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7.

The elegance of the curve

Luisa Baeta on Gerard Unger and his visionary ideas

Gerard Unger, a Dutch graphic and type designer, inspired thousands of typographers to dive deep into research and dare to experiment. The designer of Brazilian descent, Luisa Baeta, was lucky to meet him in person and soak up the knowledge firsthand.

Luisa started out as a graphic designer but eventually joined the University of Reading to study type design. Here she met Gerhard Unger, a thoughtful mentor, who was lecturing in her course. The master navigated her in search of her own style, encouraged the wildest ideas and even suggested a name for her typeface.

Since then, Luisa fell in love with typography and spent a few years working as a type designer in an agency. Later a winding path led the young designer to New York, where she got back to graphic design, now with a feeling of a good type. Currently, Luisa is a member of the Type Directors Club and an active part of the female-run and female-oriented platform ‘Alphabettes’, helping women in design to raise their voices. In the article, Luisa commemorates Gegard Unger and reveals the unknown sides of the famous type designer.