Daniel Perraudin on building a type foundry by designers, for designers

The Brand Identity: After more than 15 years working as a graphic designer, Daniel Perraudin launched Gallery Type, a Berlin-based type foundry shaped by his experience on the other side of the brief. Perraudin describes type as a tool, and his approach to designing it reflects that conviction: typefaces built around how they’ll be used in branding, editorial and spatial design. That same application-oriented thinking extends to Gallery Type’s licensing model, which calculates fees based on a single metric – company size – and covers all applications and media in perpetuity.

Fully functional trial fonts, a country-specific Fair Price Adjustment tied to World Bank data and an MA in type design from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague round out a foundry designed to serve the people Perraudin has spent his career working alongside. TBI Hi Daniel! How are things in Berlin? DP Pretty good, thanks. We had a long, cold winter, but now the whole city is waking up to a beautiful spring. But let’s talk type… TBI Absolutely. So, you worked at respected design agencies in Germany before co-founding Capitale Design Studio.

What experiences across that journey led you to then start Gallery Type? DP It was a pretty logical step for me. I genuinely love being a graphic designer, and over the last 15 years I’ve worked on a wide range of great projects across branding, editorial design and signage – often with a strong typographic focus. But type design was always my (secret) love child. At some point, I realised that running my own design studio would never give me the amount of time I’d really like to dedicate to designing type.

So after more than 15 years in graphic design, starting a foundry felt like the natural next step. TBI Gallery Type describes itself as a type foundry ‘by designers, for designers.’ How does your background in branding shape the typefaces you create? DP Choosing the right typeface was often how we started a new project.

The shapes of a typeface can carry meaning, and things like proportions, apertures or stroke endings can subtly express and define a brand’s DNA – sometimes for decades. When I say ‘by designers, for designers,’ I mean that I don’t only think about type design from the perspective of a type designer, but also from the perspective of a graphic designer. After using type as a design tool for more than 15 years, I’m very aware of what a typeface needs to be truly useful. In the end, type is a tool.

That’s why Gallery Type’s design DNA is very much application-oriented. TBI How do you typically start the design process for a new typeface? DP In my early years, I used to sketch a lot at the beginning. These days, I already have so many rudimentary sketches – ranging from just a few letters to entire uppercase and lowercase character sets – that I often start digitally and review which ideas might have the potential to become a finished typeface. It helps a lot if those sketches are already a few months or even years old.

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The article discusses a new type foundry that caters specifically to designers, which is significant for the design industry, offers a fresh perspective on type licensing, and provides actionable insights for brand strategy professionals.