As a Type Directors Club’s 2018 Ascenders award winner, New York-based Tien-Min Liao has a variety of skills and achievements: type design, logotype optimization, multiscript logotype solutions and now her own foundry, Typeji (typeji.com).

After attending National Chengchi University in her native Taipei, Liao came to New York City for the master’s program in communication design at Pratt. She then started working for a few top branding agencies, where she became attracted to the details of letterforms. “I quickly realized that designing logotypes required more than just selecting fonts and using them—I also needed to learn how to draw them,” she says. “I remembered seeing a type designer’s case study on refining logos, and the precision and attention to detail fascinated me. Inspired, I decided to deepen my skills. While working during the day, I attended the type design school Type@Cooper at night and on the weekends. At the time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to become a type designer, but I knew these skills would enhance my branding work. Over time, as I was assigned more font-related tasks at the agency, my interest in type design grew. After four years, I left my full-time position to pursue a freelance career as an independent type designer.”

Typefaces

Liao’s typefaces are very diverse, as are their initial inspirations. Her gracefully evocative Waverse and its two companion italics, Breezy and Windy, bring visual motion, sway and sensuality to a user’s applications, especially since the typeface has a variable italic style feature. “Although the typeface was inspired by the ocean, the idea actually came to me at home,” she recalls. “One day, I casually sketched an m with a pencil and thought it looked very interesting—almost like an ocean wave—and I tried a few letters in the Glyphs app, and that’s how the design began.

“Initially, I didn’t plan for it to be a variable font—the static version already had a natural sense of motion,” Liao continues. “But after releasing it on Future Fonts, I noticed several users slanting the font in Illustrator! It made me realize that they might want not just waves but something more dynamic.”

She describes her typeface Fig Grotesk as a “friendly sans serif,” with its geometric structure yet also warm curved terminals and joyful diacritics. The initial catalyst here came from the 19th century. “I’ve always enjoyed collecting old type specimens, and I often browse online libraries to explore them,” Liao says. “The inspiration I found for Fig Grotesk was in the small-size version of Breede Magere Antieke from the specimen book Letterproef der Amsterdamsche Lettergieterij, voorhen onder de firma N. Tetterode, from an online collection in the library of the University of Amsterdam.”

Targeted online window shopping can also yield a bounty of inspirations. “In addition to type specimens, one of my favorite websites to browse is eBay—not for purchasing, but for inspiration,” Liao says. “You can discover a wide variety of printed materials from different eras and countries. The best part is that they’re usually high-resolution, as sellers want to showcase their items clearly. I love finding old stamps, tickets and small advertisement flyers, among other things. Each search reveals something new, as new vintage items are constantly being auctioned. I have a dedicated folder on my hard drive filled with images collected from eBay.”

Liao’s work retains fundamental principles of typeface design, yet she brings a fresh point of view and playfulness. “‘Playful’ definitely fits the personality of some of my typefaces, like Fig Grotesk, Looklyn and Waverse,” she explains. “They all give off a friendly, approachable vibe. My typefaces might initially seem to belong to traditional categories but subtly diverge from the typical expectations. For example, Fig Grotesk is a low-contrast sans serif typeface yet has unique features, like its curly terminals. Looklyn, though a slab typeface, has noticeable thick-and-thin strokes. The thin leg of the uppercase A, for instance, looks like it’s wearing big shoes, giving it a playful, character-like appearance. Looklyn’s geometric skeleton also adds to this fun, approachable feel.”

There are many phases to creating a typeface, from sketching to digitally kerning and beyond. “I definitely enjoy the sketching process the most,” Liao says. “Rather than detailed hand sketches, I typically jot down quick ideas on paper and move straight to the computer. I do love working with Bézier curves a lot—it’s a much more precise way to sketch than with a pen and lets me see the results instantly. Often, what looks good on paper doesn’t translate as well when digitized, so I prefer to shape my designs directly on the screen.

“When working with brush or calligraphic styles, I usually reference various existing calligraphic works, analyzing their structure, proportions and weight distribution to define the recipe for the typeface,” she continues. “Once we have the recipe, it connects all the glyphs, uniting them into a cohesive family.”

Logotype refining

Liao also offers the service of optimizing a logo for various applications, such as extreme size changes, logotypes on a curve and other tweaks. “My optimization work mainly falls into two categories,” she explains. “One is optimization based on sketches from a design or branding agency. The other type of optimization is for different sizes or uses. The main goal is to ensure the logo maintains the best recognizability at every size. It’s important that logos remain consistent to the point where a nondesigner wouldn’t notice the changes. While not all logos require special size variations, they are particularly important for those that risk losing legibility when scaled down, such as logos with high contrast, extremely bold or thin weight, or tight tracking.”

Liao helped the subscription meal delivery service Hungryroot adapt its logo for two special orientations. “The Hungryroot logo was a collaboration with [design firm] Four Flights Up,” she says. “[The team] had already begun work on the brand system and had determined that the wordmarks would need to be placed on two types of semicircles: a ‘rainbow’ and a ‘smile.’ Additionally, they wanted to integrate circular shapes into the letterforms, as the circle was an important element of this brand. So, I drew the letterforms with geometric skeletons and shapes: the nearly circular O, the rounds of G and R, as well as the triangular elements in N and R. After I created the fundamental letterforms, the next challenge was figuring out how to make the type stand firmly on the curve.

“If we had simply typeset them on the curve, we’d find that not only would the letters appear unstable in size, but they’d also seem disconnected from each other, creating a polygonal look rather than a smooth arc,” Liao continues. “This was particularly noticeable with letters like R and T, whose straight lines appear especially jarring on the curve. So, the first step was to subtly adjust the top and bottom of each letter to follow the curve. Next, to solve unbalancedness, I made some visual corrections. For the ‘rainbow’ logo, I slightly opened up the tops of all the letters but not so much that they became overly stretched into a fan shape. For the ‘smile’ version of the logo, I did the opposite, making the bottom of all the letters slightly wider than the top.”

Bi-scriptual type design

Liao has extensive expertise, skill and cultural insight into bilingual/bi-scriptual logotype consulting, which is an invaluable service for helping international companies maintain brand consistency. Specifically, she can help bridge the visual gap between a logotype built in Latin characters to one in Chinese, Japanese or Korean and vice versa, capturing the message and brand personality rather than merely a similar appearance.

Finding a perfect companion Chinese or Japanese font for a Latin typeface can be challenging, and creating a complete companion font is often costly. This has led to a unique demand for bi-script lettering. “I specialize in lettering, particularly logotypes and wordmarks, rather than creating full Chinese or Japanese ‘fonts’ because designing fonts for these scripts involves an immense number of glyphs,” Liao says. “This is also why Chinese or Japanese type foundries are often much larger—even a fifteen-person company is considered small in this field.”

This is where Liao’s knowledge of the complexities of these languages and the very strokes and marks that comprise the characters makes a difference. “What I can offer is not just pairing but also creating custom kanji/hanzi lettering that perfectly matches the Latin fonts, specifically for use in logotypes and wordmarks,” she says.

Foundry

Liao has just launched her new foundry Typeji with Fig Grotesk, Looklyn, Min Sans, Waverse and several other typefaces. “Typeji originally started as the name for my freelance website, reflecting my ability to work with multiple scripts,” she says. “Ji (字) means ‘type or character’ in Taiwanese, so Typeji literally means ‘type and type.’ I was also selling my retail fonts on Future Fonts at the same time. As my font library grew, I felt I needed to create a home for my own fonts, so I started my own company.”

And now she is unveiling a new typeface: Method. “Method began as a revival project I started,” Liao says. “While browsing Barnhart Bros. & Spindler’s Specimen No. 9, a peculiar g in Lining Gothic No. 82 caught my eye. Its small, round upper counter and extended ear that sharply turns at 90 degrees created a distinctive, asymmetrical form that stood out to me.

“As I examined the typeface more closely, I found it to be somewhat unresolved, but it had several charming features that I believed could be refined into something unique,” she continues. “I noticed that the high-waisted proportions of the uppercase letters weren’t just present in those with counters and horizontal bars—like B, P and R, and E, F and H—but also in the C and S. In the specimen, the apertures of the Cs and cs are positioned higher than the visual center. Whether intentional or not, this gave both letters a high-waisted look, complementing the similarly high-waisted S with its small top counter. The straight horizontal cuts on the terminals of the rounds added sharpness and character to the C and S. I decided to extend this design to other open-ended letters like G, C and S; a, c and s; and 3, 6, and 9, making it a defining feature of Method.

“I also noticed subtle geometric hints in the specimen,” she adds, “including 90-degree angle turns in letters like t, f, r, y and j, and near-perfect circular forms in o, b, d, p and q. Inspired by these elements, I decided to further emphasize the geometric structure of the typeface.”

Starting with the Medium weight of Lining Gothic No. 82, Liao has expanded the Method family to a full range, spanning from thin to black. Definitely an exciting launch for the new Typeji Foundry. ca