MADType is the Minnetonka, MN based typeface design studio of Matthew Aaron Desmond.
Growing up, I was always fascinated with visual design. As a teenager, I was inspired by reading Thrasher and TransWorld Skateboarding magazines. I would redraw the logos of skateboard companies endlessly on my folders at school. After high school, I pursued a career in graphic design with some website design and programming on the side. It was through my exploration of the visual arts that I discovered my love for letterforms and the design of typefaces.
Poring over printed type catalogs was my new passion. I collected catalogs from Emigre, House Industries, Jonathan Hoefler, T26, and many others. It was an era of many newly formed independent type foundries. I sought out classic literature on type and type designers. Some of my favorites being the work of Frederic W. Goudy, Ozwald Cooper, and Eric Gill. Around this time, I got my hands on a copy of Fontographer and began turning my own ideas into fonts. I was intrigued by being able to draw my own letters on screen (or scan in paper sketches) and then generate them into working software.
I started MADType as a vehicle to license my commercial fonts. After a couple years of working on MADType, I put it on the back-burner and founded Test Pilot Collective with Michael Cina and Joe Kral. We updated our website every day with a new design showcasing our fonts. This collaboration went on for several years. You can see an archive of our work at http://www.testpilotcollective.com.
After exploring the country for a few years, I landed back in my hometown of Minneapolis in late 2004. I have since continued taking on custom type design jobs and licensing my retail fonts to designers like you.