René Knip studied at the Academy of visual Arts St.Joost, Breda, The Netherlands. René initially planned to become a painter, but an important teacher, type designer and calligrapher Chris Brand, stimulated his fascination for lettering, calligraphy and typography. For this reason he switched to the applied arts. He graduated with distinction in 1990. After an intensive training of three years as the assistant designer to Anthon Beeke, he started his own atelier in 1992. Atelier René Knip concentrates on graphic design at the dividing line between flat and three-dimensional works. Knip calls it the “2-1/2 dimension”. In his opinion this is a fallow land, a largely unexplored field. Other typical ARK interests are the miraculous effects between the male and the female: the autonomic possibilities of the applied graphic art; the independency of material and colour; and type design and calligraphy as visual tools. ARKTYPE.NL was launched in 2012, 25 architectural type related projects which he designed together with graphic designer Janno Hahn. These spatial letter tools will be for sale on the internet.