Terrance Weinzierl

After a failed sign painting business and a brief bout as a radio DJ for a classic rock station, Terrance Weinzierl found himself studying art and design at Grand Valley State University. Thanks to his mom – who was a toy designer and calligrapher – and his artistic family, he was supported in his efforts toward a creative career.

After receiving his first lecture on typefaces from Michelle Bowers, Terrance was hooked on typography. Most notably, the historical interpretation called Mrs. Eaves by Zuzana Licko caught his attention. He reflects on the epiphany by saying, “It taught me that type design is not a dead practice, but is alive and well, fueled by a rich history and changing technologies.”

During a study abroad program in London, Terrance found inspiration from the London Underground system map designed by Harry Beck, and the type by Edward Johnston. “Truly well designed things, like the London Underground system, can positively affect millions of people in a ubiquitous way, just like typography,” he notes.

Terrance worked as a graphic designer for the university book store while earning a bachelor of fine arts degree with an emphasis in graphic design from GVSU in 2008. Soon after graduation, he joined Ascender Corporation working closely with Steve Matteson on type design, development and production.

Terrance works on a wide variety of type design and font development projects. He’s involved in custom font design, retail fonts and both productizing and testing fonts. He has had the opportunity to work on custom fonts for Microsoft, Google, Ubisoft, Goodyear, and Kellogg’s to name a few. Some of his retail designs include the Romany, Stenblak, and Quartz MS typefaces as well as the Comic Sans Pro expansion and notable contributions to the Georgia Pro family.