Šimon Matějka (1994) received his bachelor’s diploma for his original typeface Kontra, and is now working on his master’s study in the Type Design and Typography Studio at the Academy of Arts Architecture & Design in Prague. During Šimon’s studies, he came up with typefaces such as Reblog, which refers loosely to the well-known typeface Block, or the reinforced typeface Pressure, which focuses on the characters’ static strength. He received the prize of the National Technical Museum in Prague in the Most Beautiful Czech Book competition in 2015 for his semester catalog České kolo (The Czech Bicycle). He exercises a lot both in his free time and in his not-so-free time as well. 

Šimon is designer of our new release BC Baseliner, the first variable font by Briefcase.

This solution came from the attempts to free typeface from its two-dimensional environment. The project by our new designer Šimon Matějka was to investigate the structural properties of the individual glyphs instead of analysing the typeface looks. The result was the discovery of how the individual characters behave under the stress of pressure. 

The initial is not just an emphasized letter fulfilling an aesthetic and visual function. The initial is truly a beginning. Although it is rather the title page of a book that speaks to the outside world, the core of the book concealed between the covers begins with the initial. Whether it is the beginning of the whole book or just a chapter or paragraph, the initial guides us like a road sign in the right direction.

Jakub Spurný (1988) studied at the Typography Studio at the Academy of Arts Architecture and Design in Prague. In 2017 he graduated with his author’s gamebook VIRUS. It was the second time one of Spurný’s books was selected for the Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year; it also won the Best In Design contest and was chosen for the Graduation Projects selection. The zigzagged and cipher-woven path led from trash typography (Senohraby) through a polished evolutionary Bodoni (Ghitta Bodoni) to experiments in frequency analysis, OpenType functions and the labyrinths of typefaces. He recently became a member of Studio Najbrt and is preparing a new batch of his psychotropic beer.