We are delighted to announce Commercial Type will be sponsoring the Graphic District at this year’s festival in June.

Commercial Type is an internationally known type foundry founded by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz, with offices in London and New York. Having collaborated since 2004 on various typeface projects, most notably the Guardian family, the team are renowned for producing award-winning retail fonts and custom typefaces which push the boundaries of modern type design, resulting in Barnes and Schwartz being named two of the 40 most influential designers under 40 in Wallpaper*.

It is this ambitious spirit that resonated with us at BDF, and makes us very proud to have Commercial Type on board as a key partner for the 2019 festival. In addition to supplying their expressive Graphik typeface for use as part of our core branding, the team will also present a talk in the Graphic District which will feature an insight into a new venture which they will be launching in the Spring.

Commenting on the collaboration, Commercial Type founder Paul Barnes added:

“As a type foundry we like to support and encourage events and conferences that help to promote design, particularly those that are new and offering new approaches for professionals of all ages and levels, and of course students and educators. We are particularly happy to support the Birmingham Design Festival as its a new festival, but also as its encouraging design outside of London, and as I am from the Midlands I am very happy about this. Of course Birmingham with its rich history of craftsmanship and typography is close to our hearts.”