Erik Spiekermann is information architect, type designer and author. Two of his typefaces, FF Meta and ITC Officina, are considered to be modern classics. He founded MetaDesign (1979) and FontShop (1988). He is behind the design of well-know brands such as Audi, Bosch, VW, German Railways and Heidelberg Printing, among others;  information systems for Berlin Transit and Düsseldorf Airport and for publications like The Economist. He designed exclusive typefaces for corporations like Deutsche Bahn, Bosch, ZDF (German TV), Cisco, Mozilla and many others. Erik is Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen and in 2003 received the Gerrit Noordzij Award from the Royal Academy in The Hague. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorship from Pasadena Art Center. He was made an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA in Britain in 2007 and Ambassador for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation by the European Union for 2009. In 2011 he received the German National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement and the TDC Medal as well as a Lifetime Award from the German Art Directors Club. He was managing partner and creative director of Edenspiekermann with offices in Berlin, Amsterdam,  San Francisco and Los Angeles until June 2014 when he moved from that position to the supervisory board. He now runs galerie p98a, an experimental letterpress workshop in Berlin. Erik splits his time between Berlin and San Francisco and London, where his son Dylan lives. A book about his life and work “Hello I am Erik” was published by Gestalten Verlag in 2014. Photo: Dennis Letbetter

Ivo Gabrowitsch is an eCommerce Marketing Director at Monotype and is responsible for FontShop, Linotype, and FontExplorerX.com. He also directed marketing activities for FontFont and FontShop before FontShop International was acquired. After having worked for several years as a media designer on different print and non-print projects, he attended the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, where he was awarded a Graduate Degree in Print and Media Engineering. In 2006, he founded “Typostammtisch”, the regular typography meet-up in Berlin. Photo: Norman Posselt

Born in 1954, Siebert studied physics in Frankfurt. After receiving his degree in 1985, he worked as a science journalist, wrote his first book and moved from Frankfurt to Hamburg. There he co-founded the graphics magazine PAGE in 1986, and ran it as editor-in-chief until 1991, when he moved to Berlin. In Berlin, Siebert initially worked for two years for FSI FontShop International, where he published the first FontFonts, FUSE and the FontBook. In 1993, he took over marketing for FontShop Deutschland and in 1996, organised the first TYPO design conference; he started the Fontblog in 2004, and then in 2011, Creative Morning Berlin, as well as the TYPO offshoots in London and San Francisco. TYPO Days followed a year later. Since the autumn of 2014, he has been responsible for the German-language marketing for Monotype GmbH and initiated TYPO Labs and Brand Days.

At the beginning of the 1990s, Henning Krause worked for MetaDesign and was responsible for the corporate design of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe. In the mid-90s he designed the information and routing system of the Deutsche Bahn AG, which is still in use today. And for nearly 15 years he has been designing specialised type solutions for businesses – from logos to exclusive corporate font families – together with Fontshop Deutschland. In 2006, his translation of Karen Cheng’s comprehensive typographical reference book »Designing Type« was published by Hermann Schmidt Verlag under the German title »Anatomie der Buchstaben«.

Ever since Jens got his first computer in the late 80s, he has been interested in combining design with technology. Jens has a degree in Graphic Design from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, and has joined the FontFont Type Department in 2007, where he polishes and tweaks the fonts until they are ready for release. He spends a considerable amount of his time programming little helper tools for font production. In 2015, his first serious type design, FF Hertz, was released.

Originally an architect, Tim Ahrens moved towards type design and font production in recent years. He did research on optical sizes and developed software that makes type design easier and quicker. Currently, he lives in London, where he runs Just Another Foundry.

Erler, born in 1965, studied communications design in Kiel and worked for Lo Breier, Erik Spiekermann, and Neville Brody before co-founding Factor Design in 1993; he has since become one of Germany's top designers. In 2010, he left Factor Design to found EST ErlerSkibbeTönsmann with Henning Skibbe and Christian Tönsmann. The company does corporate, editorial, and type design for corporations, institutions, and publishing houses in Germany and abroad. One of their areas of expertise is the overall look and image of theatres in Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Bremen, Düsseldorf, and Stuttgart, among other places. Erler was also the art director of the German newsweekly Stern from 2012 to 2014. He has written and/or published various books on design (including a monograph on Erik Spiekermann) and is a columnist for the design magazine Page. Erler also speaks at design conferences and universities, and is a member of a number of design juries. He lives with his wife, two sons, and dog in Hamburg. www.est-agentur.de