Christian Schwartz (born December 30, 1977 in

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

, United States) is an American

type designer Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...

. He has been awarded the

German Design Award The Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the official design award for Germany presented by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology. The award was given for the first time ...

and the

Prix Charles Peignot The Prix Charles Peignot (Charles Peignot Prize) is a major award in typeface design, given "to a designer under the age of 35 who has made an outstanding contribution to type design". It is awarded irregularly, typically every three to five years, ...

Life

A graduate of the Communication Design program at Carnegie Mellon University, Schwartz first worked at

MetaDesign Metadesign (or meta-design) is an emerging conceptual framework aimed at defining and creating social, economic and technical infrastructures in which new forms of collaborative design can take place. It consists of a series of practical design-r ...

Berlin, developing typefaces for

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...

and logos for various corporations. He then returned to the US and joined the design staff at Font Bureau. Schwartz has worked independently in 2001, first forming Orange Italic with product designer Dino Sanchez and recently Schwartzco Inc. He has released commercial fonts with Village,

FontFont FontShop International was an international manufacturer of digital typefaces ( fonts), based in Berlin. It was one of the largest digital type foundries. The ''FontFont'' library of fonts contains designs by 160 type designers, among them renow ...

, Emigre, House Industries and

Font Bureau The Font Bureau, Inc. or Font Bureau is a digital type foundry based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The foundry is one of the leading designers of typefaces, specializing in type designs for magazine and newspaper publishers. History ...

. Many of Schwartz’s typefaces have been proprietary designs for corporations such as Bosch and Deutsche Bahn, both with noted designer

Erik Spiekermann Erik Spiekermann (born 30 May 1947 in Stadthagen, Lower Saxony) is a German typographer, designer and writer. He is an honorary professor at the University of the Arts Bremen and ArtCenter College of Design. Biography Spiekermann studied art hi ...

, and EMI, for the marketing of George Harrison’s posthumous final album. Schwartz has also designed typefaces for many publications including the US edition of '' Esquire'' and the extensive Guardian Egyptian family, with Paul Barnes, for the redesign of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper in 2005. With Barnes he set up the digital font company

Commercial Type Commercial Type is a digital type foundry established in 2007 by type designers Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz. Its work includes typefaces for ''The Guardian'', such as the Guardian Egyptian series, and other retail and commissioned typefa ...

in 2007. Schwartz’s typefaces have been honored by the Smithsonian's

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian Inst ...

, the New York Type Director's Club, and the

International Society of Typographic Designers The International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) is a professional body run by and for typographers, graphic designers, and educators. The society has an international membership and its aims are to establish and maintain standards of typ ...

. His work with Barnes has been honored by

D&AD Design and Art Direction (D&AD), formerly known as British Design and Art Direction, is a British educational organisation that was created in 1962 to promote excellence in design and advertising. Its main offices are in Spitalfields in London. I ...

and, as part of the ''Guardian'' redesign team, they were shortlisted for the Designer of the Year prize by the Design Museum in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 2006, Schwartz and Barnes were named two of the 40 most influential designers under 40 by ''

Wallpaper* ''Wallpaper'', stylized ''Wallpaper*'', is a publication focusing on design and architecture, fashion, travel, art, and lifestyle. The magazine was launched in London in 1996 by Canadian journalist Tyler Brûlé and Austrian journalist Alexander ...

'' magazine.

Typefaces

Typefaces designed by Christian Schwartz include:

References

External links

Schwartzco Inc.Christian Schwartz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Christian 1977 births Living people People from Concord, New Hampshire Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni American typographers and type designers