Who:

The Department of Letters has been an idea in progress since 2021, but launched officially in the summer of 2024. It is the work of Carl Shura, a Toronto-based designer with years of strategic visual communication experience focused on identity and brand management, wayfinding and exhibits, and type design.

As part of his type education odyssey, Carl’s completed the post-grad type design program at The Cooper Union (2021), a summer residency at SVA NYC TypeLab (2019), and designed his first font under the tutelage of Kevin King through the GDC’s Carl Dair Typography Workshops at CoachHouse Books (2016). He’s had the pleasure of learning under some of today’s best type designers and educators, including Tobias Frere-Jones, Ksenya Samarskaya, Christian Schwartz, Dan Rhatigan, Lynne Yun, Erik van Blokland, Maria Doreuli, Tal Leming, Troy Leinster, Hannes Famira, Gen Ramirez, and Zrinka Buljubašić.

Carl currently teaches design and production in the School Of Design at George Brown College in Toronto. He is a member of TDC (Type Director’s Club), RGD (Association of Registered Graphic Designers), and is an ATypI Delegate (Association Typographique Internationale).

What:

We make ready-to-use commercial fonts for all your projects. If you want custom, we do that too! (Contact carl@deptofletters.ca)

The current roster of fonts available includes (award-winning!) Circulation Serif and Sans, and Mullion. Over time these will inevitably grow into other weights and styles — if they’re popular, I guess! New typefaces will be added as we complete them and updates can be sent directly to you if you opt-in for emails when you buy any font.

Each font contains 480+ glyphs, supports 200+ latin script languages, and includes contextual, discretionary, and regional alternates. Additional opentype features are accessible through your software interface. Zipped download packages contain OTF, WOFF, & WOFF2 font files and your license agreement.

*All fonts are covered by a standard license based on the number of people in your studio or company. Check out the license for the details.