I’m a graphic designer and a type designer with a research-based, process-driven and artistic approach. I enjoy working closely with a network of dedicated people and studios throughout the process. I’m especially interested in projects where people genuinely care about what they’re making – whether big or small.

Quick Access/Download:
☞ Portfolio.pdf [40mb] + CV.pdf

Graphic Design:
☞ Art Direction$—$$$
☞ Brand & Visual Systems$—$$$
☞ Logos/Wordmarks & Lettering$—$$$
☞ Editorial & Web Design $—$$$
☞ Design for Special Occasions$—$$$
☞ Design Quality Control$—$$$

Type Design:
☞ Retail Typefaces$$—$$$$ ♡
☞ Custom Typefaces$$—$$$$ ♡
☞ Typeface Customization $—$$ ♡
☞ Language Extensions $—$$
☞ Font Engineering $—$$

Please get in touch with more information about your project :)
☞ manuel (-at-) vongebhardi.com
✉️ 📯








— Retail Type Design —
Dialogue Colleciton is an uncon­ventional project of four inter­twined typeface families: 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.

[2018—2020: In-Use / free specimen / photo on top right]
→ Get a free printed copy of the large-scale KSB Magazine (DE)
Beautiful Typography by Bureau Est ; issue 31, 32, 33 & 34. (shipping excluded)


[2026: Finished, going to be published via Fontwerk, Berlin]
→ Request early Access: Trials + License Info

— Custom Type Design —

Chelsea FC Superfamily, F37 + Uncommon, 2024

– with Ryan Hellyer Williamson, Alfonso García, Rodrigo Fuenzalida,
– Shaqa Bovand, Roman Tronchin

– Creative Direction: Rick Banks & Uncommon

– I worked mainly on the core design (X-Sharp) and Flare

— Custom Type Design —

MotoGP Display, F37 + Pentagram, 2024

– with Ryan Hellyer Williamson

– Creative Direction: Rick Banks & Pentagram, London

— Arabic Extension —

Bolton Arabic, F37, 2024

– with Shaqa Bovand
– Trials + Licenses (F37)

— 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]

— Cairo Type Collective —

Heheh Collective is an Arabic font design collective based in Cairo. It was founded in February 2020 by Nour El Shamy, Shahd El Sabbagh and Manuel von Gebhardi. Get your hands on Dobb and Gawhar distributed via the lovely platform: Future Fonts.

— Teaching Type Design in Cairo —




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 —

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


Variable font experiments for Google Fonts (Github Repo), 2016/17



Experimental “parametric” (hierarchical interpolation) font design and custom interpolation plugin/script in Glyphs 1, 2014


Various typefaces and experiments, 2012—14



Visual identity and a series of bi-annual visual sup-identities for an international gathering of art and design students in Halle, 2012—13



Event Identity for an exhibition in Amsterdam, 2012  +  Leaflet/Poster for an independent snowboard movie, 2011



Webdesign and Code for the Art Collective Klub7 with Markus Lange, 2014  +  Moholy-Nagy Installation with Patrick Müßiggang and Lukas Adolphi, 2011



Year Book for the Burg Giebichenstein University with Patrick Müßiggang, 2016/17









— Background —
Besides my love for typography and design, I'm interested in a broad spectrum of things – such as philosophy, psychology, sustainability, craftsmanship, theatre and dancing; I taught font design and graphic design at the German University in Cairo (2017—2024); MA with distinction in typeface design from the University of Reading (UK); received my BA in Graphic Design from the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design(2014) in Halle; and studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (2012). I'm very grateful to have learned from 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 (-;

Let's create something special together.
Looking forward to meet you: manuel (-at-) vongebhardi.com

— Social & Co —
☞ instagram: Manuel.vonGebhardi
☞ mastodon: @manuel@typo.social
☞ twitter: ManuelvGebhardi (not active)
☞ github: manuel87



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