Type With Personality
Nils Lindstrom Design is an independent type foundry creating expressive, classically crafted fonts for identities, headlines, packaging, posters, and everyday creative work.
My Story
In College, I acquired a gradual fascination for letterforms that where more decorative than Helvetica. My fonts are made for designers who are looking for something expressive yet rational .
Every font starts with sketches, careful spacing, and an eye for memorable details.
The Beginning
In 1978 I enrolled as a graphic design student at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. I was trained classically to draw type by hand in pencil, then paint the letterforms on illustration board with Plaka or Gouache. It was a brutal process and very unforgiving.
Welcome to the Digital world
I bought my first computer in 1986 – a Mac+. Suddenly I could render precise letterforms with Bézier curves in a fraction of the time it took with a brush and pen. Editing was painless. I threw my lettering brushes and ruling pens away. About the same time, I was hired as a faculty member at the ArtCenter where I taught typography for the next 32 years.
Today
I’m retired, still left handed and I continue to draw type with a pencil. Type should look like a human gave birth to it, not a machine. The computer speeds up my work, but it doesn’t design for me…. yet.
Type is born; Letterforms are my children
