Stephen Coles is Editorial Director & Associate Curator at Letterform Archive in San Francisco. He also co-publishes Fonts In Use and Typographica.

    Previously, Stephen wrote the book The Anatomy of Type and was a creative director at FontShop.
    He shares his life with his wife,
Laura Serra.


Longer bios

OTHER BOOKS
2013  The Field Guide to Typography  introduction
2015  The Evolution of Type  foreword
2022  Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest  contributions
2023  Only on Saturday: The Wood Type Prints of Jack Stauffacher  essay
2025  Emigre Fonts: Type Specimens 1986–2024  preface


OTHER PROJECTS
Typographica Library  learn about letters
Font ID  identify letters
Strikethrough exhibition  letters for protest
Chromeography  letters on cars
Fleurs Coiffeur Liquor  letters on buildings
The Mid-Century Modernist  not letters
Stüf Stuff  ephemeral residue

TALKS
A Typeface is a Chair on selecting and using type
State of the Mart on making and selling type
What’s the Use of “Fonts In Use”?
Pre-digital Type Specimens at Letterform Archive
Breaking the Swiss Grid at Letterform Archive
Bauhaus Typefaces at Letterform Archive
Neon/Font with SF Neon
Neon/Matchbook with SF Neon
Webfonts Today on the state of screen type in 2014
Chromeography


INTERVIEWS
San Francisco Chronicle 2019  Listgeeks 2011  Typekit 2015 GQ 2021

PAST CLIENTS
101 Editions  Font Bureau  Identifont  MVB Fonts  Persona  Production Type  Schick Toikka  Type Network  Webtype

ELSEWHERE
Mastodon typography
Mastodon not typography
 Answers to type questions
 Pictures
 Bits of work

 Contact Stephen


Portrait by Laura Serra.