With 20 to watch, Flanders DC presents twenty emerging talents, who recently took their first steps in the worlds of design or fashion. We believe they will have great success in the future.

Who is Otis Verhoeve?

• studied graphic design at LUCA School of Arts Ghent
• subsequently trained in type design at Plantin - Institute of Typography
• likes to be inspired by historical fonts

While studying graphic design, I discovered a love for typography. Letters are the basis of any graphic design. Although they are subordinate to the image for most graphic artists, you can perfectly create a design purely with typography. Well-designed typography takes every design to a higher level. That’s why I consider functionality very important and make my families as comprehensive as possible. I enjoy creating letter families and seeing how other designers use them creatively.

In typography, aesthetics and technicality go hand in hand. Although typography per se hardly changes, new techniques and tools are constantly emerging for digital carriers, for example, to create variable fonts or animate letters. You have to constantly stay informed, especially for digital applications. Although the real magic for me lies in print. The scale and tactility have a strong influence on the aesthetics. I find it fascinating to look for ways to make compositions of text and image as interesting and structured as possible. This is especially crucial with a book.

The fact that typography is a niche discipline does not always make it easy. Moreover, I mainly work for the music and clubbing sector, where budgets are often limited. At the same time, type design takes a huge amount of time, and it is not always easy to validate it. That is why I cannot yet make a full-time living from my work as a type designer. However, I am working on various type families for the Dutch platform Wisetype and the French Blaze Type. As soon as they are for sale, they will provide an ongoing passive income.