Type is ubiquitous.
Type Associates designs beautiful, functional typefaces for use in print, on the web and on devices.
The current library of 37 font families, comprising 157 fonts, includes popular revivals of old foundry fonts, hand-lettered poster styles and scripts, modern sans and serif styles, as well as favourites from our early days in headline typesetting. The library is available through the major font vendors: MyFonts.com, Fonts.com, Linotype, Fontspring and You Work For Them.
In addition to its “off-the-shelf” library, Type Associates also consults directly to designers, advertising agencies, publishers and other professionals to meet their bespoke font requirements. With more than 30 years experience in the digital arena and nearly 55 years in the analog field, we can assure our customers a wealth of experience no matter what their font needs. Look at Type Associates’ Fonts.
Type Associates’ principal is Russell Bean, a typography professional who started his career at an early age in a Sydney advertising agency as production junior whilst studying publication typography, hand-lettering and illustration at evening college.
The transition to “hands-on” came via management in 1969 of the headline division of a popular and progressive trade typesetting supplier. Still in his early twenties it was during this time that he designed his five weight Virginia family which won the inaugural Lettergraphics International Typeface Design Competition and a job in their Los Angeles studios.
As film font producer and chief lettering artist this was a great opportunity to rub shoulders with some of LA’s advertising nobility. Lettering and design projects included album covers for famous groups: The Eagles, America, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, The Doors, singers Jackson Browne, Neil Young and Frank Zappa as well as a variety of film titles. One memorable project was an outdoor poster for Diana Ross which was displayed above a well-known record store on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip.
His foray into sunny Southern California was followed by a return to his home town of Sydney to resume his previous position as photo-type manager of the trade typesetter.
Soon after, teaming up with a former colleague to build a headline setting and production studio which would cater for a large slice of Sydney’s advertising agencies, publishers and designers.
After several successful years the partners went their separate ways – Russell continued with the headline service and eventually acquired a small, fully staffed and functioning electronic typesetting firm and soon after added full production art and design services. Clients included Reader’s Digest; typesetting their magazine and condensed books, Qantas Airways, a number of financial institutions together with a swag of prospectuses and forms and several large mining companies.
Success of his typesetting studio was recognized with positions on the executive committees of the Australian Type Directors Club and its successor – the Australian Graphic Design Association.
The introduction of the Macintosh gradually saw clients becoming competitors and the studio was forced to downsize. But Russell could see the future role that the Mac would play in his own career and determined that his future could not ignore it. One day a colleague presented him with a beta release of Altsys Fontographer and he set about the steep learning curve that was to follow, designing typefaces and converting some of the collected archive of headline faces to Postscript fonts.
Following a brief excursion to Hong Kong where he managed the production facility of a Japanese font maker, Russell started another studio providing digital printing, inkjet output and other graphic services from a shop-front on the fringe of the Sydney CBD.
This was the time to step up to FontLab and his font production went full tilt submitting his growing library of fonts to the world’s major vendors.
