David Březina is a type designer, writer, lecturer, and chief type officer at Rosetta Type. He has designed typefaces Skolar, Skolar Sans (with Sláva Jevčinová), Yrsa & Rasa (with Anna Giedryś) and worked on various custom projects for Adobe, Google, LG, and Microsoft (with Tiro Typeworks). Specialising in multilingual type design, he designed typefaces for Cyrillic, Greek, Gujarati, Devanagari, and various extensions of Latin.

David holds Masters’s degree in computer science from the Faculty of Informatics of Masaryk University in Brno (CZ) and MA in Typeface Design from the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading (UK). He is currently pursuing PhD studies at the University of Reading focusing on coherence and character similarity in typefaces for continuous texts for Latin, Cyrillic, and Devanagari.

Email: hello@mrbrezina.com / Twitter: @MrBrezina

Articles

• Yrsa & Rasa released. Rosetta Type Blog, 2016. #link
• Harmonizing Rasa Gujarati and Yrsa Latin. Rosetta Type Blog, 2016. #link
• Introducing Yrsa. Rosetta Type Blog, 2015. #link
• Considerations in multilingual type design. Rosetta Type Blog, 2015. #link
• Rethinking type experience. Rosetta Type Blog, 2014. #link
• A Critical Approach To Typefaces. In: Smashing Magazine, 2013. #link
• Indian type : An opportunity for real design innovation, in Czech and English. In: TYPO 49, 2012.
• Challenges in multilingual type design. In: Codex 2, 2012.
• Boček V & Březina D. Typography follows linguistics? : on some parallels between the Prague School of Linguistics and Karel Teige’s typographic program. In: Hyphen : a typographic forum, volume 9/15. Institute for the study of Typography and Visual Communication, 2012.
• Celeste, typeface review in Czech and English. In: TYPO 41, 2010.
• Tomate & Lavigne Display, typeface review in Czech and English. In: TYPO 39, 2010.
• On diacritics. In: I love typography, 2009. Edited by John Boardley. #link (Russian version by Vasily V. Melenchuk)
• Klimax, typeface review in Czech and English. In: TYPO 36, 2009.
• Odile & Elido, typeface review in Czech and English. In: TYPO 36, 2009.
• Březina D & Vlachou I. Maiola, typeface review in Czech and English. In: TYPO 33, 2008.
• Greta, typeface review in Czech and English. In: TYPO 31, 2008.
• Pecina M & Březina D. Type Anatomy 1.0., in Czech and English. In: Typomil, 2008. #link
• Non-Latin Typefaces, exhibition review in Czech and English. In: TYPO 29, 2007.
• The evolution of the Gujarati typographic script, unpublished MA dissertation. The University of Reading, 2007.
• Reflection on practise, unpublished essay. The University of Reading, 2007.
• General issues in multi-script typography, unpublished essay. The University of Reading, 2007.

Lectures

• Some of the things I do not know about typefaces. Typostammtisch, Berlin, 2017.
• Recent projects from Rosetta. Du monde entier au cœur du monde, Paris, 2015.
• Letters of Rosetta: from Brno to Bern. TypEast, Bern, 2015.
• Challenges in multilingual type design (II). ATypI, Amsterdam, 2013.
• Rethinking type experience. Smashing conference, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2013.
• Challenges in Indian type design. Association of British Scholars, Vadodara, 2012.
• Challenges in multilingual type design. Typography day, Mumbai, 2012. Also at: NID, Ahmedabad, 2012.
• Písmo je na webu to nejdůležitější (Type is the most important thing on the Web), in Czech. WebExpo, Prague, 2011.
• Specifying type consistency. TypoTopo talks, Bratislava, 2011. Also at: Central Saint Martins, The University of the Arts London, London, 2012.
• Thinking in typeface design. ICTVC conference, Cyprus, 2010.
• General issues in multi-script typography. ATypI conference, Saint Petersburg, 2008. Also at: 4th International ConTeXt Meeting, 2010.
• On typeface design. University of Ostrava, Ostrava, 2010. Also at: Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Cieszyn, 2010.

Workshops

• A brief introduction to Python for data visualisation. At: The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, The University of Reading, Reading, 2016.
• A brief introduction to Python for type designers. At: The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, The University of Reading, Reading, 2015.
• Concepts for originality in typeface design and general feedback. At: The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, The University of Reading, Reading, 2013.
• Type design workshop focussed on webfonts. At: Seznam.cz, Brno, 2012.
• Concepts for originality in type design. At: The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, The University of Reading, Reading, 2012.
• Type design workshop/feedback. At: Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London, 2012.
• Type design workshops. At: FaVU VUT, Brno, 2011.
• Type design workflow and running a type foundry. At: The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, The University of Reading, Reading, 2011.
• Type design workshops. At: FaVU VUT, Brno, 2009–10.
• O písmu (On type). At: Pellico5 workshops, Brno, 2010.
• Multilingual typography workshop. At: Sign and typography studio of The Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Lanckorona, 2009.
• Type design process & automation. At: The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, The University of Reading, Reading, 2009.
• A brief introduction to Python for FontLab. At: Monotype Imaging, Salfords, 2009.

Awards

• European Design Awards 2015 – silver for Skolar Sans Latin
• Granshan 2013 – 2nd prize (Indic category) for Skolar Gujarati
• Granshan 2012 – 1st prize (Indic category) for Skolar Devanagari (with Vaibhav Singh)
• Granshan 2009 – 1st prize (Cyrillic category) for Skolar Cyrillic
• Modern Cyrillic 2009 – special diploma for Skolar Cyrillic
• European Design Awards 2008 – silver for Skolar & Surat (Skolar Gujarati)

Exhibitions

• Granshan exhibition at ATypI Warszaw, 2016 (PL).
• Granshan exhibition in Bangkok, 2013 (DE/TH).
• International Biennial of Graphic design in Brno 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 (CZ).
• Collective type design exhibition at Klingspor-Museum Offenbach, 2010 (D).
• Modern Cyrillic exhibition in Mexico City, 2009 (RU/MX).
• TypeTogether collective exhibition in Rosario, 2008 (RA), Cieszyn, 2010 (PL), Poznań, 2011 (PL).