Samarskaya for Adobe Create

(Spring 2016)

Q. A brief description of how you learned type design (self-taught, undergrad, grad, work training whatever).

I first learned type design from Tobias and the team at Hoefler & Frere-Jones when I started working there as a type designer in 2007. It was the right intersection at the right time, a path I was completely not expecting for myself, and one that commenced over a mutual interest of technological hacks and tongue-in-cheek humor.

Q. What interests you about the profession?

On a personal level, I believe that surroundings and people influence life much more than the actual day-to-day details, which get routine and have a mix of excitement and tedium that’s comparable across professions. In choosing who to surround myself with, the people in the type world tend to be a top-notch mix of outcasts with a wild west brazenness and a deep well of nerdery that’s always appealed to me.

On an impact level, and I get into this a bit more in the next question, I’m excited by anything that sensitizes and connects people, the subtleties of living an engaged life. Type answers that call by carrying with it a lot of cultural intricacies, connotations and associations. Between its inescapable nature (you’re looking at some now!) and the complexities that it can reveal, it’s a fairly potent force.

Q. What would you be doing if type design didn’t exist?

Perhaps painting hieroglyphs? Though honestly, even my current profession spans much more than just type. I work with companies to hone in their brand messaging, which relies so heavily on the pillars of type. I engage in various enclaves of the visual design world, and come out of a background of art that has never fully dissipated.

First published 2016 for Adobe Create Magazine, featuring a summation of my answers alongside 9 other kick-ass women type designers that you should all know about.