Type Design & Graphic Design





I’m an independent type designer and ocassional graphic designer that loves to create distinctive typographic identities, working in close col­lab­oration with dedicated people that make me smile. I’m located in Leipzig (DE) and Cairo (EG) – where I teach Latin and Arabic type design at the German University since 2017.







— Selected Type Design —
Typeface-Family-Dialogue__IN-USE__Left-PosterRex-MarkusLange--Right-KSB-No32-BureauDavidVoss Typeface-Family-Dialogue-03-Manuel Typeface-Family-Dialogue-04-Manuel__2020-Beta-Redrawn-New-Weights Dialogue is an unconventional collection of four intertwined text typefaces: Lawson, Ruth, Tony and Danny. They are especially crafted to suite the artistic and functional needs of contemporary cultural publications across different media. Another key feature is their versatility due the many ways you can mix the distinct styles that have been developed to complement one another. The project started as a part of my master thesis in 2015/16 in Reading, UK.

[In-Use, 2018—2020]
→ Get a free printed copy of the large-scale KSB Magazine (DE)
Tony, Lawson, Danny and Ruth have been typeset beautifully by Bureau David Voss for issue 31, 32, 33 & 34. (shipping excluded)


[Redrawn and expanded, April 2020]
→ Get the Specimen [4mb] and request Beta Trials + License Info







— Selected Research —

Variables of Type is a systematic investigation into all visual aspects of type. This involves analysing many diverse and complex scripts such as Latin, Chinese, Devanagari and Arabic — to find underlying global principles and relationships. The aim of this project is to come up with a flexible system that could describe any writing system in detail. While many scripts are represented, it is still most excessivley visualised in Latin. Work in progress since 2013.

→ More impressions and bibliography [German, 2013]
→ Type Design Framework [2017]







— Arabic Type Collective —

Heheh-Type__Group_Picture_Black Heheh-Type__Dobb__by__Nour-El-Shamy

Heheh Type is an Arabic type design collective based in Cairo. It was founded in February 2020 by Nour El Shamy, Shahd El Sabbagh and Manuel von Gebhardi. The first release is Dobb, which can by purchased via Future Fonts. More to come.









— Teaching Type Design in Cairo —
Cairo-Arabic-Type-Design-SS2018-Supervised-by-Manuel-1
Cairo-Arabic-Type-Design-SS2018-Supervised-by-Manuel-2
Cairo-Arabic-Type-Design-SS2018-Supervised-by-Manuel-3
Cairo-Latin-Type-Design-WS2017-Supervised-by-Manuel
Cairo-Latin-Type-Design-WS2018-Supervised-by-Manuel
Cairo-Latin-Type-Design-WS2018-Supervised-by-Manuel
Students had to develop a typeface related to a chosen Movie Character, Latin+Arabic (5th+6th semester), with Kholoud Khaled Essawy, Cairo, 2017/18









— Some more impressions of my work —
Typeface-Super-Health-Conceptional-Fashion-Label-Manuel
Logotype and customized typeface for the conceptional fashion label Super Health, founded by Alexandra Börner, 2017



Corporate Identity for the sustainable product label Megalomania, Photos by Patrick Müßiggang, 2015


Experiments with variable fonts for Google Fonts, Interface Design and Type Design Variable font experiments for Google Fonts (Github Repo), 2016/17



Experimental parametric typeface in Glyphs, 2014


Various typefaces and experiments, 2012—14



Corporate and a series of event identities for an international gathering of art and design students in Halle, 2012—13


Amsterdam-Exchange-Exhibition-2012--Snowboard-movie-leaflet-poster-2011
Event Identity for an exhibition in Amsterdam, 2012  +  Leaflet/Poster for an independent snowboard movie, 2011


Klub7-Website-Design-Code-Manuel-Markus-2014--moholy-naghy-installation-2011
Webdesign and Code for the Art Collective Klub7 with Markus Lange, 2014  +  Moholy-Nagy Installation with Patrick Müßiggang and Lukas Adolphi, 2011


BURG-Jahrbuch-2016-Manuel-Patrick
Year Book for the Burg Giebichenstein University with Patrick Müßiggang, 2016/17









— Background —
I graduated with distinction in type design from the University of Reading (UK); received my BA in Graphic Design from the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle; and studied seven months at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. I’m very grateful having been taught by Andrea Tinnes, Roman Wilhelm, Dan Reynolds, Radim Peško, Gerard Unger and Gerry Leonidas. My very first font was a grafitti inspired all caps design, made with the genuine Freehand & Fontlab in 2005. It’s too good to be shown (-;



— Services/Freelance, Latin & Arabic —
The cost for custom comissions can range widely and it depends on what you need. Please get in touch with more information about your project and I’ll walk you through. Common enquiries:

☞ Typographic Art Direction $—$$$
☞ Custom Typefaces $$—$$$$ ♡
☞ Customizing Typefaces $—$$ ♡
☞ Custom Lettering $—$$
☞ Wordmark Optimisation $—$$
☞ Technical Consulting $—$$
☞ Collaborations priceless ♡
☞ Lectures & Workshops $—$$$ ♡

Looking forward to working together.






— Typefaces Used —
☞ Ruth Book (Dialogue Collection) — pre‑release access here
☞ Lyon Italicby Kai Bernau, Commercial Type
☞ San Francisco Text on Mac / Arial on Android, Windows & Linux


Last Update: May 2020