Signal Type: Crafting letters with passion and precision.
Wed Feb 04 2026
New York-born Max Phillips has been drawing letters for money since he was a teenager. But his path to full-time type design was a bit circuitous — and even involves a stint as a novelist.
Join us as Max, founder of Dublin-based Signal Type, waxes poetically about designing typefaces. He shares the creative process behind his diverse library; how Hermann Zapf has influenced him; and the delicate balance between crafting bold faces to amuse yourself and making versatile fonts for the design world.
Check out the newly expanded version of Max's Reckham family from Signal Type on MyFonts and Monotype Fonts.
You can find blog posts for this and past episodes at monotype.com/podcast.
More
New York-born Max Phillips has been drawing letters for money since he was a teenager. But his path to full-time type design was a bit circuitous — and even involves a stint as a novelist. Join us as Max, founder of Dublin-based Signal Type, waxes poetically about designing typefaces. He shares the creative process behind his diverse library; how Hermann Zapf has influenced him; and the delicate balance between crafting bold faces to amuse yourself and making versatile fonts for the design world. Check out the newly expanded version of Max's Reckham family from Signal Type on MyFonts and Monotype Fonts. You can find blog posts for this and past episodes at monotype.com/podcast.