Where type designers learn
By Mark Johnson · Founder, Type.lol ·
These figures use the current Type.lol catalog and may change as records are added or corrected. They describe our catalog, not a census of the type industry. When citing a figure, include the date you accessed this page.
A small number of programs trained a surprising share of the people making type today. Type.lol traced 829 designers back to where they studied, from their bios and about pages.
KABK, The Hague has trained more of the type designers in the Type.lol catalog than any other school, with 176 traced alumni, followed by University of Reading with 123. Across the whole set, 314 schools account for the 829 designers whose training could be traced, and 192 of them (23%) studied at more than one.
- Designers traced
- 829 of 3,771
- Schools identified
- 314
- Studied at more than one school
- 192 (23%)
- Data basis
- Live catalog data
Schools by traced alumni
| Rank | School | Traced alumni |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | KABK, The Hague | 176 |
| 2 | University of Reading | 123 |
| 3 | ECAL, Lausanne | 45 |
| 4 | Type@Cooper | 44 |
| 5 | École Estienne, Paris | 40 |
| 6 | ANRT, Nancy | 33 |
| 7 | ÉSAD Amiens | 31 |
| 8 | University of Buenos Aires (FADU) | 22 |
| 9 | Type West | 21 |
| 10 | EESAB, Rennes | 15 |
| 11 | UMPRUM, Prague | 13 |
| 12 | Plantin Institute, Antwerp | 10 |
Designers who studied at KABK, The Hague
- Adam Katyi
- Sláva Jevčinová
- Lukas Schneider
- Stephen Nixon
- Bas van Vuurde
- Carmen Dusmet Carrasco
- Tezzo Suzuki
- Katja Schimme
- Pauline Fourest
- Daniel Perraudin
- Vojtěch Říha
- Fabiola Mejía
Designers who studied at University of Reading
- Gabriele Fumero
- Stefano Baldassari
- Ferran Milan
- Borna Izadpanah
- Manuel von Gebhardi
- Maria Fontenelle
- Tom Grace
- Robert Pratley
- Ben Jones
- Calvin Kwok
- Florian Runge
- Jo De Baerdemaeker
Designers who studied at ECAL, Lausanne
- Simon Memel
- Malte Bentzen
- Charly Derouault
- Weichi He
- Emmanuel Rey
- Yevgeniy Anfalov
- Aurèle Sack
- Matthieu Cortat-Roller
- Matthieu Visentin
- Paul Christ
- Baptiste Lecanu
- Aimur Takk
Designers who studied at Type@Cooper
- Tida Tep
- Emil Martirosian
- Fabiola Mejía
- Regan Johnson
- Fernando Díaz
- Jamie Chang
- Phaedra Charles
- Ayaka Ito
- Cristóbal Henestrosa
- Nick Sherman
- Bruno Mello
- Mark Johnson
Designers who studied at École Estienne, Paris
- Jimmy Le Guennec
- Fanny Hamelin
- Cécile Legnaghi
- Laura Opsomer Mironov
- Laurent Bourcellier
- Thomas Bouillet
- Malo Haffrengue
- Damien Gautier
- Gabriel Vaury
- Quentin Creuzet
- Tanguy Dortu
- Guillaume Goron
Designers who studied at ANRT, Nancy
- Sina Fakour
- Margaret Gray
- Alexandre Bassi
- Camille Martinet
- Fernando Caro
- Rémi Forte
- Isia Yurovsky
- Éloïsa Pérez
- Amir Mahdi Moslehi
- Nunzio Mazzaferro
- Jules Durand
- Franco Jonas
Designers who studied at ÉSAD Amiens
- Sonia da Rocha
- Emma Marichal
- Anagha Narayanan
- Viktor Zumegen
- Thomas Bouillet
- Fátima Lázaro
- Mark Zhu
- Kyeongsik Kim
- Abhijit Menon
- Laurène Girbal
- Hugues Gentile
- İbrahim Kaçtıoğlu
Designers who studied at University of Buenos Aires (FADU)
- María Carla Mazzitelli
- Mariana Alen
- Yanina Arabena
- Guillermo Vizzari
- Tania Chacana
- Laura Varsky
- Martin Laksman
- Maximiliano R. Sproviero
- Mauricio Adasme
- Gaston Fuoco
- Muk Monsalve
- Aldo Arillo
Designers who studied at Type West
- Jo Malinis
- Martha Sue Coursey
- Chris Skillern
- Tamara Segura
- Kel Troughton
- Florence Fu
- Jamie Otelsberg
- John David Maza
- Huy Lê
- Edgar Capula
- Emily Klaebe
- Tommi Sharp
Designers who studied at EESAB, Rennes
- Pauline Mousain
- Zoé Raude
- Clara Coutanceau
- Noémie Doussaud
- Léa Pradine
- May Jolivet
- Valentin Papon
- Chloé Lozano
- Garance Hebrard
- Juliette Duhé
- Justine Herbel
- Lucie Bouchet
Designers who studied at UMPRUM, Prague
- Vojtěch Říha
- Matyáš Machat
- Matyáš Bartoň
- Jan Solpera
- Luigi Gorlero
- Tomáš Brousil
- Marek Pistora
- Filip Kraus
- Jan Novák
- Filip Dědic
- Ramakrishna Manda
- Petra Dočekalová
Designers who studied at Plantin Institute, Antwerp
- Dominik Thieme
- Henrik Kubel
- Micha Strukov
- Ramiro Espinoza
- Vladimir Kolomeytsev
- Joaquín Contreras Soto
- Fernando Mello
- Elí Castellanos
- Luis Castellón
- Eugene Yukechev
How we know this
Education is extracted from designer bios and official school graduate rosters, normalized to canonical school names, then joined to each designer's foundry affiliations. Based on 829 of 3,771 designers with recorded schooling across 314 institutions. Coverage skews toward designers whose careers are documented well enough to have a bio, and designers affiliated with several foundries count toward each, so these figures are directional rather than audited.