Making Type: Joana Correia of Nova Type Foundry

Welcome to the fourth in the Making Type series, where I ask type designers a few questions on fonts, design, process, and creativity. My hope over the years with this blog has been for it to be a resource for inspiration and education on how to, well, make type work. This series focuses on how the people behind the fonts themselves get inspired and what drives them to create.

Joana Correia is a type designer originally from Porto and now based in Vienna. She runs Nova Type Foundry, cultivating sunny fonts for warm humans. She is multitalented with an MBA and Executive Coaching degree informing her practice. She also started a new project recently — Ligado Studio — which we’ll hear a little more about in the interview!

I love the warmth and personality of Joana’s fonts, and it’s great to have them available in the Adobe Fonts library. I often find myself reaching for them and was thrilled to get ask her some questions!

What was the initial spark that got you into type?

As a child I was an avid reader, and always loved beautiful handwriting. I was drawn to letters more than images from a very young, but back then I had no idea what graphic design or typography were. I studied architecture and only later graphic design. So my first contact with type design came much later during my typography classes with Dino dos Santos, a type designer from Porto. I was immediately drawn to letter shapes, and to the process of designing with a font editor. It was a revelation for me.

Another event that sparked the idea that I could design typefaces came from a talk by Alejandro Paul from Sudtipos at my school. It got me hooked on commercial typefaces and handwriting fonts. 

How did your time studying type design at the University of Reading shape your practice?

Studying at the University of Reading was crucial for my career. It was an intensive immersion on type design, through practice but also we were exposed to history and printed materials in amazing classes by James Mosley and Michael Twyman. During the year I learned how to see the patterns, connected them to history and to calligraphy, and create my view and expression in type design. We had many teachers but our main teacher was Gerard Unger who was an emphatic and inspiring teacher. 

I’m curious how the type design scene is in Portugal. Do you find inspiration for your designs in your environment?

In Portugal, the type design scene is very fresh. Original digital type design started towards the end of the 90’s, with two main designers — Dino dos Santos (DSType) and Mário Feliciano (Feliciano Type). It was a small scene and not much going on. Rui Abreu was very inspiring in the 2000’s was starting amazing work.

Some of my typefaces have some inspiration from the retro style of design in Portugal, such as Laca and Lemongrass. I get inspired from shapes and ideas more than history though.

How do you navigate the complexities of designing across multiple languages and writing scripts?

When I was in Reading I wrote my Master’s thesis about Devanagari type, and designed a couple of typefaces for that script. I also designed Karma Devanagari together with Indian Type Foundry. 

For scripts you are not familiar with you need to immerse yourself in visual material, in documents, in handwriting samples, and also practice yourself calligraphy for the script. All of this brings knowledge that allows you to design quality work. Nowadays I am focused on Latin, Cyrillic and Greek. The work here is similar, it needs some practice, research, and guidance from peers to achieve a great result. 

You recently launched a new project: Ligado Studio. I’d love to hear about how you’re helping other Foundries

Yes, besides running my foundry NTF, Paley Dreier and I launched Ligado Studio. We wanted to bridge the gap between craft and business in the type industry. Nowadays to stand out a foundry needs to reflect and plan for the library, drive the marketing, and manage the whole operation. Most of the time this all falls on a small team. That’s where we come in as partners to help grow foundries, and help them create a new level of intentionality in their business to reach new heights. We partner on marketing, communication, strategy, and planning. We’re here to provide frameworks and support to implement that strategy ahead too. 

How do you stay creatively satisfied?

For me creativity is a way of living. I find it’s part of me whether it’s designing a new typeface, or finding ways to help a new foundry set up. I like to stay fresh by reading a lot, trying to stay up to date with the creative industry, technology, and business. I also love to be inspired by cities — right now I’m living in Vienna which inspires me with all the beautiful signs, culture and museums. and back in Porto with the design vibe that is all around. I like writing and I have a newsletter about many different subjects.

I’m also a people person, so what also inspires me is to be with people in person and online to discuss ideas. We’re doing this now with our Ligado type salon’s, where type designers from around the world gather to share ideas and challenges.

Thanks to Joana for her time and answers to my questions. You can check out Nova Type’s fonts on Adobe Fonts, or directly from the foundry website. Also type designers make sure to take a look at Ligado Studio!