𝑫𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 #1: 𝑳𝒆𝒆 𝑸𝒊𝒖 𝑾𝒆𝒏 ✦
Straits Sans started as Qiu Wen’s final-year project… and turned into a full-on archive rabbit hole (the good kind). Weeks at NLB, zooming into 1930s print, catching those Art Nouveau / Art Deco cues from a Singapore that was still becoming itself.
The result? A typeface that doesn’t just look heritage: 𝘪𝘵 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦. Since then, it’s popped up at Singapore Art Museum, made its way to Limpeh’s Hawker Bowls in Australia, and even hit Type Lab 2023.
Press play for the story, and if you’re a fellow Guardian-at-heart, you’re going to feel this one.
𝕋𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕫 (𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕜 𝕚𝕟 𝕓𝕚𝕠) 𝕥𝕠 𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕥𝕪𝕡𝕖. 🐙✨
Meet the minds (𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕝𝕖𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕞𝕤) behind the archetypes. ✦
For Just My Type, we teamed up with designers whose practices shape the personalities you’ve been seeing.
Featuring:
𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙛 𝙏𝙮𝙥𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙮
Part collective, part movement — Death of Typography is broadening how type design is shared, taught, and seen in Singapore.
𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝘿𝙚 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚
From brand identity to type design, Mark’s practice is grounded in the belief that letters carry story and place.
𝙇𝙚𝙚 𝙌𝙞𝙪 𝙒𝙚𝙣
Rooted in language and culture, Qiu Wen approaches type as both a visual practice and a way of meaning-making.
𝘿𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙪𝙨 𝙊𝙪
Experimental at heart, Darius explores typography through graphic lore, printed matter, and boundary-pushing form.
𝙔𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙖𝙣
Working acoss Latin and Chinese type, Ying Tong brings precision, depth, and a sharp contemporary eye to contemporary letterforms.
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲? Take the quiz and get your archetype — link in bio. ✦
2025 in review – part III /// This year’s Gerard Unger Scholarship winner and merits were of very high quality. For its 11th edition, we received 49 submissions from 47 designers living all over the world — representing 27 schools in 16 countries, and two in hybrid mode (online + in-person). Thirty-one of the families were single scripts and 18 were multiscript, showcasing nine different scripts (Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, Hangeul, Hebrew, and Latin).
The winning type family was Manau Quellec’s NEWZ, an intense, impactful, and loud demi-slab family inspired by pop culture and British newspapers. Read our interview with Manau at the link in our bio.
More than just the winner, we had some amazing submissions that are worthy of significant recognition and a little something extra from the team. The four promising typeface projects receiving TypeTogether’s merit award are (alphabetically): Aksan by Yaprak Buse Çağlar (@typolea ), Manik by Arnab Chakraborty (@chhobiiwala ), Venusville by Lee Qiu Wen (@qiuboon ), and Zofia by Agnieszka Drozd (@aga___drozd ).
Read more about TypeTogether’s 2025 in review at the link in our bio.
#typography #fonts #GerardUngerScholarship #graphicdesign #studentdesign
GUS Merits 2025 – Venusville /// Our Gerard Unger Scholarship spotlight turns to Venusville, a reverse contrast type family by Lee Qiu Wen (@qiuboon ). Find out more about this year’s winners on our website (link in bio).
Lee Qiu Wen is a designer from Singapore. Her passion for words and typography started with her love for stories and the convergence of her interests in writing, culture, and languages. A founding member of the Singapore-based type collective Death of Typography (DOT), Qiu Wen is dedicated to making type more accessible to local designers. She joined the online cohort of Type West to further her understanding of type design. Currently, she works as a junior Art Director at Yellow Octopus, a design agency in Singapore, and teaches typography at Lasalle College of the Arts.
Merit winners receive individualised consultation from TypeTogether founders Veronika Burian and José Scaglione, as well as a copy of our “Building Ligatures” book.
Congratulations, Qiu Wen!
GUS ’25 Merits /// Congratulations are in order to the four promising typeface projects receiving TypeTogether’s merit award (alphabetically): Aksan by Yaprak Buse Çağlar (@typolea ), Manik by Arnab Chakraborty (@architect_of_type ), Venusville by Lee Qiu Wen (@qiuboon ), and Zofia by Agnieszka Drozd (@aga___drozd ).
Over the next four days we will highlight each of the merits individually to show you the quality of their work. You can also find out more about all of the Gerard Unger Scholarship 2025 winners on our website (link in bio).
Merit winners will receive a copy of our book, ‘Building Ligatures,’ as well as individualised consultation from our co-founders, Veronika Burian (@vikosch_b ) and José Scaglione (@josescaglione ).
#GerardUngerScholarship #typography #fonts #studentdesign #graphicdesign
Highlighting nine type designers who merit Special Recognition for the 2023 @malee_scholarship . Full feature on @sharp_type website, linked in bio 🌱
Lee Qiu Wen (@qiuboon ) is a type designer from Singapore who graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a degree in Fine Arts (Visual Communications) and is currently studying type design at Type West. Her interest in writing and language preceded her interest in type design, all spurred by a rich multicultural environment. Recognizing an absence of type design resources in Singapore, she began a studio called Death of Typography (DOT) with two friends to host workshops, conduct research, and develop and distribute typefaces from local designers.
From attending as students last year to sharing as speakers, we are excited to announce that we will be presenting at this year's Typographics Typelab! It is an online design festival where type designers around the world come together to host a series of talks, demos and experiments.
Representing us this Thursday afternoon, @qiuboon will share her journey in her latest typeface Straits Sans, where she will introduce findings from Singapore’s print archives, as well as the design process for this typeface revival.
More details on @typographicsnyc
Delighted to finally showcase our first multi-weight release - Straits Sans!
Drawing references from old typefaces found in Singapore’s print archives, Straits Sans is a typeface with Art Deco inspired elements— a perfect balance of culture and contemporary. The family’s uppercase glyphs are condensed, and designed to harmonise with its regular lowercase set.
Special thanks to @markdewinne for the invaluable guidance and support. Incredibly grateful to @suehlili for the feedback and encouragement!
(9 weights total; Free trials & commercial licensing available via our website)
