Creative Characters

New York-born Max Phillips has been drawing letters for money since he was a teenager. But his path to full-time type design was a bit circuitous — and even involves a stint as a novelist.
Join us as Max, founder of Dublin-based Signal Type, waxes poetically about designing typefaces. He shares the creative process behind his diverse library; how Hermann Zapf has influenced him; and the delicate balance between crafting bold faces to amuse yourself and making versatile fonts for the design world.
Check out the newly expanded version of Max's Reckham family from Signal Type on MyFonts and Monotype Fonts.
You can find blog posts for this and past episodes at monotype.com/podcast.

This week, we travel to Thailand to hear the story behind Cadson Demak, the Bangkok-based type foundry and design studio that has been shaping the landscape of Thai typography and design for 25 years.
Host Dan Rhatigan chats with Founding Partner Anuthin Wongsunkakon and Senior Type Designer Nalat Jaturapattarapong about how their foundry and studio have influenced Thai type culture, moving from a time when fonts were undervalued to building a thriving industry.
They discuss the complexities of the Thai script, the evolution of the design industry in Thailand, and their pivotal role in educating designers and creating infrastructure for the industry.
You can find blog posts for this and past episodes at monotype.com/podcast.

Step into the world of Malcolm Garrett, an iconic British graphic designer whose career is grounded in punk rock and new technology.In this episode, Malcolm talks about designing record sleeves for bands like Buzzcocks, Duran Duran, and Simple Minds, as well as his enthusiasm for adopting new digital design tools. From the DIY spirit of London's Shoreditch neighborhood in the '80s to learning how to design on Apple IIe computers and early iterations of Adobe Illustrator, Malcolm's reflections offer a glimpse into the evolution of graphic design over the past five decades.
You can find blog posts for this and all our past episodes at monotype.com/podcast.

Toronto-based Bruce Mau Design is known for tackling environmental, social, and economic problems with design.
Kar Yan Cheung, Director of Design Strategy at Bruce Mau, and Laura Stein, Bruce Mau's Chief Creative Officer, joined us to talk about optimism, the realistic potential for design to influence behavior, and our Re:Vision project with the agency. Also joining us are Monotype's Terrance Weinzierl and Phil Garnham, and Phil's puppy, Otto.
You can find blog posts for this and all our past episodes at monotype.com/podcast.

Tune in for an inside scoop on Adobe Max 2025, a hub for creativity and design.
In this episode, hosts Carl Unger, Kadley Gosselin, and Livia Halltari guide participants through an interactive Find the Font game and reveal which font they'd send in their place to a job interview.
We also trade notes about MAX's vibrant artist marketplace; talk to Monotype Executive Creative Director, Sara Soskolne, about her work expanding the iconic Gotham typeface for the Obama Foundation; and catch up with John Roshell of Comicraft.
You can find blog posts for this and past episodes at monotype.com/podcast