Michael Parson is the founder of Typogama Digital Type Foundry, a studio based in Geneva, Switzerland. He also runs Parson Research, a small design agency that’s been working with international clients since its inception in 2002. When he’s not working with Typogama or Parson Research, he can be found teaching courses on type design and branding at local design schools.
Michael was always into drawing from a young age. Back then, he’d spent countless hours working on sketches that were his pride and joy. He was used to working with his hands, even after becoming a graphic designer as an adult. In those early days, like many other designers, he worked without a computer. That experience led to him spending a considerable amount of time drawing letters for logos and handmade flyers, although his transition to type design was still some time away.
Michael spent a year at Ecal University in Switzerland, during which he was exposed to Fontographer for the first time. One of his teachers encouraged him to dive into fonts through digital means, something Michael had never worked with but certainly grew to love. ”I was amazed at the technology behind typeface design and how this little program could then command the various letterforms I had created,” Michael said of the experience. “I got more involved in type design the following years and explored typography as code during my final graphic design course.”
Working with fonts digitally is what led to Michael developing a wicked case of what he calls “typomania.” Researching typefaces during his final year of school is actually what began to build the foundation of Typogama. At first, it was meant to be purely an exploration of type design and its applications, but it eventually morphed into a functional type foundry as Michael saw success with his type designs.
After he spent time honing his skills, he queried type foundries to gauge their interest in publishing his type designs. Linotype accepted Michael’s fonts into the TakeType contest, a momentous achievement that further encouraged him to stick with it.
Over the time that has passed since, his obsession with type design has only continued to grow, so much so that it’s rather surpassed his love for graphic design altogether. For Michael, type design feels like a never-ending adventure; there are no limits to the number of ideas to discover and explore, and the field always keeps him coming back for more.
One of his more recent releases through YouWorkForThem is Genesa, a condensed and rounded sans serif that’s incredibly good-natured and approachable. Genesa is tall and narrow, making the most of limited horizontal space in design applications. Soft curves lend a sense of warmth to its architecture, conveying messages with kindness and care.
Genesa is a cleanly designed contemporary sans serif that’s easy on the eyes, even in small point, making it a great choice for design projects of all sizes.
Genesa is available in Light, Regular, Bold, and Black, with corresponding italics for each. Its range of weights makes it well suited to displays and signage, strong headlines, editorials, body copy, advertising, logo design, letterhead, corporate communications, white papers, infographics, publishing, product packaging, website design, and mobile applications. It’s also stellar in branding and identity projects where design cohesion is necessary across multiple media types.
Genesa is loaded with OpenType features that include fractions, contextual alternates, discretionary ligatures, standard ligatures, subscript, superscript, oldstyle figures, tabular figures, and stylistic alternates. It also includes ornaments, a series of more than 60 pictograms and arrows in each weight.
Genesa’s multilingual support extends to Latin, Western European, Euro, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, and Pan African Latin, covering dozens of languages for international design accessibility.
Michael Parson currently offers 45 products through YouWorkForThem, a range of innovative and stunningly beautiful display fonts, serifs, sans serifs, and scripts to suit a variety of design projects and themes. Visit his portfolio to check out the rest of his work and if you love what you find there, bookmark it so you won’t miss out on any of his future additions!
