Leading font executive takes the helm of Type Network, the premium source for fonts, now in its sixth year.
Type Network, which represents 32 of the best type foundries in the world, has a new president: Christopher Slye. Previously, he was manager of all type-related business and licensing activity at Adobe, including its cloud font service, Adobe Fonts.
“This is a great opportunity—to work with so many people who design and use type, and to build new relationships as the network grows,” Christopher said. “Alongside our foundry partners, Type Network is poised to bring more great typefaces to the world,” he added, “while empowering designers in every medium—web, apps, film and animation, architecture, product development, and publishing.”
“There has also been a lot of interest in bespoke fonts for companies and products,” said Christopher. “TN has connected a number of great typefaces with great brands. And our foundry designers have created many compelling fonts for all kinds of projects—which are described in detail on our site at typenetwork.com,” he said.
Brand typography
“As we grow, we’re helping designers find or create the perfect typeface for a service, a product, or a whole company,” Slye said, “and moreover, we can help clients assemble a group of font families that work beautifully together.”
Christopher notes that, among the thousands of type styles in its library, Type Network also offers fonts for all Latin languages, as well as Cyrillic Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew scripts.
In over 22 years at Adobe, Christopher first helped produce Adobe Originals typefaces and new web fonts standards. He helped drive the acquisition of Typekit, and its evolution from an early web fonts service to Adobe Fonts—now a key feature of the Adobe Creative Cloud and an important part of applications like Photoshop which are used by millions of designers.
Outgoing TN president, Paley Dreier, endorsed the company board of directors’ unanimous vote on June 1. “I have the utmost confidence in Christopher,” said Paley. “We’ve built a successful service for foundries and users of type over the past five years and I’m looking forward to watching Type Network grow and evolve under Christopher’s leadership,” he said. Paley continues as a director.
“It’s delightful that Christopher started as a type designer,” said Roger Black, TN chair. “His first typeface,
Elmhurst (1997), is available on Type Network. It still looks great—and so it passes the biggest test for a type design: Time.”
A Silicon Valley native who continues to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, Christopher worked as a graphic designer and web developer before turning full time to type. He is a former chairman and current ex officio board member of SOTA, assisting with that group’s annual community event, TypeCon. He is on the board of the Letterform Archive in San Francisco.
About Type Network
Now in its sixth year, Type Network, LCC, is a private company incorporated in Massachusetts. TN offers premium fonts from prominent independent type foundries around the globe for single-user and enterprise licensing at typenetwork.com. TN represents designers from these foundries for custom brand fonts—and type consulting.
