Introducing XYZ Type, a fresh type foundry with playful intentions

Time to welcome XYZ Type, a brand new independent digital type foundry, launched by typeface designers Ben Kiel and Jesse Ragan, who are entering the type market through an online storefront at xyztype.com.

The foundry’s initial offering of products includes two new type families, Aglet Slab and Export​, as well as the previously-released Cortado. Kiel and Ragan focus on designing and distributing typefaces that are conceptually “interesting, clever, and impeccable crafted”.Kiel works from the company headquarters in Saint Louis, collaborating long-distance with Ragan, who works in Brooklyn, NY. The two have worked independently for years on retail typefaces and custom commissions, and on freelance projects for other type foundries. After collaborating on several projects in recent years—including Cortado, which they released independently in 2014—they chose to formalize their partnership with this new venture. Each of the partners was previously employed by one of the world’s most esteemed type foundries. Kiel was instrumental in creating the Photo-Lettering service at House Industries, and Ragan contributed to the designs of Gotham and Archer while working at Hoefler & Frere-Jones.

As for the name “XYZ Type”, taken from the end of the alphabet, it implies the thorough and meticulous attention paid to every detail in a typeface. Branding designers Topos Graphics carried the themes of “small details” and “the end” further by punctuating the company’s logotype with a period. Designer Seth Labenz comments, “We’ve deliberately designed the brand identity and online products space solely using characters from XYZ’s typefaces. The structural simplicity of each isolated period highlights the details of line and shape that distinguish one typeface from another, but when they all appear together, they become a kind of cast in an typographic production—each with its own personality.”

Ben Kiel received his MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading. He currently teaches at Washington University and Type@Cooper. Jesse Ragan who has served on the board of directors for AIGA/NY and has taught at Type@Cooper (which he co-founded) and Pratt Institute, holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design.