About

Sibylle Hagmann studied at the Basel School of Design, earning a B.F.A. in 1989, and completed an M.F.A. at the California Institute of the Arts in 1996. Her formation bridges the rigor of Swiss graphic design and the experimental ethos of 1990s California—an intersection that continues to inform her creative approach.

During the first decade of Kontour, founded in 2000, Hagmann pursued a dual practice: designing type families while also developing visual projects for cultural institutions, museums, and publishers. With a strategic shift in focus, she redirected her creative output exclusively toward type design, dedicating herself to the development of original typefaces and the stewardship of her independent foundry. Her work centers on building cohesive type families with a distinct aesthetic, grounded in conceptual inquiry and refined technical execution for professional use.

Her early family Cholla, originally commissioned by Art Center College of Design, and released sonn after by Emigre in 1999, received international recognition as a winning entry in the 2001 bukva:raz! competition of the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI). Odile (2006) was awarded the Swiss Federal Design Award and garnered the Granshan Grand Prize. Subsequent releases include Elido (2010), a humanist sans companion to Odile; Axia (2012), initially commissioned by the Rice University School of Architecture; Kopius (2016); Utile and Utile Display (2019); Marlide Display (2022), recipient of the ISTD Certificate of Excellence; Datei Grotesk (2024); and Riant Display (2025).

Hagmann’s work has received multiple Certificates of Excellence from the Type Directors Club in New York and Japan, and it has been exhibited internationally, including by the Type Directors Club (New York and Japan), the Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, and the Universidad de Monterrey.

She is Professor at the University of Houston School of Art, where she has taught since 2002, shaping generations of designers while continuing to refine a pedagogy grounded in critical inquiry and typographic craft. In 2021, she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Moore College of Art & Design.

2023: Experimental Type. Slanted Magazine #40. Published by Slanted Publishers: Berlin, Germany

2022: Year Book of Type 6. Edited by Slanted. Published by Slanted Publishers: Berlin, Germany

2021: Year Book of Type 5. Edited by Slanted. Published by Slanted Publishers: Berlin, Germany

2020: Support Independent Type — the New Culture of Type Specimens. Published by Slanted Publishers: Berlin, Germany

2019: Year Book of Type 4. Edited by Slanted. Published by Slanted Publishers: Berlin, Germany

2018: Communication Arts. Kopius as introduced by Tamye Riggs. Published by CA: CA, USA

2018: Year Book of Type 3. Edited by Slanted. Published by Slanted Publishers: Berlin, Germany

2016: Year Book of Type 2. Edited by Slanted. Published by Niggli: Zurich, Switzerland

2015: Typodarium 2016. A 366 Day Type Calendar. Published by Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz: Mainz, Germany

2015: IDEA Document: The World of Type Design – On the Shoulders of Giants. Published by Seibundo Shinkosha: Tokyo, Japan

2014: Slanted Magazine #22. Art Type, Contemporary Typefaces. Published by Lars Harmsen, Ulrich Weiss: Karlsruhe, Germany

2014: Neue Schriften. New Typefaces. Published by Niggli, Switzerland

2013: Year Book of Type 1. Edited by Slanted. Published by Niggli, Switzerland

2012: Graphic Design in context: Graphic Design Theory. Published by Thames & Hudson, London, UK

2012: Graphic Design in context: Typography. Published by Thames & Hudson, London, UK

2012: Women in Graphic Design. Edited by Gerda Breuer and Julia Meer. Published by Jovis Verlag, Berlin, Germany

2011: Granshan 2008-2010. Award-winning works of the international type design competitions. Published by The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia

2010: Slanted Magazine #12. Beat That If You Can!. Published by Lars Harmsen, Ulrich Weiss: Karlsruhe, Germany

2010: Graphic Magazine, #16, Winter. The Type Archive Issue: A&B. Published by Kwangchul Kim: Seoul, South Korea

2010: Typodarium 2011. The Type Calendar of 2011. Published by Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz: Mainz, Germany

2010

Type In Good Shape (Schrift in Form). Published by The Klingspor Museum: Offenbach, Germany.

2009: TYPO magazine, summer issue 36. Odile & Elido by David Březina. Published by Vydavatel Publisher: Praha, Czech Republic

2009: EYE, Golden Age? Deborah Littlejohn, Vol. 18., Spring. Published by Victoria McDougall, edited by John L. Walters: London, UK

2008: Font. The Sourcebook. Great Women Typographers: Where are They? Teal Triggs asks Sibylle Hagmann. Published by Black Dog Publishing: London, UK

2008: Idea Magazine, March issue No. 327. Reprint of the Dwiggins article: Dwiggins Revisited Revisité. Published by Seibundo Shinkosha Co., Ltd: Tokyo, Japan

2008: Metropolis Magazine, March issue. Metropolis Observed: Local Flavors Typography.Published by Bellerophon Publications Inc.: New York, NY

2007: PAGE, Typeladys. 12|07. Published by Page Verlag: Hamburg, Germany

2007: Slanted Magazine #5. Das Gefühl der Typografie, What do you think? Interviews zu OpenType and Unicode. Published by Lars Harmsen, Ulrich Weiss: Karlsruhe, Germany

2007: PAGE, Experten-Angelegenheit. 02|07. Published by Page Verlag: Hamburg, Germany

2007: HOW, Special Issue Typography, The birth of Odile by Tamye Riggs. 2|2007. Published by F+W Publication, Inc.: Cincinnati, OH

2006: EYE, Back with a Flourish by Christian Schwartz. Vol. 16., Winter. Published by Rachael Stilwell, edited by John L. Walters: London, UK

2006: Swiss Federal Design Grants 2006, “Selected—Awarded“, Swiss Federal Office of Culture. Published by Birkhäuser Verlag: Basel, Switzerland

2006: Specimens; Emigre Fonts Type Specimens, Volume One, limited edition. Published by Emigre: Berkeley, CA

2006: Grafik Magazine, Anatomy of a typeface, Odile reviewed by Yves Peters. October issue. Published by Alan Lewis: London, UK

2006: Type Rules! The Designers Guide to Professional Typography, 2nd edition. Published by John Wiley &Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ

2006: The most beautiful Swiss books 2005. Published by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture: Bern, Switzerland

2005: Earthquakes & Aftershocks. Published by École des beaux-arts de Rennes, Rennes, France

2005: STEP Inside Design Magazine, Redefining Design: 50 Women who are leading the way. November | December issue, Volume 21, Number, 6: New York, NY

2005: Alphabet: An Exhibition of Hand-Drawn Lettering & Experimental Typography. Published by Post Typography, Baltimore, MD

2005: Type One: Discipline and Progress in Typography. Published by the Gestalten Verlag, Berlin, Germany

2005: Layout Workbook. Published by Rockport Publishers, Gloucester, MA

2005: 1,000 Type Treatments. Published by Quayside Publishing Group, Gloucester, MA

2004: HOW, Special Typography issue. February 2004, Volume XIX, Number 1: Cincinnati, OH

2004: Typography 25, The Annual of the Type Directors Club, Watson-Guptill: New York, NY

2004: Frische Schriften (Fresh Type), Edition Museum für Gestaltung Zürich with texts from Andres Janser, François Rappo, and Fred Smeijers, German/English: Zürich, Switzerland

2004: ArtLab, Redazione Artlab, Spring issue: March 2004: Milano, Italy

2004: Étapes: 103, December 2003, edited by Pyramyd NTCV, Winter 2003: Paris, France

2003: Metro Letters, edited by Deborah Littlejohn, published by Design Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

2003: Experimental Typography, edited by Teal Triggs, published by Thames & Hudson: London, U.K.

2003: Emigre Cholla Font, promotional booklet. Emigre: Sacramento, CA

2002: Language Culture Type: International type design in the age of Unicode, edited by John Berry, published by Graphis: New York, NY

2000: Typography 21, The Annual of the Type Directors Club, Watson-Guptill: New York, NY

2000: Page Layout, Duncan Baird Publishers: London, U.K.

1999: Emigre Magazine, Issue #50, spring 1999. Emigre: Sacramento, CA. Introduction of the Cholla Typeface family.

1999: I.D. The International Design Magazine, Jan|Feb 1999, Printed Matter. Honorable mention for the Art Center College of Design’s 1999/2000 admissions catalog and its employment of the typeface family Cholla.

1997: Typography 17, The Annual of the Type Directors Club, Watson-Guptill: New York, NY

2024: ISTD International Typographic Awards 2024, Certificate of Excellence. Marlide Display typeface family.

2021: Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia; Recipient of Honoris Causa.

2008: Granshan 2008, winner of grand prize. Odile typeface family.

2008: TDC Tokyo Awards. Odile typeface family.

2006: Design Award, Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Bern, Switzerland

2004: Certificate of Typographic Excellence, Type Directors Club, New York, NY

2004: Mitchell A. Wilder Merit Award for excellence in Publication and Media Design, awarded by the Texas Association of Museums

2004: Honorable Mention for the 2004 Museum Publication Design Competition, awarded by the American Association of Museums

2002: bukva:raz! International type design competition of the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI). Winning entry

2000: Certificate of Excellence in Type Design, Type Directors Club, New York, NY

1997: Certificate of Typographic Excellence, Type Directors Club, New York, NY

1995: CalArts scholarship, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

1994/95: IKEA Foundation Switzerland, design scholarship, Switzerland

2019: Best of 10 Years GRANSHAN Competition Results. ATypI Conference, Tokyo, Japan

2018: TMX, Tipografía México. Typography in the Contemporary Culture. Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM), Monterrey, Mexico

2013: Call for Type – New Typefaces / Neue Schriften, Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany

2012: Tokyo TDC Exhibition, Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2011: Awarded works of Granshan 2008–2010. Moscow Designers International Society. Gallery of Russian Art Academy, and Hall of the House of the Moscow Designers International Society, Moscow, Russia

2010: RBMBKESHKM. The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Missouri

2009: Alphabet: An Exhibition of Hand-Drawn Lettering & Experimental Typography. Artscape, Baltimore, MD. (Touring throughout the United States during 2005-09)

2007: 2006 Swiss Federal Design Award, Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich, Switzerland

2005: Typesthetic: The Art of Typography. Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, WI

2005: Alter Ego. Annual Exhibition of work by CalArts alumni, faculty, and students. California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

2005: Loud&Clear. AIGA Houston chapter. Poster designed for an auction of original artwork interpreting the music of Texas musicians. Silent auction. DiverseWorks, Houston, TX

2004: Typography 25. Type Directors Club 50th Awards Exhibition, N.Y.C., New York; also included in an exhibition touring the United States, Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, Mexico and Australia.

2004: Frische Schriften (Fresh Type), Museum für Gestaltung, Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland

2023: SGD Swiss Graphic Designers, Solothurn, Switzerland

2019: UNT, University of North Texas, Denton. College of Visual Arts & Design. Denton, TX

2017: VCFA Residency Guest designer and critic, Montpelier, VT

2016: TypeCon 2016, Seattle, WA

2014: RGD Design Thinkers, Toronto, Canada

2014: TYPO San Francisco – Rhythm, International Design Talks, San Francisco, CA

2013: Royal College of Art (RCA), Visual Communication, London, UK

2013: University of Reading, Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Reading, UK

2013: Haute Ecole des Arts du Rhin, Strasbourg, France

2012: Hochschule der Künste Bern [Bern University of the Arts] (HKB); Typoclub, Bern, Switzerland. Type design workshop with graphic design undergraduate and graduate students

2011: OTIS. College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA. Type design workshop with graphic design graduate students

2008: Museum of Printing History, Houston, TX

2008: Typographische Gesellschaft Austria (tga), Vienna, Austria

2008: Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (Zurich University of the Arts, ZHdK), Zürich, Switzerland

2007: NC State University, Graphic Design, Raleigh, NC

2006: TypeCon 2006, Conference; The Wonderful World of William Addison Dwiggins, Boston, MA

2006: Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA

2006: Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL. Juror and curator of the annual student show.

2003: TypeCon 2003, Conference; Session on: Metro Letters, Minneapolis, Minnesota, MN

2001: California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

2001: Just the Type, The Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, MN

2001: Invited panel discussion participant, TypeCon 2001, Conference; Session on: Women in Typography. Moderated by Matthew Carter, Rochester, NY

2000: Symposium on Contemporary Aspects of Type Design. Adrian Frutiger Retrospective, Museum of Applied Arts, Winterthur, Switzerland

2007: Typographische Monatsblätter—Revue Suisse de l’Imprimerie—Swiss Typographic Magazine, January 2007. Published by the union comedia: Basel, Switzerland. Essay title:Dwiggins Revisited Revisité (English and French, PDF)

2005: Visual Communication: The New Typography A Special Issue, June 1, 2005, Volume 4, No. 2. Sage Publications: London, U.K. Essay title: Non-Existent Design: Women and the Creation of Type (English, PDF)

Publications

Awards

Exhibitions

Lectures

Writing