About
Dinamo is a Berlin-based type foundry that designs fonts, books, and other physical things. From our Berlin studio, we collaborate with a network of team members across the globe, oscillating between commercial and cultural projects of varying scales.
As well as producing the fonts in our retail library, we work closely with clients spanning art and culture, fashion, commerce, and technology. Our Client Work page features examples of our services, including custom family design, bespoke customizations of our existing fonts, multiscript typeface systems, type tools and plugins, plus word mark and logo design.
Broadly speaking, research, experimentation, and collaboration are at the heart of our practice. We’re not just interested in what’s happening in culture — we’re actively engaged in cultural conversations too, producing our own Hardware products, bi-monthly newsletter, and publications on a regular basis.
Our team members lecture and host workshops at institutions around the world. In 2016, Dinamo was awarded the Swiss Design Award by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. Since 2018, our co-founders Johannes Breyer and Fabian Harb have been members of the AGI.
Approach
We are a group of graphic designers turned type designers, and we draw from our own experiences when designing fonts and pricing them. In 2020, we were proud to be the first foundry to implement a value-based licensing model, making the cost of our fonts fairer to companies small and big. We offer:
Team
We’re a dedicated, designer-led, and independent team based primarily in Berlin but spread throughout Europe, the UK, and North, Central, and South America. We collaborate on typefaces together and form special teams tailored to client needs. Many of us are local experts who specialize in multi-script solutions.
Erkin Karamemet – Type Designer
Ethan Cohen – Type Designer & Head of Business
Fabian Harb – Co-Founder & Head of Type Design
Fabiola Mejía – Type Designer
Hugo Jourdan – Type Designer & Font Engineer
Johannes Breyer – Co-Founder & Managing Director
Kristin Krause — Customer Support & Community Manager
Madeleine Morley – Head of Publishing & Communications
Melanie Schmidt — Graphic Designer
Michelangelo Nigra – Type Designer
Renan Rosatti – Type Designer & Font Engineer
Roberto Arista — Head of Engineering
Saskia Tetzlaff — Studio Manager
Sascha Bente — Type Designer
Simon Merz – Head of Hardware
Vanessa Olt – Strategist & Accountant
Arnaud Chemin – Type Designer
Daria Cohen – Type Designer
Olga Umpeleva – Type Designer
Rea Stamatoulakis – Strategist
Samira Schneuwly – Type Designer
Artists
Over the years, we’ve built long-standing relationships with like-minded type designers and artists, who contribute not only to the daily work-life of our studio but who also publish their self-initiated fonts in our library.
Actual Source — Simon
Alessio D’Ellena — Laica
Chi-Long Trieu — Display
Elias Hanzer — Arizona
Erkin Karamemet– Repro
Felix Salut — Galapagos
Giliane Cachin — Meteora (forthcoming)
Kaj Lehmann — Synt
Larissa Kasper & Rosario Florio — Monument Grotesk
Leonardo Azzolini & Simon Mager — Walter Alte & Neue
Oliver-Selim Boualam & Lukas Marstaller — Connect
Rani Yasmine Putri — Ronde (forthcoming)
Robert Janes — Viafont, Simon, Gramercy, Gravity
Sam de Groot — Otto
Seb McLauchlan — Ginto, Ginto Rounded, Rom, Marist
Stefan Marx — Stefan
Select Clients
Acqua di Parma
Alicia Keys
Bad Bonn Kilbi
Burberry
Collins
Cyprus Pavillon (Venice Biennial)
Dazed & Confused
Discord
Estonian Pavillon (Venice Biennial)
German Pavillon (Venice Biennial)
GOAT
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Istituto Svizzero
Institute of Contemporary Arts (London)
The International Olympic Committee
J Lindeberg
JOOPITER
Kunsthalle Zürich
Madhappy
Malone Souliers
MCM
Manifesta 11
Mysten Labs
MIT
Nike
On Running
Patreon
Planet Mu
Rewire Festival
RIMOWA
San Francisco Symphony
Snøhetta
Spotify
SSENSE
Stedelijk Museum
Tumblr
Warp Records
Yale Architecture Press
Xatar / Universal
ZEIT
Lectures
Frequent Collaborators
We have a network of collaborators around the world, from graphic designers to creative technologists to artists to engineers, who we exchange ideas with on a regular basis.
Actual Source, Adeline Mollard & Katharina Reidy, Alberto Guerra & Roberto Alesi & Alessandro Cacurri, Ana Sanikidze, Andrea Anner, Angelo Barbattini, Anja Kaiser & Jim Kühnel, Anya Danilova, Anna Cairns, Bernd Volmer, BNAG, Boom Promphan Suksumek, bus.group, Chi-Long Trieu, Curaprox, Céline Odermatt, Damian Fopp, Dan Solbach, Daniel Chessari, Daniel Grumer (Fontef), Daniel Wenzel, Duc Cao Xuan, Earthbound Press, Eloise Harris, Florian Lamm & Jakob Kirch, Frédéric Jaman, Gianluca Alla, Golgotha, Gor Jihanian, Gustavo Ferreira, Hardworking Goodlooking, HelloMe, Humans & Machines, Immo Schneider, Indrek Sirkel, Jakub Straka, Khajag Apelian, Kimya Gandhi, Laura Opsomer, Living Systems, Louis Brousseaud, Malte Bentzen, Manuel Rossner, Maximage, Mingoo Yoon, Mirka Laura Severa, Moonsick Gang, Moritz Tontsch, Naïma Ben Ayed, Nayo Kim, Nejc Prah, NODE, Obby & Jappari, Omnigroup, OtherMeans, Panos Haratzopoulos, Paul Mylecharane & Ziga Testen, Risto Kujanpää, Rob Milne, Scott Barry, Selina Bernet, Shamma Buhazza, Simon Burgunder, Sophia Becker, Stink Studios, Studio ARD, Studio Dumbar, Studio Yukiko, Tabitha Swanson, Tanja Modrakovic, Thibault Brevet, Vincent Chan, Vladimir Ivanenko, Wael Morcos, Wei Huang, Yanek Iontef (Fontef), Zach Liebermann, Zweihundertkilo