Juri Zaech grew up in the Swiss countryside. The son of a ceramist and an artist, Juri was always surrounded by creativity and craftsmanship. When it came time to explore his own career options, he knew he wanted to be employed in a craft or trade, but his plans were never cast in stone. Instead of attending university, he chose to do an apprenticeship in lithography and typography. At the time, he felt it was the most pragmatic decision he could make but he didn’t realize the effect it would have on the years that followed.
Immediately following his apprenticeship, Juri got hired by a small ad agency that he felt would be his “forever” job. Seven years in, however, he became a little disenchanted by his role. There wasn’t any room to advance, and no room for further personal development. Feeling stifled, he made the decision to attend an art direction program in Hamburg. While there, he met with people who came from all over the world, united in a singular task: to become better creatives. That art direction program gave Juri the opportunity to learn, to experiment, and to collaborate with other like-minded artists. It also afforded him a chance to intern at agencies located throughout the world.
The entire experience left Juri feeling empowered and confident. He realized that he could see entire projects through, all on his own and without the backup of working for a company. While he still works full time in advertising, his ability to work on his own is what grants him the ability to craft his own type designs independently. He considers typography to be a “serious hobby,” rather than a side job, one that allows him to be his own boss and to work entirely at his own pace.
When it comes to new ideas, Juri finds himself inspired by the things he sees as he makes his way through his day to day life. It might come from a vintage poster, or an interesting sign or display. He lived in Paris for a number of years and found himself drawn to the facade typography found in old shops. Regardless of where the inspiration comes from, Juri begins with rough sketches drawn on paper, although they usually vary significantly from the final outcome. The digital design process is drawn in vector, either in Illustrator or the typeface software, Glyphs.
Juri finds it especially rewarding to complete a project that requires him to do everything on his own, and typography is the perfect outlet for his personal creativity. He loves what he does, and it shows in every type design he creates.
One of Juri’s more recent releases through YouWorkForThem is Patrima, a contemporary sans serif that’s rooted in the late 1900s, a time that featured heavy shading and the use of dimensional designs. At its core, Patrima is a squarish sans serif, one that gains beautiful detailing through its hatched shading.
The five fonts within the Patrima family can be used separately, together as part of a larger design, or layered over one another to add additional dimension and visual texture. Patrima is comprised of Regular, Bold, Outline, Hatched, and Hatched Outline, giving designers a lot to play with. Patrima Hatched and Patrima Hatched Outline are recommended for screen applications that are no smaller than 24 point, as the detail of the hatching will be lost below that size. They are both fantastic font choices for large scale projects, however, including signage and displays, logos, and any other project that needs a bold, three-dimensional font.
Patrima adds a decidedly vintage touch wherever it goes, and it’s a beautiful addition to editorial layouts, advertising, product packaging, book covers, album covers, posters, event flyers, and any design project that needs a little extra texture.
Patrima offers OpenType features that include case sensitive forms, standard ligatures, numerators, denominators, fractions, and ordinals. Discretionary ligatures open up a whole world of catchwords written in the Patrima typeface, making this font even more versatile and fun to use.
Patrima’s multilingual support extends to Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Romanian, and Pan African Latin languages for worldwide accessibility.
Juri Zaech currently offers 11 products through YouWorkForThem, a varied collection of font styles to suit a wide range of design projects and themes. Visit his portfolio to check out the rest of his work and if you like what you find there, bookmark it so you won’t miss out on any of his future additions!