Steve Matteson.
Creative Type Director.



In his words.
Steve Matteson is the creative type director for Monotype, and is a type designer, historian and letterpress printer. He has designed more than 80 typeface families including brand families for Toyota, Microsoft and Google, as well as for the Monotype Library, including a dozen revivals of Frederic Goudy’s typefaces.
He attended the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School of Printing, where he was steeped in typography, calligraphy, design and fine printing, and learned a dedication to high quality craftsmanship.
In 1990 Steve worked with the team that made Microsoft’s first TrueType fonts and opened Monotype’s first office in California. A dedication to making best-in-class typefaces for digital environments has put his work in most eReader products, mobile handsets and very prominently on the web – his Open Sans family has more than 29 billion page views per week.
In 2012 Steve worked with MIT’s Agelab to understand if typeface design could impact the time a driver has their eyes off the road. The resulting legibility study has informed designers of auto and aviation user interfaces in ways to optimize their typographic displays.
Studio releases.
Carnero™







Carnero™ is a feisty hybrid of precise geometry and calligraphic flair; a design that walks that fine line between being sensible and a standout. In an increasingly monotone typographic landscape – Carnero has a unique pulse that moves the reader along with a new energy. Carnero gives life to simple utility with kinetic letter shapes, open apertures, and generous counters.
Massif™


Most of Matteson’s type designs are custom projects designed with an end use or customer in mind. Massif, which had no customer or specific purpose, was probably his most personal typeface to date. “My goal was to embody, in Massif’s two-dimensional letterforms, the angular tension and smooth curvature characteristic of the rugged terrain of Yosemite National Park’s Half Dome, which was formed by eons of glacial and tectonic activity,” Matteson explains.
Miramonte Pro™



Miramonte Pro was designed by Steve Matteson in 2006 as a friendly sans serif design suitable for user-interface design, corporate branding and publishing. The name means 'behold the mountains' in Spanish, suggesting the rustic, unrefined type design. Miramonte is based on Stanislav Marso's humanist sans serif released by Grafotechna in 1960.

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