TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Nov 20 11:50:48 EST 2024

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ABOUT

Saja TypeWorks [Aaron Bell]

Aaron earned a Bachelor's degree in Asian Studies, with a minor in Japanese, at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. Aaron is a graduate of the University of Reading in 2011, where he earned an MA in typeface design. His graduation typeface was Saja (2011), which covered Latin and Korean. In the Fall of 2011, he joined the Microsoft Typography team.

In 2015, at Microsoft, he designed the free sans typeface Selawik, which is metrically compatible with the infamous Segoe UI. Selawik now also exists as a variable font.

In 2016, het up his own type foundry in Seattle, Saja TypeWorks. At Saja TypeWorks, he published the sans-serif typeface Salish, which is inspired by the art of the Salishan tribes in the Northwest Americas: It draws heavily on the concept of the ovoid, a wide ovular shape that is flat on the bottom and top heavy, that is central to the art style known as Formline. Language support includes some 200 Latin-based languages as well as the necessary orthographies for all Salishan languages, including: Comox, Sliammon, Klahoose, Pentlach, Sechelt, Squamish, Halkomelem, Nooksack, Straights Salish (Saanich), Lushootseed, S'Klallam, Quinault, Upper Chehalis, Lower Chehalis, Cowlitz, Bella Coola, Ditidaht, Tseshaht, Nuu-chah-nulth, Ehattesaht-Nuchatlaht, Kwak'wala, Shuswap, Lillooet, Thompson River Salish, Coeur d'Alene, Columbia-Moses, Colville, Okanagan, and Montana Salish. Haida (a non-Salishan language) is also supported.

At FontStruct, he designed Syzygy.

In 2017, he published HWT Aetna at P22. Aetna is a sturdy roman wood type first see in William H. Page's 1870 specimens.

Aaron Bell digitized the free logo font Air America in 2018. He writes: This font was produced for William G. Sherman who recreated this alphabet from samples of the logo and other sources from the airline company Air America.

In 2018, he published the free DIN-based sans typeface Bahnschrift for Microsoft at Open Type Library. The font posted at Open Font Library is flawed (look at the capital A), so I wonder if that post was done by an impostor. Bahnschrift was the basis of his 2021 typeface, Grandview, which could be tipped by Microsoft to replace Calibri---in use since 2007--in its Microsoft 365 apps and Office products.

Typefaces from 2019: Industrial Spill (with Dave Savage), Tipsy Waitress (beatnik, cartoonish; with Dave Savage), Super Chill MC (with Dave Savage).

For Microsoft's Windows 10, he designed the open source monospaced font Cascadia Code. The plan is to add support for Greek, Cyrillic, Vietnamese, Arabic and Hebrew during 2020. TeX support for Cascadia Code.

Speaker at ATypI 2012 in Hong Kong: Seeking the Korean true italic. Speaker at ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam: Directionality in Korean type design. Fontsquirrel link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Saja TypeWorks
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 [Designer info]
Fontspring link [Buy fonts]
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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type scene in Washington ⦿ Korean (Hangul) ⦿ Type design in South Korea ⦿ FontStruct fonts ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Native-American fonts ⦿ Sites with only a few free fonts ⦿ Variable fonts ⦿ Wood Type ⦿ Monospaced fonts ⦿ Fonts for programming ⦿ DIN ⦿