About
Public is a collective of typeface and graphic designers. We have a boundless interest in constructing form to communicate. We are for curious discovery. We are advocates for type design. We work on custom typefaces for companies of all shapes and sizes. We contribute to a local and worldwide community. We are for sharing knowledge. We facilitate workshops. We use some of our profits to fund scholarships for aspiring designers who need a leg up. We are for tearing down walls. We count on a better tomorrow. We are Public.
Who
Michael is an internationally recognized Creative Director and Artist who is currently leading a multi-disciplinary design studio, Cina Associates. His design portfolio includes many prominent Fortune 500 companies including Disney, Apple, American Express, ESPN, Pepsi, Coke, Hewlett Packard, and Microsoft. Over his career, he has applied and synthesized typography, branding, illustration, motion, web, music, photography, art and typefaces to produce an integrated approach to his design. Cina’s work is consistently featured in numerous publications, Emmy winner, Grammy nominee and he has spoken at many global design conferences about his unique vision for design.
Typefaces
Karl is a typographer and teacher who shares his zeal for type with the next generation of designers at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. His impact on students is best summed up in this excerpt from a course review: “…I now dream in typography. Everywhere I look all I see is type now. I tried to eat alphabet soup the other day but by the time I was ready to eat it, it was cold because I couldn’t stop testing typographic systems with the letters. It’s almost a curse. I’m scared.”
Karl presents his speculative ideas on typography and design instruction internationally. His technical and digital expertise allow him to weave digitally produced content into engaging, and often hand-produced, physical forms. He has received design recognition through various outlets—most notably a cover win in the AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers competition.
Matt Desmond has been designing typefaces since 1996. In 1998 he co-founded Test Pilot Collective with designers Michael Cina and Joe Kral. TPC was a type foundry and experimental website that featured a daily updated first-page design. Since 2004, Matt has been licensing his fonts through his foundry MADType. Through MADType, Matt has also designed many custom typefaces and typographic logos for corporate clients through the years. His client list includes American Eagle Outfitters, Disney, Harley-Davidson, Nike, and Target.
As an illustrator —> graphic designer —> typeface designer —> digital designer —> executive creative director, Stefán Kjartansson wrestles complex ideas into form, making people feel delighted, inspired, and at best, slightly uncomfortable.
Born and bred in Iceland, Stefán graduated with a BA in Design from Iceland Arts in 1993. After a start in illustrating children’s books and comics, he expanded his range to other mediums: graphic design, art direction, and eventually digital design.
As soon as the internet reached the shores of Reykjavík (circa 1995), an opportunity in Atlanta led Stefán to join CNN.com as creative director. In 2000, Stefán co-founded the design firm Armchair (acquired by digital agency IfThen in 2017) and has directed projects for a wide range of clients from Dolby to The University of Chicago to Coca-Cola. Stefán continues designing widely used typefaces.
Shiva Nallaperumal is a Graphic Designer, Typeface Designer and Creative Director and co-founder (with Juhi Vishnani) of the plural design practice November. November has worked with a wide range of clients on Identity Systems, Printed matter, Interactive media, Installations and custom typefaces. As a typeface designer he has published with Commercial Type, Typotheque, Grilli Type, Bold Monday, Lost Type and now Public Type. In 2017 he became the first graphic designer to be included in Forbes India’s 30 Under 30 and in 2019 was inducted into the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). He holds an MFA in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
Typefaces
Lauren Graycar is a graphic designer and publisher. She has collaborated with a range of creative concerns in Los Angeles—where she lives and works—on projects across traditional and new media. A guiding interest in her work is how craft crosses physical and abstract boundaries. Working as a commissioned designer, she believes that a meaningful design process examines where our individual visual biographies intersect.
Since 2013 she has run the publishing imprint Kima. Select editions from Kima are archived in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas J. Watson Library special collections (New York), and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library (Williamstown, MA).