The type industry is changing fast. Between consolidation, shifts in distribution, open-source libraries, AI, and the pressures of an increasingly crowded marketplace, running a sustainable practice has become much harder. For many emerging designers, the question is no longer how to draw better letters, but how to create the conditions that allow their work to reach an audience. This series explores a shared anxiety: Is there a future in type?

Through conversations with people who have built new models, we'll examine what it takes to move beyond making typefaces to shaping the field. What did it take? What did it cost? And what can we take away from their experiences?

Type Electives Virtual Lecture Series:

What if the work is the resistance?

The future of type isn’t abstract or inevitable. It’s being shaped every day through concrete decisions: who gets recognition, what gets made, and which structures we reinforce. In this talk, Flavia Zimbardi traces the choices that gradually expanded her practice, exploring how collaboration, publishing, and community-building became her way of navigating and challenging the field—and what she learned about designing systems as deliberately as the typefaces themselves.

This session will feature a short presentation, followed by an open Q&A for attendees.

The event will be hosted online via Zoom.

We look forward to having you with us!

Flavia Zimbardi

Flavia Zimbardi (she/her) is an independent type designer and visual artist from Rio de Janeiro whose work connects cultural heritage and activism. Founder of the feminist initiative Women in Type and author of the publishing platform Contraforma, she partners with foundries including Commercial Type, Frere-Jones, Adobe Fonts, and Google Fonts, and with clients such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Penguin Random House, Pentagram, and Jones Knowles Ritchie. Her work has received awards from the ADC and the Tipos Latinos Biennial, and with Lygia, she became the first Brazilian woman to have a typeface recognized by the Type Directors Club.

Instagram: @flaviazim, @womenintype.xyz