Medium Bio
Stephen Coles (he/him) is Editorial Director & Associate Curator at Letterform Archive, a nonprofit library and educational center in San Francisco, where he co-curated the exhibition Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest. As an editor and community builder who seeks to connect font makers with font users, Stephen co-founded the websites Fonts In Use and Typographica, and wrote the book The Anatomy of Type. Previously, he was a creative director at FontShop, and a member of the FontFont TypeBoard.Long Bio
Stephen “Stüf” Coles (he/him) was raised in Salt Lake City where he was drawn to publishing by his father who ran a local magazine, and was hooked on fonts the moment his family got a Mac. In college, instead of attending class, he learned about type (and life) as a designer at his university newspaper, The Daily Utah Chronicle. After a brief stint as a freelancer in Stockholm, Stephen moved to San Francisco in 2004 to serve as FontShop’s creative director and a member of FontFont’s TypeBoard. He was also an independent consultant, connecting font makers with font users and advocating for the interests of both groups. While at FontShop, he served as a host for the TYPO Berlin conference, where he met his wife, Laura Serra. Stephen co-founded the websites Typographica and Fonts In Use, wrote a monthly column for Print magazine, and authored the book The Anatomy of Type. In 2017, he joined the nonprofit library and museum Letterform Archive as Associate Curator & Editorial Director. With his background in design and journalism, combined with an obsession for type history, Stephen is responsible for the online face and voice of the Archive, and helps to shape the future of the collection.← Back