Lead Type Designer

About Studio DRAMA

Studio DRAMA is an independent brand and type design studio based in London.

We work with ambitious brands and creative partners around the world to create distinctive identities and custom typefaces. Our work spans brand design, type design and technology, with typography sitting at the heart of much of what we do.

We’re looking for an exceptional Lead Type Designer to join our growing type team and help shape the next chapter of Studio DRAMA.

As Lead Type Designer, you’ll lead the creative development of custom typefaces for some of the world’s most ambitious and recognisable brands.

This is first and foremost a design role.

We’re looking for someone with exceptional drawing skills, strong typographic instincts and the ability to take an idea from an early sketch through to a distinctive, coherent and beautifully crafted type family.

You’ll work across projects from early creative exploration through to final delivery, collaborating with our Creative Directors, designers, engineers, clients and external creative partners.

You’ll also play an important role in raising the standard of type design across the studio, mentoring other designers and helping us continually improve the way we approach, present and deliver our work.

• Lead the design and development of major custom typeface projects.
• Develop distinctive typographic concepts that respond intelligently to brands and their visual identities.
• Draw and refine letter forms to an exceptional standard.
• Develop coherent type systems across weights, widths, styles and families.
• Take projects from initial sketches and exploration through to final type families.
• Explore expressive and experimental approaches to typography where appropriate.
• Design with real-world applications in mind, from large-scale brand communications to digital products and interfaces.
• Contribute to the development of Studio DRAMA’s growing retail typeface library.

• Take creative ownership of custom type projects.
• Present work directly to clients, branding agencies and creative partners.
• Clearly articulate the thinking and rationale behind design decisions.
• Respond intelligently to feedback while protecting the integrity and quality of the work.
• Collaborate with project managers to keep projects ambitious, focused and on schedule.
• Help define project scope, timelines and appropriate creative and technical approaches.
• Build strong relationships with clients throughout the design process.

• Take type families from early drawings through interpolation and final refinement.
• Work across weights, widths and variable systems.
• Understand the technical implications of design decisions.
• Work closely with font engineers to prepare typefaces for production.
• Review and QA fonts before delivery and release.
• Maintain exceptionally high standards of craft throughout every stage of a project.

• Mentor junior and midweight members of the type team.
• Lead critiques and encourage open discussion around the work.
• Help establish and maintain a high creative standard across Studio DRAMA.
• Share knowledge, references, techniques and new approaches with the wider studio.
• Support the leadership team in identifying and working with specialist collaborators where required.
• Help manage workloads and ensure designers are effectively briefed and supported.
• Contribute to a generous, ambitious and collaborative studio culture.

• Stay curious about where type design is heading.
• Explore emerging ideas across variable fonts, motion, technology and new creative tools.
• Initiate and contribute to internal typographic experiments.
• Identify opportunities to improve our creative processes…