Universal Thirst

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Universal Thirst [Gunnar Vilhjalmsson] Icelandic designer and type designer in Reykjavik (and now Germany). Co-founder of Universal Thirst, an Indian and Icelandic type foundry that makes typefaces for the Indic, Latin and Arabic scripts. Gunnar studied graphic design at Iceland University of the Arts, and worked briefly in Reykjavik's creative industry before becoming a freelance designer and focusing on collaborations within the cultural sector. After completing his M.A. in Typeface Design at the University of Reading in 2010, he joined Monotype's London studio, working on major type projects for global brands. Since launching in 2016, Universal Thirst has taken on bespoke projects for Google, The Gourmand, Frieze Art Fair, DesignMarch, Monotype and Falcon Enamelware, and is scheduled to open its font library to the world in 2019. Gunnar co-designed the experimental display typeface Skuggasveinn with Siggi Eggertsson in 2005. He also co-designed Grasrot (2005). Old URL. At the University of Reading in 2010, his thesis typeface was Germain, a sturdy typeface that has some calligraphic origins (especially of course for its Arabic weight). The Latin appears to be a manly workhorse. Ryman Eco is a free multilined typeface created in 2014 by Dan Rhatigan and Gunnar Vilhjálmsson at Monotype that satisfies its two design goals---beauty and economy (it uses 33% less ink than a normal text font). In 2015, he developed a bespoke typeface for The Gourmand Magazine in cooperation with The Gourmand's artistic director, David Lane. The resulting typefaces, Gourmand Grotesque 777 and 888 won a bronze medal at the 2015 European design Awards competition. In 2019, Gunnar Vilhjalmsson, Kalapi Gajjar and the Linotype design Studio developed the 5-style Linotype Gujarati for use in print and on the screen. In 2019, he was part of a team that extended Matthew Carter's Devanagari from 1977 into Linotype Devanagari. Speaker at and coorganizer of ATypI 2011 in Reykjavik.	EXTERNAL LINKS Universal Thirst [Designer info] MyFonts search Monotype search Fontspring search Google search INTERNAL LINKS The type scene in Iceland ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Experimental type ⦿ Typefaces and type design for Arabic ⦿ Sites with only a few free fonts ⦿ German type scene ⦿ Gujarati fonts ⦿ Indic language fonts ⦿