About Us
Sharp Type is a global type design studio that offers high-quality typefaces for retail licensing and custom client projects. At Sharp Type, we are at the vanguard of contemporary typeface culture and design, developing historically conscious, but deliberately original typefaces used globally by renowned designers and world-class brands. Our foundry ensures only the highest level of quality throughout every aspect of the development process including design, production, and management.
A compelling typeface is the cornerstone of any successful brand. Our typefaces balance precedent with invention, utility with beauty. Our work is informed by our deep knowledge of type design history, the continual evolution of its historical models, and our own artistic process and invention.
Awards & Press
2024 Trendhunter – Feature
2024 Print Magazine – Interview
2024 Communication Arts Award for Best Typeface: Sharp Grotesk Global
2023 Monocle Magazine – Exclusive Feature
2023 The Index – Interview
2022 Lovers Magazine – Interview
2023 Latin Design Awards – Jury
2023 It's Nice That – Insights interview – Women in Type
2022 It's Nice That – Feature – Ghost Typeface
2022 The Index – Feature
2022 Monocle on Design – Podcast Interview
2022 Communication Arts – Exclusive Feature
2020 The Alphabettes – Interview – The Malee Scholarship
2022 Communication Arts Award for Best Typeface: Greenstone
2023 Communication Awards for Best Typeface: Ghost
2021 It's Nice That – Nicer Tuesdays – Video Interview
2021 Design Feaster – Interview
2021 The Baffler – Publishes 'Branding Hillary' by Lucas Sharp
2020 AIGA – Eye for Design Article – Carta Nueva
2020 Its Nice That – Article – Trois Mille
2020 Communication Arts Award for Best Typeface: Doyle
2019 Backstage Talks – Article
2019 Do Things NYC – Interview
2018 Medium – Feature – 11 Modern Independent Type Foundries
2018 European Design Gold Award for Most Original Typeface: Respira
2018 German Design Awards for Excellent Type Design: Sharp Grotesk
2017 Slanted – Article – Respira Black
2017 TDC Typeface Design Award: Sharp Grotesk
2016 Eye Magazine – Article – 'Type on the Campaign Trail'
2016 Type at Paris – Interview
2015 Communication Arts Award for Best Typeface: Ogg
2015
Lucas Sharp and Chantra Malee found Sharp Type from their small one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. Longtime friend and collaborator Josh Finklea joins at this time, too. The young foundry launches with two big projects that will prove to be early calling cards: Sharp Sans for electronics giant Samsung, and Sharp Sans Display No.1 for Jimmy Fallon’s takeover of The Tonight Show. Ogg wins a type design award from Communication Arts.
Chantra Malee, co-founder, ceo
Lucas Sharp, co-founder, type director
TDC Certificate of Typographic Excellence for Ogg
Communication Arts 5th Annual Typography Competition Winner for Ogg
2016
Chantra and Lucas move from NYC to Spain, trading in their Chinatown one-bedroom for a beautiful Carmen in Granada with a view of the Alhambra. During this productive spell, Lucas finishes the first version of Sharp Grotesk, their largest typeface to date. Connor Davenport also enters the picture: the recent MICA grad flys out to spend a month with them as their first intern, and, shortly thereafter, their first full-time employee. Lucas’s scriptface Frauen is featured throughout seminal food journal Lucky Peach, and designer Francesco Franchi picks Sharp Grotesk for Italian magazine, La Repubblica.
Print Magazine Typography Merit Winner for Frauen
Eye Magazine — Type on the Campaign Trail
Type Paris — Lucas Interview
2017
The co-founders decamp to Madrid. Lucas finishes Respira, a contemporary blackletter inspired by Andalusian Illuminated manuscripts, and the foundry releases it on Earth Day, with all proceeds going to the NRDC. Longtime collaborators Justin Sloane and Eric Carter are commissioned to design posters for the occasion. Sharp Grotesk is chosen by Collins for Dropbox’s rebrand, which remains one of the most comprehensive in-use projects for a typeface. Sharp Grotesk also receives an award from the TDC.
Communication Arts 7th Annual Typography Competition Winner for Sharp Grotesk
TDC Certificate of Typographic Excellence for Sharp Grotesk
Slanted — Respira: Charitable Font
2018
From their new home in Madrid, Chantra and Lucas travel to Vienna, where they are interviewed for Backstage Talks; that same year, they also publish an interview with Chantra. Ogg, Lucas’ iconic display face, is featured in Spanish magazine Neo. Sharp Grotesk wins the German Design Awards, while Respira is awarded “Most Original Typeface” by the European Design Awards.
Communication Arts 8th Annual Typography Competition Winner for Beatrice Display
Gold European Design Award for Most Original Typeface for Respira
German Design Award — Sharp Grotesk
Medium — 22 Modern Independent Foundries
Do Things NYC — Sharp Type
2019
My-Lan Thuong and Calvin Kwok fly to Madrid, where they officially join the team as type designers. With a growing studio, Chantra and Lucas make the decision to move back to New York City and establish a permanent office in Manhattan. The studio expands in other ways, too: Chantra founds The Malee Scholarship, a grant and mentorship program established to support women in type design who come from underrepresented backgrounds. Beatrice Display, Lucas’ indelible exercise in inverted contrast, is chosen by RoAndCo for their annual publication Romance Journal.
My-Lan Thuong, typeface designer
Calvin Kwok, typeface designer
Communication Arts 9th Annual Typography Competition Winner for Trois Mille (3000)
Backstage Talks — Chantra Malee
2020
Newly-minted plans for an NYC studio are disrupted by COVID-19. Sharp Type reorganizes as a global, remote-based studio. Chantra and Lucas move to San Francisco, and the rest of the team disperses to their respective home cities. The studio releases two virtuosic typefaces this year: My-Lan’s Carta Nueva, and Trois Mille by French type designer Marc Rouault, who joins as a regular collaborator. The co-founders also interview Untitled Macao about the design studio’s prolific use of Sharp Type’s fonts. Lucas and Marc are awarded by Communication Arts for their design of Doyle.
Justin Sloane, Lead systems designer and typeface designer
Communication Arts 10th Annual Typography Competition Winner for Doyle
Alphabettes — The Malee Scholarship
Eye On Design — Carta Nueva
It’s Nice That — Trois Mille
2021
Sharp Type continues to grow, hiring NY-based Theodore Jahng as content director. The studio finishes work on a comprehensive custom typeface system for the communications giant, Twilio, and Marc’s latest typeface, Tarnac, is released. At the year’s end, the studio produces The Yule Ogg, a type-centric take on the holiday classic featuring one of Sharp Type’s most beloved fonts.
Theodore Jahng, content director
2022
The full-time team, including newly-hired client liaison Zyanya Rodriguez, flies into San Francisco for a work retreat. Field trips to the Letterform Archive, Napa wine country, and coastal Marin County punctuate many home-cooked meals and endless games of Catan. The studio and its work are featured in the March issue of Communication Arts, and Livewire, an electric motorcycle brand, appropriately uses Trois Mille for its logotype. Josh Finklea publishes Octave in the fall, and the first Sharp FM mix debuts alongside its release. Connor receives a Communication Arts award for Greenstone.
Zyanya Rodriguez, client liason
Communication Arts 12th Annual Typography Competition Winner for Greenstone
It’s Nice That — Nicer Tuesdays
Communication Arts — Sharp Type
Monocle on Design Podcast — Sharp Type
It’s Nice That — Ghost
The Index — Sharp Type
It’s Nice That — Nicer Tuesdays
Lovers Magazine — Chantra Malee Interview
2023
The team travels to Chantra’s hometown of Newport, Rhode Island, where they are interviewed by the world-renowned publication Monocle for their autumn design issue. The foundry also releases the first-ever video trial font to preview Sharp Earth Latin. Léna Pommelet joins the team as a full-time type designer, and Calvin moves into his new role as technical director. Lucas begins teaching at The Letterform Archive’s esteemed Type West program. The studio also develops custom versions of Sharp Grotesk for Prime Video and Amazon Music simultaneously.
Léna Le Pommelet, typeface designer
Communication Arts 13th Annual Typography Competition Winner for Ghost
It’s Nice That — Women in Type
It’s Nice That — Global Type Around the World
Latin Design Awards — Chantra Malee (Juror)
It’s Nice That — Malee Scholarship Announcement
Monocle Feature
Lucas Sharp teaches workshop at Letterform Archive
2024
Launch, launch, launch: the studio convenes in Northern California for an annual retreat, laying the groundwork for the release of a new website, a new flagship typeface, and our first proper book publication.
Communication Arts 14th Annual Typography Competition Winner for Sharp Grotesk Global
My-Lan gives a lecture at Atypi in Brisbane Australia
Sharp Type feature in Eye Magazine
Notable Clients