Episode

Signal Type: Crafting letters with passion and precision.

Podcast
Creative Characters
Published
Feb 4, 2026
Duration seconds
3117
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://www.monotype.com/podcast
Audio
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/monotype/E602_-_Max_Phillips_FINALMIX_V2_CJO_mixdown.mp3?dest-id=2618777
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/creative-characters-2638861/episodes/signal-type-crafting-letters-with-passion-and-precision
Markdown
/podcast/creative-characters-2638861/signal-type-crafting-letters-with-passion-and-precision.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/creative-characters-2638861/episodes/signal-type-crafting-letters-with-passion-and-precision/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/creative-characters-2638861/signal-type-crafting-letters-with-passion-and-precision.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

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 .