Istanbul-based founder and creative director Fatih Hardal lets the pleasure he finds in designing letters drive the work at his foundry Typografische. “Even though it tires one’s brain at first,” he admits, “great experiences and creativity emerge when you see all the richness of the letters.” Having graduated from Marmara University with a degree in visual communication and design, a program in which Hardal discovered his passion for type design, he knew he wanted to work independently of agencies. “I never dreamed of finding ‘extraordinary advertising ideas’ in an ad agency,” he says. “My typography adventure started immediately after this. At the end of 2020, I received an email from Nike and officially entered the world of both typeface design and graphic design professionally. This was a great step forward for my career, both igniting my courage and opening the door for me to meet extraordinary people.” Hardal draws inspiration from many arenas and hopes to eventually evolve Typografische into an interdisciplinary firm driven by typography. “I like to explain big problems as if they weren’t a problem, and typography is an excellent tool in this part,” he explains. “It provides a high level of ease in expressing emotions. Josef Müller-Brockmann, Emil Ruder and Wolfgang Weingart are pioneers of this movement; today, we are many artists and designers who adopt this approach.”