Lead Type Designer

About Studio DRAMA

Studio DRAMA is an independent brand and type design studio based in London.

We work with ambitious brands and creative partners around the world to create distinctive identities and custom typefaces. Our work spans brand design, type design and technology, with typography sitting at the heart of much of what we do.

We’re looking for an exceptional Lead Type Designer to join our growing type team and help shape the next chapter of Studio DRAMA.

The Role

As Lead Type Designer, you’ll lead the creative development of custom typefaces for some of the world’s most ambitious and recognisable brands.

This is first and foremost a design role.

We’re looking for someone with exceptional drawing skills, strong typographic instincts and the ability to take an idea from an early sketch through to a distinctive, coherent and beautifully crafted type family.

You’ll work across projects from early creative exploration through to final delivery, collaborating with our Creative Directors, designers, engineers, clients and external creative partners.

You’ll also play an important role in raising the standard of type design across the studio, mentoring other designers and helping us continually improve the way we approach, present and deliver our work.

What You’ll Do

Type Design & Creative Development

• Lead the design and development of major custom typeface projects.
• Develop distinctive typographic concepts that respond intelligently to brands and their visual identities.
• Draw and refine letterforms to an exceptional standard.
• Develop coherent type systems across weights, widths, styles and families.
• Take projects from initial sketches and exploration through to final type families.
• Explore expressive and experimental approaches to typography where appropriate.
• Design with real-world applications in mind, from large-scale brand communications to digital products and interfaces.
• Contribute to the development of Studio DRAMA’s growing retail typeface library.

Client & Project Leadership

• Take creative ownership of custom type projects.
• Present work directly to clients, branding agencies and creative partners.
• Clearly articulate the thinking and rationale behind design decisions.
• Respond intelligently to feedback while protecting the integrity and quality of the work.
• Collaborate with project managers to keep projects ambitious, focused and on schedule.
• Help define project scope, timelines and appropriate creative and technical approaches.
• Build strong relationships with clients throughout the design process.

Craft & Production

• Take type families from early drawings through interpolation and final refinement.
• Work across weights, widths and variable systems.
• Understand the technical implications of design decisions.
• Work closely with font engineers to prepare typefaces for production.
• Review and QA fonts before delivery and release.
• Maintain exceptionally high standards of craft throughout every stage of a project.

Leadership & Mentorship

• Mentor junior and midweight members of the type team.
• Lead critiques and encourage open discussion around the work.
• Help establish and maintain a high creative standard across Studio DRAMA.
• Share knowledge, references, techniques and new approaches with the wider studio.
• Support the leadership team in identifying and working with specialist collaborators where required.
• Help manage workloads and ensure designers are effectively briefed and supported.
• Contribute to a generous, ambitious and collaborative studio culture.

Research & Development

• Stay curious about where type design is heading.
• Explore emerging ideas across variable fonts, motion, technology and new creative tools.
• Initiate and contribute to internal typographic experiments.
• Identify opportunities to improve our creative processes and workflows.
• Help turn experimentation into ideas that can influence future client work, products and Studio DRAMA’s own output.

What We’re Looking For

You’ll likely have:

• Significant professional experience designing typefaces.
• An exceptional portfolio demonstrating creativity, originality and craft.
• Excellent letter-drawing skills and a deep understanding of typography.
• Experience designing substantial type families across multiple weights and styles.
• Advanced knowledge of Glyphs and contemporary type design workflows.
• Experience with interpolation and variable fonts.
• A strong understanding of font production and OpenType.
• Experience working on custom or brand typefaces.
• The confidence to present work and communicate directly with clients.
• The ability to lead projects and provide clear creative direction to others.
• Strong opinions about type combined with the ability to collaborate and respond constructively to feedback.
• Experience designing additional scripts or working with multi-script collaborators is a bonus.

The Person

• You’re deeply invested in the craft of type design, but equally interested in ideas.
• You can obsess over the shape of a curve, then zoom out and understand what that decision means for an entire type system or brand.
• You’re comfortable taking ownership, sharing your point of view and helping other designers produce their best work.
• You’re ambitious about what type design can be and excited by the opportunity to help build a growing type practice.
• Most importantly, you love drawing type.

Working at Studio DRAMA

• This is a full-time, permanent position based in London, with a salary of £45,000–£55,000 depending on experience.
• We work together in our London studio four days per week, with one day working from home.
• Our projects are highly collaborative and we want senior members of the team to be present, sharing ideas, reviewing work and contributing to the wider studio.
• Benefits include:
• Performance-related bonus
• Foundry profit share scheme
• Pension
• Healthcare
• Exercise benefits
• Paid holiday
• Hybrid working, with one WFH day per week
• Regular studio socials and events
• Opportunity to work with major global brands
• Opportunity to help shape a growing independent studio and type practice

If you’re excited by ambitious type design and want to play a meaningful role in the future of Studio DRAMA, we’d love to hear from you.