OH no Type Co.

James Edmondson has a new take on classic typefaces.

If there was no limit to what you could accomplish, what would you create?

Many creative people dance the fine line between fantastical design and work that pays the bills. This line is all too familiar for James Edmondson, founder of OH no Type Co.

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A designer’s designer, Edmondson’s unusual fonts are the result of many years figuring out what he doesn’t want to do, like work with Powerpoint.

“I started Ohno in 2015, born from a love of expressive typography and craft. But just 8 years prior to that, I was a college dropout with no skills, no money, and plenty of time.”

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After studying at California College of the Arts and then TypeMedia in the Netherlands, Edmondson began to find a place for himself.

“In between occasional lettering commissions, I began experimenting with what my vision for my very own type foundry could look like. At this point I’d seen enough historical material to understand the vast possibilities in type, but the landscape at that point felt so restricted, professional, and sterile compared to the things I was interested in. The point of a new foundry would be to celebrate everything I loved about type, and wasn’t seeing on myfonts.com.”

Creative satisfaction only went so far before he had to “return to earth” and start making fonts that will sell, like Degular.

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Now, Edmondson has a successful business and a very cute family in Oakland, California. On top of the type face company, OH no has a large presence on social media where he will give design tips, revisit some of his past ideas, or have a nice chat with his dad about a coffee percolator.

@ohnotypecoSome of our non-typographic fonts. These are fun to make! And hardly ever get used. 🤗 #graphicdesign #typography #fonts #typedesign #ornament #artnouveau

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But why call it OH no?

“When spacing a typeface, the lowercase n is a logical place to start, due to the fact that it has two vertical (or nearly so) stems, and space between them. Similarly, the o will define the space around curved strokes, which is another very important decision to make. In the capitals, the H has those vertical stems with space between, and the O will define the spacing on capital round strokes.”

These four letters are to a typeface what ACGT is to DNA.

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Typeface is an incredibly integral part to daily life, and not everything can be Comic Sans, so OH no Type Co. offers a few new options.

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Check out their website here, and see the cool things they get up to on Instagram and TikTok @ohnotypeco.