the printing business in Brussels around 1830, and has virtually no information regarding typefounding or type design. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Pepijn De Jonckheere

Brugge, Belgium-based designer of some experimental typefaces such as Spiegel (2019) and Gothic Marker (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Peter van der Borcht

Aka Pieter van der Borcht (the Elder), ca. 1540-1608. Van der Borcht was a Flemish Renaissance painter, draughtsman and etcher. He is regarded as one of the most gifted botanical painters of the 16th century. Born in Mechelen, he worked for Christoffel Plantijn (Christopher Plantin), the famous book publisher and typefounder in Antwerp. He supplied Plantin with the drawings for the engravings for many scientific publications of Plantin such as the works of Rembert Dodoens, Carolus Clusius and Matthias de l'Obel. He illustrated many liturgical books published by Plantin. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Peter Van Lancker

Flemish web log about the history and mechanics of type, run by Belgian graphic designer Peter Van Lancker (b. Ghent). There is a lot of information on the early printing and typefounding by Joos Lambrecht in Gent, ca. 1539.

His Flickr page has many nice shots of old presses (lithography, copperplate, etc.). He is working on this octagonal face and a rhythmic broad nib pen.

In 2012, Peter published a free pixel typefaces Thirtysix and Six.

In 2014, he started work on a gorgeous letterpress style typeface, Ijskelder, which was released in 2020.

Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Peter Vanroose

Peter Vanroose (University of Leuven, Belgium) made a metafont program that produces simulated handwriting. The font is called "Script" (1992). We also learn that he made the copperplate calligraphic typeface Calligra15 (1992, metafont), with modifications by S. Dachian in 1999. In 2011, this font was released in type 1 format at CTAN. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Peter Waegemans

Leuven, Belgium-based designer of an untitled kitchen tile style party font (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Philip Miller

Mechelen, Belgium-based designer of the pixel typeface Abstrux (2016, FontStruct). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Philippe Hulet

Belgian typographer, about to graduate from La Cambre in Brussels. He designed the font Hybride at 2Rebels. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Phui Sin

Koersel, Belgium-based designer of the modular typeface Valo (2015). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Pierre Delmas Bouly
[Ink Magazine]

[More]  ⦿

Pierre François
[Roman Liturgy]

[More]  ⦿

Pierre Huyghebaert

Belgian type designer, font software expert, and defender of the principle of Open Source publishing. He had a hand in many typefaces at OSP Foundry. His work includes

  • Belgika (2014-2015). A great set of sans capital typefaces based on skeletal strokes, also known as stroke fonts. From heavy to hairline weights. The fonts starting from a vector format and were developed using FontForge into OpenType and Type 3. OSP link. Open Font Library link.
  • Crickx (2011, by Pierre under the label Speculoos, and the OSP crew). A digital reinterpretation of a set of adhesive letters. In Regular, Droite, Rush and SharkCut styles. Open Font Library link.
  • Univers Else (2010). They write: Univers Else is an experiment, a first attempt to escape the post-80 era of geometrical purity that is so typical of Postscript vector based font drawing. The shapes of Univers Else were obtained from scanning printed textpages that were optically composed by cheap phototypesetting machines in the sixties and seventies. Some of Univers Else beautiful features are: round angles, floating baselines, erratic kerning. More precisely in this case, George Maciunas of the Fluxus group used an IBM composer (probably a Selectric typewriter) for most of his own work, and as a former designer, for all Fluxus work. In the 1988 book Fluxus Codex, kindly given to Pierre Huyghebaert by Sylvie Eyberg, the body text is typeset in a charmingly rounded and dancing Univers that seems to smile playfully at its dry Swiss creator. Collaborators: Pierre Huyghebaert (Typography, initiative, testing), Pierre Marchand (Development and typography, Fonzie software), Delphine Platteeuw (Design and testing), Gregoire Vigneron (Scanning and assembling).
  • Alfphabet (2007). The Alfphabet family is based on the Belgian road signage called Alphabet in French and Alfabet in Flemish. It was introduced in 1945 by 3M system working for the Marshall plan after the end of the war. In 1975, it was replaced by the Swiss SNV fonts, but is still in used randomly by the Belgian railroad and Charleroi's metro. In the early nineties, Pierre Huyghebaert was able to copy the original plates just before the split of the national office of the roads (Fond des Routes) in three regional entities and the burial of the documents deep into regional archives. Alfphabet Condensed is a rough merge between Alfphabet II (condensed caps only) and Alfphabet III (semi-condensed lowercase only!). It was redrawn in various occasions by Karl Bassil and Pierre under Hammerfonts umbrella in Brussels, then completed at Mind the gap studio in Beirut by Karl with the help of Nadim Zablit in the late nineties. The contrast between uppercase and lowercase is still quite non-typographic, and lot’s of diacritics need improvement. Alfphabet IV was redrawn by Pierre Huyghebaert and Ludi Loiseau at Speculoos studio in 2007. By Hammerfonts and OSP, 1992-2014: Karl Bassil, Nadim Zablit, Pierre Huyghebaert, Ludi Loiseau.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Pierre Piech

Illustrator in Marseille, France, who graduated in 2003 from ESA Institut St. Luc in Brussels with a Bachelors degree in plastic arts. In 2011, he created a hand-drawn caps face and a roman lettering alphabet. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Pierre Smeets
[Pleaseletmedesign]

[More]  ⦿

Plantin Gennootschap

Located in Antwerp, Belgium, this typographical society offers seminars, and a two-year program of courses in typography at its School of Graphic Arts, which is located in the Plantin-Moretus Museum (in Flemish). Starting in 2010, Frank Blokland teaches an expert type design class---ten lecture days spread out over the year at a cost of 1200 Euros for the entire course. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Plantin Gennootschap: Graduates in 2011

Located in Antwerp, Belgium, this typographical society offers seminars, and a two-year program of courses in typography at its School of Graphic Arts, which is located in the Plantin-Moretus Museum (in Flemish). Starting in 2010, Frank Blokland teaches an expert type design class---ten lecture days spread out over the year. Graduates in 2011: Ann Bessemans (who made Matilda, a typeface to help children in their reading), Henrik Kubel (who made the Antwerp text family), Jan Neyens, Anne Verlent, Stijn Cremers, Peter Van Lancker, Mario Schellingerhout, and Jeroen Visser (who made Remi Serif). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Plantin Instituut voor Typografie

Educational insitute related to typography and type design, located at the site of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. Named after 16-th century type designer Christoffel Plantin, it organizes expert type classes. Teachers listed in 2018 include Françoise Bausart, Jean-Pierre Berth, Frank Blokland (the main lecturer in the type expert classes), Lode Coen, Jo De Baerdemaeker, Marc De Mey, Jan Dries, Didier Haazen, Philippe Heesterbeek, Gerd Horsten, Vladimir Ivaneanu, John Lane, Stan Lemmens, Marc Mombaerts, Goran Proot, Fons Put, Hugo Puttaert, Hubert Scheir, Johan Swinnen, Peter Tielemans, Petr van Blokland, Marcel van den Boogert, Jan Paul van der Wijk, Johan Van Looveren, Maarten Van Steenbergen, Rudy Vanschoonbeek, Chris Vermaas, Misjel Vossen, and Heidi Waem. Program director is Jan Van der Linden. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Plantin-Moretus Museum

The Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, and its interactive CD ROM. James Mosley's description: The house and printing-office of Christophe Plantin (died 1589) and his successors became a museum in 1876. The collection of typefounding materials comprises 4,477 punches, 15,825 justified matrices and 4,681 strikes. Among the punchcutters whose work is represented are Claude Garamont, Robert Granjon, François Guyot, Pierre Haultin, Ameet Tavernier, Guillaume I Le Bé, Hendrik van den Keere and J. M. Schmidt. There are 62 moulds from the original collection; another 200 were added in 1956 from the Van der Borght foundry of Brussels. An English-made pivotal caster was acquired for casting new type. The punches and matrices were sorted and catalogued in 1954 and succeeding years. References:

  • Inventory of the Plantin-Moretus Museum punches and matrices (1960). Compiled by Mike Parker and K. Melis.
  • Mike Parker, K. Melis and H. D. L. Vervliet, Early inventories of punches, matrices, and moulds, in the Plantin-Moretus archives, De gulden passer, 38. jaargang (1960), pp. 1-139.
  • Index characterum Architypographiae Plantinianae: proeven der letter soorten gebruikt in de Plantijnsche drukkerij (1905). A specimen printed from early types preserved in the museum.
  • L. Voet, The Golden Compasses: a history and evaluation of the printing and publishing activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp (Amsterdam, 1969-1974).
  • Mike Parker, Early typefounders moulds at the Plantin-Moretus Museum, The Library, 5th series, vol. 29 (1974), pp. 93-102).
  • John A. Lane, Early type specimens in the Plantin-Moretus Museum: annotated descriptions of the specimens to ca. 1850 (mostly from the Low Countries and France) with preliminary notes on the typefoundries and printing-offices (New Castle: Oak Knoll Press, and London: British Library, 2004).
  • Max Rooses (1839-1914) of Le musée Plantin-Moretus (1919, G. Lazzarini, Anvers). It is in this magnificent book that we find the drawings of the museum's rooms by Walter Vaes shown below.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Pleaseletmedesign
[Pierre Smeets]

Pleaseletmedesign is a duo of Belgian graphic designers comprising Pierre Smeets (b. 1981) and Damien Aresta (b. 1979). They set up their own graphic design studio in 2004 after graduating from Saint-Luc Higher School of Arts in Liège (Belgium) and spending almost a full year in ERG (Graphic Research School) in Brussels (Belgium). The projects of pleaseletmedesign range from graphic design, books, posters, identities and stationnery to exhibition design, signage, titles sequences, and website in cultural sectors as diverse as music, architecture, cinema and advertising clients. Toyota Belgium used a car to design the outlines of an upright script called iQ (2009). Free download. The font was made by Pleaseletmedesign. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Polymorph
[Amélie Dumont]

Polymorph is a Brussels-based outfit that groups designers who use free programming tools for artistic expression. It is run by Amélie Dumont and François Zajega. Dumont designed some fonts through programming with Metapost, Javascript, FreeCad and other tools. By 2021, she finished Chemins (2021: polygonal), Ductus (2020: +Mono), Fablab (2020: made with freeCad), MetaAccanthis (2020), Fraktur Meta (2019), Metatextura Linear (2018) and Metafraktur Linear (2018). Gitlab link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Prepressure
[Laurens Leurs]

Laurens Leurs' page, with special attention paid to PostScript errors. It contains a database of known PostScript errors and offending commands, including tips on how to get rid of the errors (if possible). Also included is a brief history of the world's 30 most important typefaces. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Prototype.be (was: Fontation)

Ive Heyvaert's Belgian archive of 240 freeware and shareware fonts. Had a very very nice presentation of the font samples! Alternate URL. Is this the same as Fontation? [Google] [More]  ⦿

Punch
[Kristof Van Proeyen]

Punch was founded by Kristof Van Proeyen, an independent creative based in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2020, he designed the 14-style display serif typeface Petroles.

In 2021, he published Interbellum (a 9-style art deco sans) and the 10-style (+variable) italic font family Levino. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Quentin Delègue

During a course at ERG in Brussels, Quentin Delègue created the free font Archicoco (2014, OFL). This typeface is the stencil version of Archivo Black made by Hector Gatti in 2012 at Omnibus Type. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Quentin Girard

Graduate of EG in Brussels who works in Paris as a graphic designer. In 2017, he created Diakomistika, a typeface inspired by ancient roman and Greek stonecut fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Rachel Duynslaeger

At Esa Saint-Luc in Tournai, Belgium, Rachel Duynslaeger designed the architecturally-inspired typeface daniel Libeskind (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Rahma Hutami

During her graphic design studies, Rahma Hutami (Jakarta, Indonesia) created Adobe Garamond Corpus Experimental (2017). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Raphael Lemaire

Belgian designer, as a student at Les Ateliers du Pixel of EPSE in Marcq, Belgium, of a great and simple poster entitled Pourquoi (2017). Les Ateliers du Pixel home page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Rémi Godefroid

Founded in 2013 as Kipics, it became Hyntera later in 2015. Verviers, Belgium-based designer (b. 1989) of Young Lines, AI Rebellion, the free spiritual informal sans typeface Tibet (2015, Open Font Library), the handcrafted Aloha (2016), the free script typeface Angel (2016), Yoko Smile (2016, a free), and End Of Anthropocene (2016, based on the movie Racing Extinction).

Home page. Dafont link. Open Font Library link. Fontspace link. 1001 Fonts link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Red Kitten
[Timothée Génot]

Timothée Génot (aka Red Kitten) is a Belgian freelance graphic designer who graduated from ENSAV La Cambre, Brussels, 2002. He then moved to Minneapolis, MN, where he still works. FontStructor who made TRK Softbunker (2008-2010), an octagonal stencil face. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Refugeek
[Michael Delaet]

Belgian designer of RG Spotch (2020: a typeface with a crocodile skin texture) and RG Spiesje (2020: a fat finger font). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Renaud Giuliano

During his studies at HEAJ (Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard), Namur (and before that, Charleroi), Belgium-based Renaud Giuliano designed the free monoline monospaced compass-and-ruler typeface Kraft Mono (2017), which is inspired by Space Mono and signage in Belgian train stations. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Renaud Huberlant

Belgian design blog run by Renaud Huberlant, who teaches at Erg in Brussels. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Robbe Clerckx

Belgian designer in Bruges. He created the shaky hand typeface Inky (2009) with Fontforge. Blog. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Robbe Verhoest

Belgian designer of the sans typeface Symplistica (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Robin Boast

Belgian designer (b.1983) of the squarish techno typeface Boast (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Roman Liturgy
[Pierre François]

Pierre François (who runs Roman Liturgy and lives in Amsterdam) made a 4-symbol font for religious documents, which he called Liturgy (2003). Since his download buttons do not work, here you have the TTF file, the PFB file and the AFM file. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Romane Goudmant

Graphic designer in Namur, Belgium. For a school project, she used handprints to create the experimental typeface Handprint Type (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Romy Puttevils

Rotselaar, Belgium-based designer of the display typeface Kerba (2015), which is based on vernacular lettering in a café in Diest. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ronan Lachkar

For a school project in Brussels, Ronan Lachkar designed the octagonal typeface robotik (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ruben Vandennieuwenborg

Ghent, Belgium-based desugner of the polygonal typeface Bolt and Nut Sans (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sacha Rein

Ettelbruck, Luxemburg-based designer of Aldo (2005; updated to Aldo Pro in 2015) and Spastika (2006, octagonal) at the Trypo foundry in Brussels, which he set up with Gilles Pegel in 2005. Both graduated in 2005 from the ERG (Ecole de Recherche Graphique Brussels) and were born in Luxembourg. In 2006, he created the dot matrix-style typeface Calix (free), which is inspired by Arabic culture and pixel grids. It was intended for a cybercafe named prog, located at La Maison du Citoyen, Schaerbeek, Brussels.

In 2015, Sacha Rein set up his own commercial type foundry.

In 2018, he published Arlonne Sans Pro (a humanist sans) and Arlonne Serif. Arlonne covers Latin, Greek and Cyrillic and can also be purchased at Context Ltd. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Salma Bens

At the Académie royale des beaux arts de Bruxelles, Salma Bens designed a constructivist typeface (2012). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sander Bullynck

Graphic designer in Ghent, Belgium, who created the modular octagonal bespoke typeface Fabrication (2014) for Fabrik. It was inspired by wrenches, nuts, bolts and old factory signage. Still in 2014, he created the Peignotian all caps sans typeface Magnus. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sander Legrand
[Gravual]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Sander Vermeulen
[Base Design]

[More]  ⦿

Sanne Van Wanzeele

Belgian designer at FontStruct in 2008 of the organic typeface Olifont. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sara De Bondt

Sara De Bondt is a London-based Belgian graphic designer who has been running her studio since 2003. Before that she worked for Foundation 33 and studied graphic design at Sint-Lukas, Brussels (B), Universidad de Bellas Artes, Granada (ES) and Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht (NL). She has given workshops/talks at Beckmans college Stockholm, Ecole des Beaux Arts Lyon, Ecole de Recherche Graphique Brussels, deSingel Antwerp, Jan van Eyck Akademie Maastricht and Laus Symposium Barcelona. She teaches at The Royal College of Art and co-curated the The Form of the Book conference at St Bride Library in January 2009. In 2008, she designed the dingbat typeface FuturaET. Keynote speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sarah Oosterlinck

Poelkapelle, Belgium-based designer of the modular horizontally striped X Font (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sarah Verdonck

Aarschot, Belgium based designer of the floriate typeface Yuck (2016). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Saskia Neirinckx

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the futuristic font Flyer. She lives in Beveren-Waas. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Seb Sanfilipo

Graduate of the KABK in Den Haag in 2008. Originally from Belgium, he created the Coral serif family as a student at KABK. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sebastien Sanfilippo
[Love Letters]

[More]  ⦿

Seppe Seyner

Belgian creator of Seppefont (2011, rounded squarish face). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Serge Paulus

Teacher at IHECS and at ESA Saint-Luc in Brussels, b. 1963. Home page.

Designer of the handwriting typeface Selus (2008) and of the informal commercial typeface Poli (2013). See also Selus Reboot (2018). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Shana Gomez Ferri

Antwerp, Belgium-based designer of the condensed all caps display typeface family Closed (2019). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sihui Liu

Antwerp, Belgium-based type designer. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Silhouette

A commercial piece of Mac software by FreeSoft (Limal, Belgium) for converting bitmaps and images into vecor format, and for editing figures and outlines. It exports EPS files. This could be used to make the outlines for glyphs of a font, assuming one has a font editor that imports EPS files. A few free trials when you download. Developers: Jean-Christophe Goddart and Renaud Pattyn. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sim Bison
[Simon Marchal]

Aka Sim Bison. Belgian graphic designer based in Namur. He created Réparation (2012, experimental typeface), Monoforme (2012, a typeface developed for the course of F. Bourgaux), and Tetrad (2012, a typeface done for the Médiathèque of the Communauté Française de Belgique. Experimental typefaces by Simon include Brisée (2012), Futura Minus (2012), TroisD (2012, a 3-d typeface), Helvetica Minus (2012).

He created the experimental typefaces Arp (2014, named after Jean Arp, 1886-1966, apinter and sculptor, who cofounded the Dada movement in Zurich in 1916)), Moonboobs (2013) and Aqne (2013). At Behance, he showcased many other (unnamed) experimental typefaces.

Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Simon Marchal
[Sim Bison]

[More]  ⦿

Simon Schoder

Arlon, Belgium-based designer of a pair of textured typefaces in 2015. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sjors Janssen

During his studies in Hasselt, Belgium, Sjors Janssen created the rounded slab serif typeface Kreon (2013). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Smile Graphic Design
[Georges Close]

Belgian illustration and graphic design outfit run by Georges Close (b. 1978). He created the free sketchbook typeface Kraboudja (2008), inspired by Hergé's Tintin series. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Société Typographique Belge

Belgian foundry in the nineteenth century. Specimen des caracteres letters de fantaisie, vignettes, fleurons et ornaments typographiques (1846) is their catalog. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sophie Lafay

During her studies in Liège, Belgium, Sophie Lafay designed the connect-the-dots typeface Typographie Modulaire (2016) and the decorative alphabet Alphabet Illustré (2017). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Spilling Type
[Joke de Winter]

Loughborough, England-based Belgian-born designer. Designer of the ten-style mixed heritage serif typeface Apium (2022). [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Stefaan Lippens

Belgian computer scientist, hopefully not related to the corrupt Lippens family that has fattened itself off the banks of Belgium and the citizens of Knokke. At FontStruct, he made Dropacha (2009) as a possible Captcha font. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Stefanie Gorissen

Stefanie Gorissen (Maasmechelen, Belgium) created the sketched typeface Manual (2013). She also made an unnamed serif type typeface in 2013. She says that Cobus (2013) is a typeface for Iphone. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Stephan Mueller

Swiss graduate (b. 1965) of Luzern School of Art and Design, who settled in Berlin in 1997. Co-founder with Cornel Windlin in 1993 of Lineto, with Cornel Windlin and Andreas Eigendorf in 2014 of Alphabet Type (Berlin), and in 2018 of Forgotten Shapes, a Leipzig-based digital foundry dedicated to historical reconstructions. Since 2011, Müller has been directing the type design master class at HGB Leipzig, together with Fred Smeijers.

His fonts can be obtained at Lineto and FontFont. These include: Aveugle (Braille font, 1995), Berlin-Schnefeld and Berlin-TegelSmallSizes (1995), Parking, FF Gateway (1997 a triangulated font family done with Cornel Windlin), and Grid (1996), FF Chernobyl (1998, from stenciled letters on the Chernobyl plant), Paragon, Batarde Coulee, Shuttle, FE Mittelschrift and FE Engschrift (1997, modeled after the impossible-to-counterfeit German license plate font), 104 (nice geometric font), FF Container, Bitmap-Condensed and Bitmap-Regular (1998), Regular (2004, Lineto, a typewriter family), SMonoHand (2009, a handwritten monospaced Latin font with support for German). FF Screen Matrix (1995) was done with Cornel Windlin. In 2003, he released the LL Numberplate series at Lineto, which covers Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, and Switzerland. Other Lineto fonts include LL Office (1999: an Eurostile-like monospaced font), LL Excellent (2004), LL Freundschaft (2001: a dystiopian / constructivist typeface) and LL Valentine (2002: a typewriter typeface based on the Olivetti Valentine machine from 1969 designed by Ettore Sottsass and Perry A. King).

Open Font Library link. View Stephan Mueller's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Stephane de Schrevel
[Type Jamming]

[More]  ⦿

Sterpin.net

A free font at this Belgian site: CasesaremplirRoman (2004, boxes and cases needed to fill out forms), the utimate bureaucratic dingbat font. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Steven Soers

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where he designed the Japanese-inspired font Manga. He lives in Lint. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Steven Wittens

Belgian designer of the fat psychedelic display typeface ExtraLard (2003). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Stijn Cremers

Belgian graduate of the Plantin Institute, class of 2011. In 2020, he published DTL Estuary at the Dutch Type Library. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Stijn De Lathouwer
[deFUNKT]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Stijn Druyts

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where he designed the experimental font Television. Stijn lives in Minderhout. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Studio Type (or: Typojo)
[Jo de Baerdemaeker]

Belgian type designer (b. Brussels, 1974) who lived in Kessel-Lo, and is now based in Antwerp.

For his M.A. in Reading in 2004, he designed Lungta (2004). At ATypI 2006 in Lisbon, he spoke about Tibetan letterforms. In 2009, he obtained his doctoral degree from Reading on a topic entitled Tibetan Typeforms: from their inception in 1738 up to the present day.

Jo taught at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication (University of Reading). He presently teaches at the Plantin Institute of Typography (Antwerp), at the European Lettering Institute (Bruges) and at LUCA (campus Sint-Lucas Gent). Earlier he taught at LUCA (campus Sint-Lukas Brussels), and at KASK School of Arts (HO Gent).

In 2012, Jo De Baerdemaeker founded Studio Type in Antwerp (Belgium), and collaborates with international design studios and type foundries. He received the title Nieuwe Vlaamse Meester in de Kunst in 2017 from the Flemish Government.

Author of Tibetan Typeforms (De Buitenkant).

His typefaces:

  • Antwerpen. A custom titling font commissioned by Today, exclusively available for the visual identity of the City of Antwerp. Antwerpen consists of 3 weights (Antwerpen Regular, Antwerpen Small, and Antwerpen Tall).
  • Colard Mansion (2017). This custom font family was designed in light of Haute Lecture by Colard Mansion: innovation text and image in medieval Bruges, a unique exhibition on the oeuvre of Colard Mansion, at the Groeningemuseum Bruges which ran in 2018. The remarkable typography of Mansion inspired De Baerdemaeker to carry out detailed research into the work of the master and to develop a new digital font family for the City of Bruges. It consists of Colard Mansion Bastarda, and an angular sans typeface family.
  • Construct. An experimental geometric typeface in which the initial lowercase letters were extended with a horizontal headline as in Devanagari: graduation project at St Lukas College of Art and Design, Brussels.
  • Dolma (2018) (Tibetan Petsug). Dolma is a Tibetan font in the headless Umed Petsug style. This handwritten style is often used in Tibetan publications. Petsug was frequently used in the Kham Province of East Tibet. Dolma was designed for the 40th anniversary celebrations of Karma Sonam Gyamtso Ling, the Tibetan Institute in Schoten (Antwerp) in 2018.
  • Elegant Contemporary (2009). A 4-style grotesque done for an arts center in Nottingham, inspired by Hans Möhring's Elegant Grotesk, 1928.
  • Flanders Art. A 27-style sans serif & serif font family, custom designed for the visual identity of the Flemish Government.
  • KdG. The KdG font was designed for the new visual identity of the Karel de Grote Hogeschool (KdG) which is located in Antwerp.
  • Ken Broeders. This custom comic book typeface is designed exclusively for the renowned graphic novel designer Ken Broeders. Based on his unique handwriting, Ken uses this font for the lettering of the numerous translations of his beautifully hand illustrated and originally concepted graphic novels Apostata, Driftwereld, and other projects.
  • Lungta (2004). an unbelievably gracious bicephalic typeface with Latin text serif and Tibetan components. He says that the design was influenced by Dwiggins. Lungta is currently in use by The Oxford University Press, and was used for the Tibetan portion of the book In the forest of faded wisdom: 104 poems by Gendun Chopel. This book, edited and translated by Donald S. Lopez Jr, was published in November 2009 by The University of Chicago Press.
  • Nirmala Bengali. Nirmala UI is a modern Indic typeface family commissioned by Microsoft. It was first released with Windows 8 in 2012 as a UI font and supports languages using Bengali, Devanagari, Kannada, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Malayalam, Odia, Ol Chiki, Sinhala, Sora Sompeng, Tamil and Telugu. It also has support for Latin, with glyphs matching Segoe UI. It is also packaged with Microsoft Office 2013 and later versions of Windows. The typeface was art-directed by Fiona Ross, produced by John Hudson, and hinted by Ross Mills. Fiona Ross and John Hudson also designed the Devanagari and Odia, David Brezina designed the Gujarati, Valentin Brustaux the Telugu, Jo De Baerdemaeker the Bengali and Fernando de Mello Vargas the Malayalam and Tamil. The Latin from Segoe UI is by Steve Matteson.
  • Noto Javanese. A Javanese font for the Monotype / Google Noto Sans project.
  • Sherpa, part of the Sherpa font project. The project started with the study and design of the Sherpa typeface for the Lantsa (Ranjana) script, and will continue with other scripts fro the Himalayan region, like Tibetan, Phags-pa, Lepcha, Mongolian, Soyombo, and Devanagari scripts.
  • Typo Belgieque (2021). A project to revive some old and typically Belgian typefaces. Times New Belgian: The latest reading technology with centuries-old Belgian letters is an article about this project that appeared in de Tijd, February 2021.
  • Wiels (2008). A sans typeface designed for the Centre of Contemporary Art in Brussels, Belgium.

At ATypI 2006 in Lisbon, he spoke about Tibetan letterforms. Speaker at ATypI 2010 in Dublin: The Javanese typefaces of Johannes Enschedé en Zonen and Lettergieterij Amsterdam voorheen N. Tetterode. Speaker at ATypI 2011 in Reykjavik on The Mongolian script. Speaker at ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam. Speaker at ATypI 2016 in Warsaw (on reverse italics). Speaker at ATypI 2019 in Tokyo on the topic of Ferdinand Theinhardt's Legacy in Tibetan Typography. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Suraya Denissen

Belgian designer of the Braille-inspired connect-the-dots typeface Vio (2015). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Suzanne van Gaal

Antwerpen, Belgium-based designer of the bike lock-inspired typeface Lock Type (2015) and the fat octagonal typeface Popkantoor (2016). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tahar Azzaoui
[Kaen Graphics]

[More]  ⦿

Talus

Belgian printing house which has launched a typographic series called t. The first book in this series is "Femmes&métiers du Livre" (Jef Tombeur, 2004). It also offers "Typographique tombeau de Jean-Pierre Lacroux", which is a joint effort of people like Éric Angelini, Thierry Bouche, Jef Tombeur and Alain Hurtig. Located in Soignies, the house is managed by Michel Bourdain. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tarek Okbir
[Fnkfrsh (was: French Toast)]

[More]  ⦿

Tatiana Gancedo

New York-City (and before that, Miami, FL)-based dillustrator and graphic designer. Creator of the octagonal typeface La Belgique (2013). She writes: La Belgique is a typeface based on an old French advertisement headline found in the archives of The Wolfsonian museum. This was a collaborative project with Mylinh Trieu Nguyen.

In 2017, Tatiana Gancedo and Angelica Baini co-designed the free modular typeface Renasci.

Behance link. Newer Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tatiana Van Campen

Gent, Belgium-based designer of the alchemic typeface TatsFont (2014). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TeGeType
[Thierry Gouttenègre]

Thierry Gouttenègre is a Belgian designer (b. 1961), who is located in Tullins-Fures, France. After a stint as type director of Alfac-Decadry in Belgium, Thierry Gouttenègre moved to the south of France and started his own Design Studio in the mid 90s. In 2007, he set up TeGeType. He is one of my favorite type designers. His fonts:

  • Aldogizio (2013). The name gives the font away, an amalgamation of Aldo Novarese and Egizio---this is a slab serif fest.
  • Batarde Bourguignonne: a medieval blackletter.
  • Carcel (2009): striped letters.
  • Cinio (2009): used for signage by several French cities. For use on screen, he slightly rounded the corners and released the result as Cinio Text in 2019.
  • David Aubert (1992, Alfac): a bastarda (bâtarde bourguignonne) named after David Aubert, the calligrapher of Philippe Le Bon and Charles Le téméraire, both dukes of Burgundy who worked and lived in Brussels in the 1500s.
  • Dickens (1995, Fonderie Barthélémy).
  • Dilectus (2019). Originally intended for musea, this lapidary typeface takes inspiration from paleochristian engravings.
  • Falace (2008): a contemporary interpretation of the Didone typefaces.
  • Firmin Didot (1989, Alfac).
  • Fournier (1990, Alfac).
  • Fraktur (1990, Alfac).
  • Grégoire (1994, Fonderie Barthélémy).
  • Alipe Script (2014). A calligraphic connected (wedding, chancery, greeting card, divrce) script.
  • Hugo (1995, Fonderie Barthélémy).
  • Kafka (1994, Fonderie Barthélémy).
  • Limine (2008), a 3D beveled typeface family in styles called Creux and Relief.
  • LouisJou (2000).
  • Majuscule (1991, Alfac).
  • Neutre (1997, Fonderie Barthélémy). A sans family specially designed for signposting applications. This type family is used by several cities in France.
  • Oculi Magni (2020). Specially designed for small and tight texts, the glyphs have maximal x-height.
  • Otsu Sans (2011) and Otsu Slab (2013).
  • Poltrone (2010), a great titling family inspired by 19-th century public inscriptions.
  • Rome (1995, Fonderie Barthélémy).
  • Rosart (1991, Alfac), named after the 18th century Belgian typefounder, J.-F. Rosart.
  • Sand (1996, Fonderie Barthélémy).
  • Sursum (2009): a roman almost-typewriter family.
  • Tolstoï (1994, Fonderie Barthélémy).
  • Varvara (2017: a weathered all caps constructivist typeface created as a tribute to Barbara Stepanova (1894-1958)).
  • Vizille (1998-2009): a phenomenal Fournier text family made for the Musée de la Revolution Française in Vizille.
  • WebType (2002): a techno family.

Klingspor link.

View Thierry Gouttenègre's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Tess Claes

Vorselaar, Belgium-based designer of Baku (2015), an elegant display typeface based on the work of architect Zaha Hadid. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Theo van Beurden

Theo van Beurden is a Dutch graphic designer based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He graduated from LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, Belgium, class of 2012. In 2015, with Bauke van der Laan, he set up DOGMA, a practice for graphic design and typography. They decided then to digitize Mercator, a famous sans serif by Dick Dooijes (1958, Lettergieterij Amsterdam Tetterode). In 1958, Mercator was lauded as the Dutch Helvetica, to compete with the Swiss typeface Helvetica. Mercator never took off the way Helvetica did, so Bauke and Theo wanted to retrieve it from history's dustbin. Design studio De Ronners from Rotterdam has now used this letter to design the magazine for the members of the Association of Dutch Designers BNO (Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers). From 2016-2018 he was a regular guest lecturer at LUCA School of Arts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Theodor de Bry

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598, Johann's father) had been a goldsmith in Liège (in present day Belgium). As a Protestant, he was forced to leave that catholic city in 1570. After living in Strasbourg for several years, he moved to Frankfurt in 1588, where he established himself as a bookseller and publisher. Many of his volumes were illustrated with engravings by his own hand. He was aided in this by his sons Johann Theodor (1561-1623) and Johann Israël (ca. 1570-1611). The de Bry firm issued almost two hundred books, including a renowned series of illustrated accounts of the Americas, emblem-books, and the mystical&alchemical works of Robert Fludd and Michael Maier. He designed the intricate set of caps New Kunstliches Alphabet (1595). In 1596 in frankfurt, they published Human Alphabet. De Bry together with his sons created many non-Latin alphabets as well. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Thierry Gouttenègre
[TeGeType]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Thijs Kestens

During his studies in Ghent, Belgium, Thijs Kestens (Leuven, Belgium) designed Gridnik (2017) as a tribute to Wim Crouwel. He also created Dirigent (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Thom Janssen
[Geen Bitter]

[More]  ⦿

Thomas Baert

Thomas Baert (Deluxe Graphique), is from Kortrijk, Belgium. At Graphic River, one can buy Deluxe Bold (2008, pixel face). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Thomas Heylen

Graphic designer from Lier, Belgium, who made an expressive and hilarious type poster that features Didot and Helvetica (2010). Home page. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Thomas Thiemich

German type designer who graduated from the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. He is currently based in Antwerp, Belgium. First working under the pseudonym Ixel, he used FontStruct in 2008 to create Dolores Alpha (chunky blackletter), Pulgo 2.0 (fat stencil), Blone (octagonal stencil), Rimski (fat hexadecimal face), Figaro (artsy octagonal stencil), AGRAR Unicase (+Black), an elegant ultra-fat type family. He also made the techno typeface Ixelator 0.1. Alternate download.

His commercial work was published by OurType and transferred later to Type By when fred Smeijers quit OurType. His typefaces there:

  • Alto (2008), a humanist sans.
  • Fakt (2010). A large grotesk superfamily that was followed by Fakt Slab, Fakt Mono (2019), Fakt Sencil (2019) and Fakt Soft.
  • Remo (2012), Remo Stencil and Remo Slab.
  • Rosalinde (2019). A playful almost monolinear rounded slab serif.
  • Gustella (2018) in Solid, Stripes, Inline and Boxed styles. Gustella won an award at the Type Directors Club's Type Design Competition 2019.
  • Cobertura (2019). A large distinguished almost modular sans family with a good choice of widths from compressed to wide.

Thomas Thiemich has also made some custom typefaces. These include Weinviertel (2009, with Maurice Goeldner), a handwriting typeface designed for a wine distributor in Vienna.

Klingspor link. Ourtype link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Thomas Van Herck

During his studies in Gent, Belgium, Thomas Van Herck designed the wide sans display typeface Hickman (2017), which is named after the foldable Workmate bench inventor, Ronald Price Hickman. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Thomas Vanhuyse

Freelance graphic designer in Gent, Belgium, who designed the modular blackboard bold typeface Marville in 2013. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Timothée Génot
[Red Kitten]

[More]  ⦿

Timothy Erpels

Designer in Gent, Belgium. Creator of a compass-and-ruler outline typeface in 2013. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tinne Cornelissen

Leuven, Belgium-based designer who studied at the Luca School of Arts in Gent. She created sdeveral display typefaces in 2014. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tiphaine Moreau

Designer of the free font Karla Bold Stencil (2014, OFL) during a course at ERG in Brussels. Karla and Karla Tamil were designed in 2011 by Jonathan Pinhorn. Open Font Library link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Todd Knudde

Based in Antwerpen, Belgium, Todd Knudde created the pixelish typeface Xocoatl (2014). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tom Besters

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where he designed the grunge font Dyslexic. Tom lives in Borsbeek. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tom Delmarcel

Tournai, Belgium-based designer (b. 1990, Belgium) of the hand-printed typeface Trumna (2013) and the display typefaces Kemmot (2014) and Dirty Mot (2014). Dafont link. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tom De Smedt

Belgian graphic designer and software specialist who is assiocated with the Sint Lucas Hogeschool voor Beeldende Kunsten in Antwerp, Belgium. He designed various experimental types at these workshops. On his web site, you can find the (free) Panda truetype font made by his associate, Tom Van Iersel. He also made Pixie, a handwriting OpenType typeface (2004) that looks different each time. Speaker at the ATypI meetings in 2004 and 2005 in Prague and Helsinki. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tom Lukacs

Antwerp, Kortrijk and now Oostende, Belgium-based desktop publisher. Designer of the connected upright script and dingbat typeface Candyland (2006), the connected 50s roadster font Coeliakie (2007), the pixel typeface Micropolis (2007), the stencil and comic book typeface Pragmatica Nimbus (2006), this simple wide sans face (2007) and the paperclip and neon sign typeface Shananigan (2006). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tom Muller

Belgian design director Tom Muller (b. 1974) specializes in graphic design, typography, identity design, and illustration. Based in London, he is the creator of Nagasaki (2011, HypeForType), a strong condensed modernist monospaced display typeface in the tradition of space-age exploration and futurism. Nagasaki was imitated digitally by two Fonstructors, Tibor Lantos (as Hurin) and Banjo Zebra (as Blurb), both in 2011. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Tom Van Iersel

Belgian graphic designer who created the free truetype font Panda. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Trypo
[Gilles Pegel]

Foundry and type information site launched in Brussels in January 2005 by Sacha Rein and Gilles Pegel, two guys born in Luxembourg. Gilles created the Elite and Butter Unsalted typefaces (2005), and Sacha designed Aldo (2004). Both graduated in 2005 from the ERG (Ecole de Recherche Graphique Brussels). The stitching font Pharma (2005, Gilles Pegel) is free: it consists of subfonts PharmaCare and PharmaPicto. In 2012, they published the free squarely-spaced Monolithos. Links to foundries.

Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type An Sich

An annual exhibition organized by the design studio Catapult in Antwerp, Belgium. The first five focused on (1) Gerard Unger, (2) J.F. Porchez, (3) Fred Smeijers, (4) Pierre Di Scullio, and (5) Belgian type designers Jo de Baerdemaker, Joke Gossé and Omar Chafai. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type Destroyers
[Christina Maria Bee]

Type Destroyers was a project of Christina Bee (Darmstadt, Germany) and Frederik Berlaen (Ghent, Belgium). Types designed by them include Dottie (dot matrix), Schrottie (grunge), Sucks (grunge), and Shoottie.

Later, Christina Bee set up Krizbi. Her typefaces at Krizbi include Olga (a renaissance antiqua done in 2006 at the Royal Academy of Art in Den Haag, The Netherlands), and Pony. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type Jamming
[Stephane de Schrevel]

Stephane de Schrevel is a letterpress expert in Gent, Belgium. At his foundry, Type Jamming, he developed a typeface specially for use with Macromedia Flash. [Google] [More]  ⦿

TypeMyType
[Frederik Berlaen]

Frederik Berlaen (TypeMyType) is a Flemish type designer, b. 1981, Ghent, Belgium. He studied graphic design at Sint-Lucas in Gent, Belgium. Then he worked for one year as freelance type designer before moving to The Hague to study TypeMedia at the KABK, where he graduated with a Masters in type design in 2006. Currently, he freelances as a type designer and teaches type design at Sint-Lucas in Ghent, Belgium, and at ECAL in Lausanne. His projects include KalliCulator: a pen and nib simulator for drawing strokes around a skeleton glyph. He also wrote the simple font editor and manipulator Font Constructor (2007). RoundingUFO is a 100 Euro Mac-only application that converts the corners of the glyphs in fonts according to user-defined parameters; it requires a conversion between UFO and SFD formats, which is achievable in FontForge. His typefaces thus far: Comb (2010, OurType: a monospaced sans family designed for filling in forms; Comb Text has text typefaces and Comb Forms has dingbats), Theneut (rounded sans), Nana Broadnib and Nana Pointed. With Christina Bee, he is part of Type Destroyers. Speaker at ATypI 2011 in Reykjavik: The missing UFO editor. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Typografix
[Michel Welfringer]

Typografix is run by Belgian (?) Michel Welfringer, a graduate from La Cambre in Brussels. He designed Robotnik at Typograsfree. His own page showcases experimental typography. He also designed Normale (2005, with Nicolas Hoffmann) as a logo and titling font for the magazine BAM. With Nicolas Hoffmann, he set up AP Fonts in 2006. At AP Fonts, with Hoffmann, he designed Normale (2006) and Edibulle (2006). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Typolis (Belgian version)

Not to be confused with the German Typolis site, Typolis was a Belgian group of type design students with exemplary web pages. It sold fresh fonts made by young Belgian typographers. Typolis was set up by design students from the Karel De Grote Hogeschool in Antwerpen, but its site disappeared in 2004. The designers included: Els Bauwelinck, Tom Besters, Kurt Cornelis, Marieke Deckers, Caroline de Pont, Stijn Druyts, Yves Faes-Dupont, Niko Geens, Eve Kuypers, Corinne Lavaerts, Els Leclercq, Evi Leuridan, Kim Matthé, Arne Meganck, Saskia Neirinckx, Steven Soers, Dominic Somers, Kristophe Swaans, Mart Van Elzen, Katleen Vander Waeren, Katrien Van de Vyver, Veronique Verbraeken, Griet Welters. [Google] [More]  ⦿

University of Antwerp: Typography Summer School

From 2-6 September 2019, the University of Antwerp organizes an intensive five-day programme on the value of research for a better understanding of type and typography. The speakers: Jan Dries, Frank E. Blokland, Walda Verbaenen, Lara Captan, Juergen Willrodt. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Uplaod
[Bastien Sozeau]

Typographer and graphic designer, who studied typography at ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels.

He created the free web font Karma (2010, Open Font Library), a slab serif face. Caledo (2010) is a narrow hand-printed church face. Pixacaos (2009) is based on Brazilian graffiti. Castles (2010) is an interlocked design font. Nemoy (2010) is geometric. Strato (2010-2012) is a connected signage script.

Bastien's take on Futura is the free typeface family Futura Renner (2011). It simulates the imperfections of the original Futura lead type.

In 2013, he added Lil Grotesk (a sans), Beon (a stencil face), Young Serif and LS (a rounded sans designed for the Libertine Supersport party).

In 2013, Bastien Sozeau and Jean Gabriel Franchini set up AmoinsB, a free font foundry.

The sans serif typeface family Panamera was published in 2015. Github link.

Cargo collective link. Open Font Library link. Fontsquirrel link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Valentin Levêque

Belgian graphic designer based in Quaregnon. On the day King Albert II abdicated in 2013, he designed a pixel typeface called Pixel. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Verein Schweizer Straßenfachmänner Foundry

Swiss foundry which made SNV Extra Condensed (1972), a font later distributed commercially by URW. This is a license plate font used by various U.S. states and Canadian provinces. Not only is this font family quite ugly, it is also rather unreadable. A Ralf Herrmann explains that it can still be found on older Swiss traffic signs and also in Belgium where it is still the main font on road signs. Since 2003, the swiss use a new font called ASTRA Frutiger, which is based on Frutiger 57 Condensed with slight changes. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Veronique Verbraeken

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where she designed the wonderful experimental font Nix. She lives in Lint. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Victor Gérard

At Le Cambre in Brussels, Belgium, Victor Gérard designed the thorny typeface Posidon (2018) and the trekkie typeface Voyager Mono (2018). In 2019, he designed the paperclip font Epingle Display and the flared terminal wizard-of-Oz style typeface Seraphin. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Virginie Rosseel

Brugge, Belgium-based designer of the copperplate-inspired typeface Manteau (2017). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Vivienne Mak

Graphic design student at Sint Lucas in Antwerp, Belgium. Creator of the counterless modular typeface Petit Beurre (2012, FontStruct). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Walibi Boy

Born in Belgium in 1997. Creator of Anton Pieck (2013), an ornamental Caslon as seen in the Efteling. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Walter Oscar Rothe

During his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium, aka the KASK, Walter Rothe (Scheldewindeke, Belgium) designed the angular typeface Giraffeschrift (2013), the wedge serif typeface Vorsicht Display (2014) and Bodach (2014, constructivist).

In 2018, he designed the bespoke typeface Studio Ah-Ha.

Studio Kiwi link. Behance link. Facebook link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ward Kuypers
[Ward Zwart]

Ward Kuypers (aka Ward Zwart) is the Belgian designer of the free fonts Rob and Steal (2014), Pb (2012, Pb=Lead), Snacks (2011, grunge), Canard (2010, grunge, wood style), Qxi (2010, black poster lettering), Ves (2009, a 3d grunge outline face), Golden Pony (2009), Hocus Focus (2008, grunge), Cacavia01 (2009, grungy all-caps face) and RR Ruitjes (2008, textured face).

Dafont link. Fontsy link. Blogspot page. Abstract Fonts link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ward Zwart
[Ward Kuypers]

[More]  ⦿

Wes Nijssen

Antwerp, Belgium-based designer of the free grungy typeface Exit Wound (2016). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Wildstripe
[Gilles Verschuere]

Wildstripe is a Ghent, Belgium-based graphic design studio specializing in brand identities, marketing designs and web designs, and is run by Gilles Verschuere. His clients include AkzoNobel, Disney, Honda, Pentax, Samsonite, Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards.

In 2020, he published the deco typeface family Aglaia. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Willem Driebergen

Using iFontMaker, Willem&Nienke or Willem Driebergen (Belgium) created 3Bergen (2011, fat finger face). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Willem Silvius

Publishers of the earliest known type specimen book in the low countries: The Leyden "Afdrucksel" (1582). A facsimile with an introduction and notes by Paul Valkema Blouw was published at Terlugt Press, Leyden, 1983. See here. Willem Silvius was a printer in Antwerp around the midde of the sixteenth century. [Google] [More]  ⦿

William T. Morgans
[Morgans&Wilcox Mfg Co.]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Witruimte

Belgian institute where one can study calligraphy. Teachers include Yves Leterme, Brody Neuenschwander, Ann Degeyter and Veronique Vandevoorde. [Google] [More]  ⦿

WLM Fonts
[Wolf Lambert]

Wolf Lambert (WLM Fonts) is the designer in Tielt, Belgium, of these free fonts in 2012: Jason's Bowling, Number 19000, Begin From A, Banana, Exodus Gothic, Fixton Gothic, WLM Boring Old Teletext, WLM Connecto, WLM Poster Type, WLM Sketch Cool, WLM Small Caps, WLM Robbe Sans (octagonal), WLM Future Round, WLM Hello Sans, Display Gothic (a large textured or neon sign family), Fondel, WLM Road Sans, Hook Gothic, Festival (marquee typeface family), Headline Gothic (octagonal), Fontstruct Gothic, WLM 1F (octagonal), King Sans (+Stencil: mechanical), WLM Slab Serif, Wood Block One, 4th Street Sans, Ice Sans, WLM Nova Sans (pixelized), WLM Grid Font, WLM The Quick Brown Fox (a chiseled face), WLM Pixel Party (a set of 22 pixel fonts), WLM The Font Troll, Yent Notes, Kilimanjaro One, WLM Happy Icons, Number 18000, Soft Micro (techno font), Let's Go Digital (an LED typeface), Autocars & Rolling Bikes (sans), Cool Book Sans, Midas Script, WLM Smileyface, Silent Film Frame, WLM Black, WLM Idea, Thomas Sans, and Wolf Sans (rounded sans family), Dolores Cortez (brush font), WLM Exvwreff, WLM Web Iconized.

Some of his fonts are made with FontStruct.

Typefaces made in 2013: Perfect Pixel, Script Test, WLM Groovy, WLM Modern Sans, Simonschrift (fat finger typeface), Moonphase (pixel face), WLM Braille, WLM Stencils, Alien Alphabet, Hyperdigital (octagonal family), Wagon Sans (912 styles), WLM Print Failed, Hyperdigital (heavy octagonal face), WLM Poster Rounded, WLM Building, WLM Carton (mechanical/octagonal), WLM Cloudly (pixel face).

Fontspace link. Another Fontspace link. Old URL. FontStruct link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Wolf Lambert
[WLM Fonts]

[More]  ⦿

Wout Neirynck

During his graphic design studies at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels, Wout Neirynck created a typeface that is inspired by the sculptures of Antony Gormley (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Wouter Depaemelaere

Belgian designer who used FontStruct in 2008 to create a striped display typeface called Structica Stripes, which is based on his Structica. He also made Structica Black and Cloudy, as well as Squrbed, Squrbed2 and Squrbed Rounded. Anotherone and Anotheronebis are heavy octagonal typefaces, with the latter being a slab serif version of the former. Fatty is an ultra-fat typeface following the 2007-2008 trend in such typefaces. Fonts from 2009: Pixel Grotesque, Structica (+Black), AnotherOne, AnotherOneBis (octagonal, mechanical), Yet Another Pixel Font, You Finish It (outlined, athletic lettering). Additions in 2010: Oekaf (+Mono, +Slab), Px (pixel family, with Slab, Uni, Sans, Nrrow), Minimalist, FFF Lettertype, Ptit Sans. [Google] [More]  ⦿

X-Fonter

Shareware Windows font manager by Peter and Fanny at Blacksun Software in Turnhout, Belgium: X-Fonter is a user friendly Font Viewer, Font Manager and 3D Graphic creator. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yanick Blancho

Yanick Blancho ("My name is Yanick", Brussels, Belgium) created the commercial typefaces Biarritz Light (2013), Ruff Draft (2013, hand-printed poster font), Archive (2013, hand-printed), Charlie's Bold (2013), Riot Gothic Condensed (2014), Sarifa (2014), and Charlie's Font (2014). In 2015, he made the rounded cursive typeface Koëlh, based on Pittoresques penchées (1924, La Fonderie Typographique Française). In 2016, he published Futuros. In 2018, he added Analogis (a rounded sans), and in 2019 the roughened text font Chapitre. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yanis Berrewaerts

Antwerp, Belgium-based designer of the all caps display typeface Gravity (2018) during his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yoan Huygen

Wanze, Belgium-based designer of a hipster typeface in 2015. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yuelan Liu

Brussels-based designer of the Snowflake Font (2014). She also made a set of icons called Crustacées décapodes (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yvan Berqué

Yvan Berqué (Luna, Menen, Belgium) created a great typographic logo for a tapas bar called L'Epoque in 2012. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yves Faes-Dupont

Designer at Typolis in Antwerpen, Belgium, where he designed the experimental font Wireframe, the happy font Zirco, and the pixelish font Square. Yves lives in Antwerpen. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yves Leterme

Belgian calligrapher famous for gestural writing. Born in Ieper in 1959, he was first a teacher of classical languages in Bruges, but after calligraphy lessons from Nadine Lebacq, and a study period with Brody Neuenschwander, he became a successful freelance calligrapher and Prime Minister of Belgium. Just kidding---this Yves Leterme knows the difference between the Brabançonne and the Marseillaise. Examples of his work: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yves Michel

Koksijde, Belgium-based designer of the roman titling typefaces Via Appia (2019: beveled) and Pompei (2019, accompanied by decorative caps), the tuxedoed art deco typeface Valentino (2019), the cursive script typeface Coxyde (2019) and the connected script typefaces Cursyves (2019) and Abecedary (2019, +Stencil). Typornament Prague (2019) is a pure Victorian typeface based on an alphabet seen in Milan Kopriva's book Typoornamenty (1991, Pluto Publishers, Prague).

Typefaces from 2020: Carl Larsson (a script based on the handwriting of famous Swedish painter Carl Larsson, 1853-1919), Clipangle, Claroscuro (striped caps), Virgule, Juneasvik (handcrafted). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yves Pauwels

Deerlijk, Belgium-based designer of the triangulated sci-fi typeface Random DM (2016, FontStruct), the modular Random Mass (2020), the octagonal typeface Random Abe (2020), and Random Nods (2020: a tape font based on the work of wim Crouwel). Dafont link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Yves Peters
[Bald Condensed]

[More]  ⦿

Zoe Kerckhof

Designer in Antwerpen, Belgium, who created the hipster typeface Indie Font (2014). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Zoe Van Kuyk

Zoe Van Kuyk (Antwerpen, Belgium) created the school assignment animated font Zwodrei in 2014. [Google] [More]  ⦿