Antonia Cornelius
A designer, researcher, type designer, lecturer and author with a special interest in legibility and readability, Antonia is enthusiastic about extensive type families and complex, challenging concepts.
Photography © Norman Posselt
Antonia’s enthusiasm for type was awakened early on in her studies at HAW Hamburg by Jovica Veljović. With a focus on typography and type design, she’s pursued a fundamental question ever since: when designing and using typefaces, what influences the reading experience? The first result of her research was her book: ‘The letters in my head: What creatives should know about reading processes in order to design joyful reading experiences’. Initially developed as her bachelor’s thesis and published by Hermann Schmidt Verlag in 2017, it’s now considered a standard work.
Continuing her masters studies with Veljović, Antonia delved deeper into legible type design. Along with designing a typeface super family, she carried out an empirical legibility study comparing the reading speed of it and other typefaces in running text. A Master of Arts since 2017, Antonia has been honoured for her outstanding research-based type design work.
Antonia’s professional work is characterised by her inquisitiveness and commitment to research, her attention to detail and love for complex design concepts. Alongside her own projects and amongst other clients, she supports Albert-Jan Pool in the further development of the FF DIN family.
Antonia enjoys sharing her knowledge. She teaches type design at Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel, gives workshops and lectures, publishes articles and consults on issues of legibility and readability.
