The Darden Studio produces and publishes the typeface designs of Joshua Darden and his collaborators. Housed in a former telephone switching station in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York, we create new typefaces and lettering for publications, institutions, corporate brands and private clients. Working closely with our clients, we pursue typography that is the result of earnest inquiry, appropriate for current editorial standards and technology, and rooted in the values and practices of five centuries of typefounding.
How we approach our work
In an increasingly global marketplace, a distinct typographic voice is more important than ever. Through typeface design and consulting, we work to build the kind of magazines & newspapers we want to read, and the kind of advertising we want to see on the street — memorable, appealing, accessible, and typographically excellent.
More than just a pretty typeface, proprietary typography underscores the narrative of a brand. With each new commission, we intend to develop a long-term solution: good typography should withstand the whims of fashion and embody a clear, unique brand message far into the future. New projects in our office begin with a solid foundation: thorough evaluation of any current solution, market & competitor research, and plenty of listening. Our consulting services, always provided gratis during a custom project, include research & analysis, troubleshooting, and frank advice. To begin a conversation, please get in touch with us and tell us what you’d like your type to say about you.
A ‘holistic’ studio
Design is an extension of the human experience — typeface design acutely so, because it’s present in nearly every aspect of our daily communication. Because we approach typeface design as a middle place between technology, language and aesthetics, we pursue our work alongside other activities which expose us to more of the world: drawing, painting, metalworking, gardening, stonecutting, music-making, reading and writing are as important to our office culture as evaluating artwork and writing code.
Born and raised in suburban Los Angeles, Joshua Darden published his first typeface at the age of 15. He spent the next decade assisting in the development and production of typefaces for a broad range of commercial and cultural institutions. Since establishing his Brooklyn-based studio in 2004, he has collaborated with clients in dozens of markets to invent rich, communicative typography.
Joshua has developed custom typefaces for Latin-based, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabets. He has lectured at the University of California Santa Barbara, has sat on panels at the TypeCon and South by Southwest Interactive conferences, juried the Type Directors Club Type Design Competition, and visited the Rhode Island School of Design as a Guest Critic.
In addition to guiding the creative work of the studio, Joshua teaches the design and use of typefaces at Parsons School of Design, and the history of typography at School of Visual Arts. He is an avid amateur photographer, commuter by bicycle, and tireless collector, accumulating and cataloging books, small objects, and awesomely bad pop music.
Joyce Ketterer moved to New York after college to join the PR team of Judy Collins's private record label. This was, alas, in 2000, and when the dot-com bubble burst shortly thereafter, there followed stints as a temp, a crisis counselor, a nanny, an egg donor, and a failed obligatory attempt at bartending. She ultimately found her niche as the world's finest dyslexic bookkeeper, and joined our team in February 2008 after an exhaustive search for the most qualified Pushy Jewish Chick.
Robert Lovely won his fourth grade kite-building contest. He draws special characters, herds cats, arranges licenses, fields questions about fonts, models printed pieces, and keeps our fleet of bicycles in top shape. You may already know Rob as a syndicated and New Yorker cartoonist, a painter of nudes, and an art show curator.
Scott is a quick brown fox who jumps over lazy dogs. He also thinks sympathizing would fix Quaker objectives and takes part in other such pangrams. Scott is a refugee of the Washington D.C. suburbs seeking a more meaningful life in the big city: making cool type things and designing pretty, well thought out stuff. (Ed.—He's a bleeping type nerd.) You can also pack his box with five dozen liquor jugs at his eponymous website.
Katie Tully is a steadfast creator of all things handcrafted and often entirely unnecessary. She consistently wraps friends in 6-foot crocheted scarves and decoupages her parents’ furniture with perfect sincerity, a logical outcome of her Midwest upbringing (or so she believes). Katie’s adventures in crafting often end up in her graphic design, resulting in the constant battle of handmade quirkiness vs. hyper precision.
Nick (aka Bachelor Number Four) has thus far enjoyed an extraordinarily fascinating life, the details of which are still being proofread and/or censored.
Barnaby is a founding member of the studio, having held positions as paper shredder, speed bump, and heat sink. He is a senior but non-voting member of the board.
Our team's only native New Yorker, Parsnip hails from the streets of Harlem, where she lived fast and hard. After a brief period of rehab at the ASPCA, she joined our team at the age of six weeks, determined to bring the grit and chaos of old New York to twenty-first century design.