Where type designers learn

A small number of programs trained a surprising share of the people making type today. Type.lol traced 825 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 175 traced alumni, followed by University of Reading with 123. Across the whole set, 311 schools account for the 825 designers whose training could be traced, and 191 of them (23%) studied at more than one.

Designers traced
825 of 2,823
Schools identified
311
Studied at more than one school
191 (23%)
Data as of
July 2026

Schools by traced alumni

RankSchoolTraced alumni
1KABK, The Hague175
2University of Reading123
3ECAL, Lausanne45
4Type@Cooper44
5École Estienne, Paris40
6ANRT, Nancy33
7ÉSAD Amiens31
8University of Buenos Aires (FADU)22
9Type West21
10EESAB, Rennes15
11UMPRUM, Prague13
12Plantin Institute, Antwerp10

Designers who studied at KABK, The Hague

Designers who studied at University of Reading

Designers who studied at ECAL, Lausanne

Designers who studied at Type@Cooper

Designers who studied at École Estienne, Paris

Designers who studied at ANRT, Nancy

Designers who studied at ÉSAD Amiens

Designers who studied at University of Buenos Aires (FADU)

Designers who studied at Type West

Designers who studied at EESAB, Rennes

Designers who studied at UMPRUM, Prague

Designers who studied at Plantin Institute, Antwerp

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 825 of 2,823 designers with recorded schooling across 311 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.

Read the full study on Type.lol · All studies