Betsy Schuster

Our guest is ⁠Betsy Schuster⁠ (@queertype.co ), a type designer and founder of ⁠Queer Type⁠, an independent type design studio based in the Detroit area. Originally from suburban Michigan, Betsy discovered his calling in typography after studying graphic design and darkroom photography. In this episode, Betsy speaks with host ⁠Christian Solorzano⁠ (@xnslrzn ) about his evolution from graphic designer to specialized type designer, exploring how his background in visual storytelling and photography shaped his approach to letterforms. He shares insights about his creative process, from late-night design sessions surrounded by sketches to finding inspiration in everything from handwriting to songwriters like PJ Harvey. Betsy discusses his recent typeface "Antiphony," released through ⁠Future Fonts (@futurefonts )⁠, and his philosophy of pushing typographic boundaries while maintaining legibility. The conversation explores his expansion beyond fonts into jewelry design and textile work using his grandmother's fabrics, reflecting on how personal history and values inform creative practice. He opens up about the challenges of having diverse creative interests—from wanting to work with indigenous scripts to exploring fashion and ceramics—while building a focused type design practice. The episode touches on themes of creative identity, finding your calling, and the intersection of personal values with professional practice in the design world. — Enjoy the conversation, and if you enjoy this show, please rate it, share it with your friends, and subscribe wherever you listen. ℹ️ Underscore is a show produced by the Chicago Graphic Design Club that brings you conversations with Chicago’s creative community. On this podcast, we explore the craft, theory, and practice of graphic design, plus discuss ideas that cultivate a more inclusive and thoughtful creative community. 🔎 You can find us through your preferred podcast platforms — such as Spotify or Apple Podcasts. 🔗 Link in bio to listen — #Chicago #GraphicDesign #CGDC #Design #DesignCommunity #DesignPodcast #DesignConversation #QueerType #TypeDesign #TypographyDesign

So excited to share that v0.1 of Antiphony, my graduation project from TypeMedia, is out on FutureFonts today! (and it's my first ever release!!) It's launching with 2 styles, the Display Light Italic and Display Light ContraItalic. Check it out on Future Fonts, link in bio 💙 If you're familiar with the project, you'll know I have big plans for the future! This version is limited to 50 licenses, so buy-in now if you want all future updates for this price 🔥 It's quite a doozy for my first release, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you so much to everyone that helped make Antiphony what it is today, with a special shoutout to all of the TypeMedia teachers and my TM2324 classmates 💙

Today, we had the privilege of hosting visiting type designer and alum Betsy Schuster ’19 from QueerType. Betsy presented his graduate work from the Type and Media Program at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. He also conducted a lettering workshop, focusing on bold weight development as part of The Heritage Project in the Type Design class taught by Professor Chad Reichert. Betsy will return March 20 to critique students typeface progression. @ccs_cds @ccs_admissions @ccs_alumni_detroit @ccs_detroit @ccs_advertising #communicationdesign #advertising #artdirection #creative #branding #type #typography #graphicdesign #interactiondesign #motiondesign #uiux #userexperiencedesign #ux #uxd #ccsdetroit #collegeforcreativestudies #artschool #design #art #designschool #detroit @queertype.co @typeandmedia #handgloves #hamburgefontsiv

Early version of the new font I'm working on 😁 It's a fun one! Trying to be a bit more subtle. I wanted to make a low contrast sans, but to give it some interest, I added a small amount of horizontal stress. This complicates things a lot, but I'm moving in the right direction. Next steps are refinements to the spacing, weight, and diacritics, and then I'm on to the bold italic 🫡 Open to feedback! Drag me More of my work is on my site, queertype.co #typedesign #variablefonts #queertype

Antiphony, developed by Betsy Schuster, is a dualistic system that challenges both the viewer and traditional models for type systems. The first duality at play is the contrast between the 45° positive slant of the Display Italic and the negative slant of the Display Contra (reverse) Italic. Due to these extreme angles, Antiphony becomes more readable when set at 45° in either direction, creating unique typesetting opportunities. The second duality is the swapped contrast of thick and thin strokes between the forward and contra italics. This effect is achieved by applying the logic of pointed nib contrast while rotating the canvas 90° for each style, as shown in the second image. The third duality is from the difference in tool influence. The light styles are influenced by a pointed brush, while the bold styles are influenced by a flexible flat brush. This contrast creates a jarring tension, which, when combined with the other dualities, forms a cohesive system defined by its own deliberate incongruities. The word ‘Antiphony,’ which refers to the adjective ‘antiphonal,’ describes a style of music where two groups alternately sing, recite, or play, especially in a religious context. This name is fitting for the typeface, as the opposing styles harmonize like two voices singing the same tune. The typeface also carries vaguely religious undertones with its historical blackletter influences. Betsy Schuster (he/him) is a type designer and artist from Detroit, Michigan. He first explored type design during his undergraduate studies at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He then continued his type design education through the Type@Cooper Extended Program before studying at TypeMedia. In the first semester at TypeMedia, Betsy focused on conventional type design. During the second semester, he decided to apply what he learned to create something extreme and unusual. Betsy‘s strongest interests lie in pushing boundaries, exploring logical extremes, and using type as a means of expression. Since graduating from TypeMedia, he looks forward to developing his type design practice further. #tm2324

The process of Antiphony began with a whirlwind of ideas, which then had to be carefully curated to create a cohesive system. In the beginning, Betsy was interested in distortion, ugliness, and chance, and intended to represent abject art typographically. Although the exploration of these ideas led to a lot of interesting results, Betsy determined that creating a project inspired by abject art would be impossible—or at least, impossible to complete in one semester. Utilizing some of the more intense outcomes from these explorations, Betsy discovered a new direction: duality. When placing the most slanted reverse italic next to the most slanted italic, he noticed that they formed a striking pair, each representing a logical extreme. Drawing further inspiration from pointed nib and blackletter influences, additional dualities emerged. While sketching Antiphony, Betsy referenced Sütterlin, a form of German handwriting that evolved alongside Fraktur. This is most evident in the capital forms, which each feature a complex closed loop construction. The influence is also seen through an open loop that appears in some lowercase forms. The blackletter qualities become more pronounced in the bold styles, where the inspiration of a flexible flat brush gives the shapes a distinctly blackletter flavor. Achieving balance between these seemingly disparate styles was challenging, but through careful planning and decisive action, the Antiphony family began to take shape. Betsy Schuster (he/him) is a type designer and artist from Detroit, Michigan. He first explored type design during his undergraduate studies at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He then continued his type design education through the Type@Cooper Extended Program before studying at TypeMedia. In the first semester at TypeMedia, Betsy focused on conventional type design. During the second semester, he decided to apply what he learned to create something extreme and unusual. Betsy‘s strongest interests lie in pushing boundaries, exploring logical extremes, and using type as a means of expression. Since graduating from TypeMedia, he looks forward to developing his type design practice further. #tm2324

Betsy Schuster (he/him) is a type designer and artist from Detroit, Michigan. He first explored type design during his undergraduate studies at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. He then continued his type design education through the Type@Cooper Extended Program before studying at TypeMedia. In the first semester at TypeMedia, Betsy focused on conventional type design. During the second semester, he decided to apply what he learned to create something extreme and unusual. Betsy's strongest interests lie in pushing boundaries, exploring logical extremes, and using type as a means of expression. Since graduating from TypeMedia, he looks forward to developing his type design practice further. Antiphony is a type family that explores typographic extremes and orchestrates commonalities through opposites. Antiphony is a dualistic system that challenges both the viewer and traditional models for type systems. Due to the extreme angle of the forward and reverse italics, Antiphony is well-suited for setting type at 45° in either direction. Additionally, the fluid nature of the design allows naturally setting the type on curved paths. The Antiphony type family contains 2 Display Italic styles, 2 Display Contra-Italic styles, and 2 Heading styles. Antiphony is great for creating striking contrasts and dimensionality in complex typographic layouts, and it is also well-suited for circular typesetting. #tm2324

Last week was my first venture into Arabic type! the @typeandmedia workshop with @kristyansarkis was challenging and fun, thanks so much Kristyan for your feedback and sharing your wealth of knowledge with us 🙇🏼‍♂️ I tried out a low contrast style in regular and black, as well as a condensed style with a slanted version which was incredibly interesting to try out 💙 I'm definitely interested to learn more about this beautiful script in the future! #arabictype #arabicworkshop #arabictypedesign Noticed a mistake in my markup of the sample text, the "medial Alef Maksura" should be the medial Yeh! just wanted to note that 🥹

Results from the Cyrillic workshop this week at t]m! I was eager to add Cyrillic to as many of my projects as I could to get the most out of the workshop. I'm so happy with how it all turned out. Thanks again to Ilya @ilyaruderman for the feedback and expertise 😃 and also to my classmate Zhenya @spizh for his valuable perspective and help with spelling. The first thing I worked on was the high contrast style of the contrast project—I wanted to learn how the shapes could look in extreme scenarios. Then, I worked on the low contrast style to get a better understanding of the structure and proportions. My revival is a fraktur, which historically has no Cyrillic references at all, so creating a lowercase with Ilya was a fun challenge. Finally, I wanted to see how the structures would change for an italic/cursive style, so I did some rough sketches for a potential Cyrillic extension to one of my personal projects. I didn't sleep this week! It was nonstop work, but so worth it 😁 I really would love to continue working on Cyrillic in the future! #typedesign #cyrillic #cyrillicfont #cyrillicletters #typemedia

Drawbot is really fun 💙💜😃 Learned how to make this in Just's class today @justvanrossum @typeandmedia #drawbot #pythoncode

A lot of change is happening! New logo! New name! 🫣💙 Starting with the logo... QueerType is more representative of where I want to go with the brand moving forward. Queerfonts was nice, but this is nicer. Plus it's abbreviated as QT 💙 so that's cute. #rebrand Next, a personal update concerning my name—I know I don't /have/ to explain myself for wanting to go by a different name, but I want to share why. I love the name Betsy! It would have been my name if I was born a girl, and it's also my maternal grandmother's name. I still use he/him pronouns, just to be clear. The only thing that has changed is the name i'd like to go by. I won't be offended if you call me Will—I'm kind of thinking of Betsy as a nickname for now, and it's a preference. I know it's a bit strange for a man to use a feminine name, but it makes me happy, and that should be enough 😊💙 Thank you friends! #queerdesign #queerart

A snapshot of my last work before TypeMedia starts 🤓 Found a name for this typeface as well. I'm taking cues from my own handwriting and trying to make something interesting and usable that's representative of myself and the direction I want to go in type design. I'm curious how i'll feel about these forms in a year 👀 I think I'll have a lot more insight. But for now, this is where I'm at with Betsy 💙 ft. lyrics by Suzanne Vega from the song Solitude Standing #typedesign #italic #typography #font #contemporarytype #queerart #queerdesign