# Marta Bernstein > Creative Director ## Posts - [Interdisciplinary Engineering Building at University of Washington is now open](https://martabernstein.com/university-of-washington-ieb/): At Studio Matthews, we collaborated with architecture firm Kieran Timberlake to create wayfinding signage and environmental graphics for the latest addition to the University of Washington’s growing campus. The Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB) is designed to encourage collaboration across disciplines and build strong connections between students and industry professionals. It reflects UW Engineering’s commitment to creating an inclusive space that welcomes and supports all students, especially those from historically underrepresented backgrounds in engineering.  - [Interviewed by Simon Faser University Students](https://martabernstein.com/interviewed-by-simon-faser-university-students/): Every other year, professor Russel Taylor takes a group of senior students to Italy. Each one is assigned a designer to interview, in person, when they pay a visit to the studio. While founding principal at LS Graphic Design studio in Milan, I was interviewed by the group: the video is available here. GruppoNove 2014: Senior students from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver (CA). - [Speaker at Face/Interface 2025 at Stanford University](https://martabernstein.com/faceinterface2025/): I’ll be a speaker at Face/Interface 2025 – Global Type Design and Human-Computer Interaction, a conference organized by Stanford University. I’ll be talking about my decade long research on 19th century Italian type, but from the point of view of the method: type historians don’t talk enough about how start a research, how to organize research materials.  More than showing the results, I would focus on the process of finding primary sources and retrieving information from type specimens, magazines, newspaper articles, local registries. Where do you start if you don’t know what to look for? How do you find primary sources?… - [Monocle interview is out!](https://martabernstein.com/monocle-interview-is-out/): Monocle Forecast 2025 is out, with a lovely interview by Gregory Scrugg about Post-its. Extremely cool to fly back for the holidays and finding myself at the airport newsagent!   Monocle The Forecast December 2024 - [Interview and photoshoot for Monocle](https://martabernstein.com/interview-and-photoshoot-for-monocle/): Seattle design journalist Gregory Scrugg is writing a piece for Monocle about the enduring prevalence of Post-it Notes in the design world.  And he came to the studio to interview me, as we use sticky notes a lot (I am personally an avid user of the narrow ones for bookmarking). Below the photoshoot with photographer Kyle Johnson. - [Calligraphy workshop at Studio Matthews](https://martabernstein.com/calligraphy-workshop-at-studio-matthews/): A few weeks ago I gave a workshop to my colleagues at Studio Matthews, to introduce them to the lovely Foundational letters. I am no calligrapher, but knowing just enough of it has been helpful in making me understand the Latin alphabet a better — and thus making me a way better designer. Calligraphy is so much fun — also frustration sometimes, but practice does help: it teaches patience, and repetition has a calming effect. Since fall is coming, it’s a great evening activity when it’s dark and chilly outside. (And thank you @typeandmedia for having taught me so much about… - [Speaker at TypeCon 2024 with "Dusty Old Type"](https://martabernstein.com/speaker-at-typecon-2024/): What is the importance of physical archives? In a world that is becoming more digital every day, do we really need to preserve all those old paper artifacts?  During my 10+ year long research on Italian Nineteenth Century type I traveled to many places to visit public and private collections, having the chance to browse through type specimens that were not open for decades. Some surprised me, some other changed my mind. Some were beautifully made, others were cheaply printed. All of them told me a story. Whether you are a seasoned researcher or a design student, come with me… - [Type design critique at CFP Bauer, Milan](https://martabernstein.com/type-design-critique-at-cfp-bauer-milan/): I was invited by istructor Beatrice Dagostino and TA Anna Damoli to critique the final presentation of their Type Design course at CFP Bauer in Milan.  I taught that very same course multiple times before moving to the US, so it was very special for me. Plus, lovely letters! Congrats to the students and the teaching team!  Type Design evening course CFP Bauer, MilanLearn more about this amazing school and their teachers here - [Asurion wins 365: AIGA Year in Design Award. "The meticulous attention to details, unified vision, and impeccable craftsmanship throughout every facet of this project make it a winner.” — Rafael Esquer](https://martabernstein.com/asurion-wins-365-aiga-year-in-design-award-the-meticulous-attention-to-details-unified-vision-and-impeccable-craftsmanship-throughout-every-facet-of-this-project-make-it-a-winner/) - [Type@Cooper's Herb Lubalin Lecture Series](https://martabernstein.com/cooper-union-2022/): For most of the 20th century decorative type was not taken seriously: Modernism with its “less is more” made it superfluous. Ornament was a crime for a long time.  But now those lettershapes are making a comeback: we see more and more display typefaces designed to be used at large sizes, mainly for titles or short sentences, and whose personality has to be apparent in just a few letters. Not created to be timeless, or with readability in mind, they catch better than others the spirit of the time. How much contemporary type owns to the Victorian era? We will… - ["The beauty behind our brand": Ballard Food Bank featured article](https://martabernstein.com/external-link/): The Beauty Behind our Brand: Creative director Marta Bernstein and principal Kristine Matthews discussed the inspiration behind their branding design for Ballard Food Bank with Minerva Strategies. - [Talk at TypeLab by Cooper Union NYC](https://martabernstein.com/talk-at-typelab-by-cooper-union-nyc/): TypeLab is an informal, multi-day, typographic hackathon coordinated by Petr van Blokland to complement to the main Typographics conference and workshops. I will join the Americas stream to talk about my type research with a roundup of decorative alphabets from my research on Italian type foundries. Join the stream for some eye candy! 19th Century ugly type (that actually isn’t) with Marta Bernstein  Typelab Americas LivestreamJune 17th 2021 Organized as part of Typographics type conference, Cooper Union, NYC - [Speaker at Typographics Conference in NYC](https://martabernstein.com/speaker-at-typographics-conference-in-nyc/): Ugly Typefaces with Marta Bernstein:“The types cut between 1810 and 1850 represent the worst that has ever been”. Or not. Through her research on Italian Nineteenth Century type, Marta Bernstein will build a case in defense of loud, quirky, overly-decorated and extremely lively typefaces and the century that generated them. Because we still love some ugly type. This talk took place in The Great Hall at The Cooper Union on June 15, 2019. Ugly Typefaces Typographics 2019Cooper Union, NYC - [Tra Bodoni e la Nebiolo, i cento anni perduti della tipografia italiana](https://martabernstein.com/tra-bodoni-e-la-nebiolo-i-cento-anni-perduti-della-tipografia-italiana/): Possiamo definire la tipografia italiana dell’Ottocento come l’arco temporale che va dalla morte di Bodoni (1813), ultimo artigiano–tipografo di influenza settecentesca, fino alla nascita della società Augusta (successivamente Nebiolo) nel 1908, prima grande industria legata alla produzione di caratteri e macchine da stampa. Nonostante il periodo sia compreso tra due pietre miliari della tipografia italiana, molto poco si sa di cosa è successo tra i due eventi. Come si è passati dalla produzione artigianale alla prima grande industria tipografica? Esisteva una produzione nostrana di caratteri tipografici? Quali erano le fonderie di caratteri di riferimento nella penisola? Per ricostruire questi cento… - [Talk at Atypi Antwerp 2018](https://martabernstein.com/news-cover/): In the span of roughly a century, the typographic practice in Italy evolved from being a craft perfected by the skills of Giambattista Bodoni to being fully mechanized. While there is plenty of literature about the printer from Parma and the Nebiolo company in Turin, not much is known of the century in between the two. How come Nebiolo become one of the most important Italian companies in the early 20th century, aggressively incorporating almost all the possible competitors across the nation? Who were they? While Italy was slowly becoming a unified and independent nation, along the way came visionary… - [Speaker at Kerning Conference 2016](https://martabernstein.com/speaker-at-kerning-conference-2016/): In the span of roughly a century the typographic practice in Italy evolved from being a craft perfected by the skills of Giambattista Bodoni to being fully mechanized. While there are books and essays about the printer from Parma and the Nebiolo company in Turin, not much is known of the century in between the two. How come Nebiolo become one of the most important Italian factories in the early 20th century, aggressively incorporating almost all the possible competitors across the nation? Who were them? While Italy was slowly becoming a unified and independent nation, we will meet along the… - [It's Nice That features our brochure redesign for the Italian bath-ware company Mamoli. «Whether the luxury items float your boat or not, you can’t deny the skill of the designers in creating a graphic identity that suits its product to a tee.»](https://martabernstein.com/hello-world/) - [The Best Dutch Book Designs 2009](https://martabernstein.com/the-best-dutch-book-designs-2009/): “Compact, with clarity and variety“. This book pays homage to the American type designer and type publisher Tobias Frere-Jones, winner of the 2006 Gerrit Noordzij Prize awarded by the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. In 2009 the academy held an exhibition of his types as the Gerrit Noordzij Prize Exhibition, for which us students made this small overview booklet with its sympathetic presentation of Frere-Jones and his work. This compact and exceptionally well designed and executed catalogue features a palette of grey, pink and red that returns in the paper and ink. The material is laid out with… - [Alice typeface used on Domus 929](https://martabernstein.com/alice-typeface-used-on-domus-929/): OnLab design studio picked my typeface Alice for the insert on Domus 929, the Italian monthly magazine about architecture, design, and art.  Domus 929, October 2009the Magazine for Architecture, Design and Art Lovers - [Tobias Frere-Jones Gerrit Noordzij Prize Exhibition](https://martabernstein.com/ttobias-frere-jones-gerrit-noordzij-prize-exhibition/): In 2006, Frere-Jones became the first American to receive the Gerrit Noordzij prize, presented by the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in honor of his unique contributions to type design, typography and type education.A book produced by the Type and Media 08/09 class to commemorate the exhibition of Tobias Frere-Jones’ work, March 2009. The book collects his work between 1987 and 2006, articles by Frere-Jones, as well as anecdotes and stories from friends/ colleagues.  Contributors: Dawn Barrett, David Berlow, Rachel Berger, Amanda Bowers, Sheila Levrant de Brettville, Matthew Carter, Neil Donnelly, Sasha Frere-Jones, Cyrus Highsmith, Jonathan Hoefler, Natalia… - [Italic 2.0 Contemporary type design in Italy](https://martabernstein.com/italic-2-0-contemporary-typedesign-in-italy/): In 2007 I was part of Italic 2.0, the project documenting the state of the art of type design in Italy. The results became a blog, no longer on-line, and a book. Italic 2.0 presents the latest developments in Italian typographic production, which has experienced a true blossoming in the past five years, thanks to the contribution of a younger generation of type designers. The publication is organized around a series of themes: research and experimentation, education, recovery of historical models, custom fonts, and independent projects.A maps section illustrates the educational and professional paths of all the designers mentioned, including… - [A Hundred Years of Type 1813–1908](https://martabernstein.com/a-hundred-years-of-type/): This research offers an excursus on nineteenth-century typography in Italy, grounded in the analysis of type specimens produced by contemporary foundries and printers. It is supported by an investigation into the technical development of the graphic arts, including type design and manufacture, typesetting, and printing processes. The project began in 2005 with the objective of addressing a significant gap in the historiography of Italian typography. While Giambattista Bodoni—renowned printer and punchcutter from Parma—has been extensively studied, the century following his death in 1813 and preceding the emergence of the Nebiolo type foundry remains largely unexplored. Using an initial list of… ## Pages - [Cookie Policy](https://martabernstein.com/cookie-policy/) - [News](https://martabernstein.com/news/) - [Homepage](https://martabernstein.com/): Marta Bernstein ‡ Creative Director at Studio Matthews in Seattle, WA. Also a designer from Milan, educator for more than a decade, typographer, type historian, independent researcher at Nebiolo History Project, founder of Cast Type Foundry, cook, sailor. - [Privacy Policy](https://martabernstein.com/privacy-policy/): On this page, you will find information about the Privacy Policy regarding the processing and protection of the personal data of users and clients that may be collected through browsing or contracting services via the website martabernstein.com. Use of the Website implies acceptance of this Privacy Policy as well as the conditions included in the Legal Notice. Identity of the Controller Website: https://martabernstein.com/Owner: Marta BernsteinAddress: 3007 21st ave West,98199 Seattle WA (USA)Email: marta@martabernstein.com Collection of Personal Data It is not necessary to provide any personal data to browse the Website. You only provide personal data in the following cases: Your… - [About](https://martabernstein.com/about/): I am a designer, typographer, researcher, educator. ‡ Born and raised in Milan, I am now a resident of Seattle, after a stop in the Netherlands for a master in Type Design at KABK.  I am currently Creative Director at Studio Matthews, a woman-owned and women-led practice of designers, teachers, and makers, where I lead an interdisciplinary team in the development of visual identities, exhibitions, wayfinding systems, placemaking and interpretive experiences.  My approach to design is rooted in place and shaped through close collaboration across disciplines—branding, architecture, user experience, and storytelling. Type and typography are my enduring passions and the… [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)