Onlysans from Daria Cohen rejects timelessness in favour of fierce modernity (and memes)

The Berlin-based creative Daria Cohen describes her path into type design as “painfully uneventful”. She studied book design and communication design before finding her calling in drawing letters; in 2016 she started a masters in Type and Media at The Hague, before going full-time as a type designer. “I spend most of my days quietly obsessing over curves, hoping someone notices, and this activity pays my bills... What more could a girl want?” Daria says.

After working away as an independent type designer for many years, in 2025 Daria became part of the new type foundry and font marketplace Contemporary Type, founded by Alex Slobzheninov. On the invitation to join the new outfit, Daria says: “I was both flattered and mildly panicked” – she began looking through her sketches to find what she considered to be the most ‘contemporary’. “What does it mean to design something for now – in a world where ‘now’ slips away faster than we can grasp it?”

Over the past decade Daria has mainly worked with foundries that take the long-view approach, looking to produce timeless typefaces that outlast the designer: “it’s noble, painstaking work,” she says. She continues: “Other foundries are more cutting-edge, expanding successful families across styles and writing systems,” an approach that takes a similarly extended amount of time. With Contemporary Type, Daria wanted a wholly new challenge, aiming to “keep the process fast, responsive, and alive,” she says. “I wanted to trap a moment and translate it into a typeface.”

This poetic philosophy became the basis of Onlysans, Daria’s variable post-geometric sans serif. Within its letterforms Daria explores the tension between pragmatism, precision, and play – all at the purposeful expense of timelessness. The typeface draws from Daria’s adoration of Italy and the eccentricities of its vernacular signage, and also marks a significant shift in her approach to the discipline. “I made the whole thing in about a month, which is practically reckless in type design terms,” she says, “but that’s the beauty of it, it’s not meant to be timeless – it just exists in the now.” 

Within its odd yet meticulous details and unexpected use of geometry, Onlysans captures this fleeting tone, remaining steadfastly not overdesigned. “The design of Onlysans is intuitive and the rules are a bit loose,” Daria says, “but it’s built on a strict grid.” This forges a satisfying relationship between letters and contrast between rounded and sharp corners. “There are also cheesy alternates for the i dot,” she adds (like hearts, stars and sparks) “because design is also allowed to be silly sometimes.”

With silliness on her mind, Daria took an irregular approach to launching Onlysans: overloading her Instagram with memes. “With a typeface called Onlysans, not making memes would’ve felt like a wasted opportunity,” she says. “It made me realise that Onlyfans and type design are kind of related.” Daria details the two industries’ dedication to “intimate curves” and the same hopes someone will pay for access to what you do. “Sometimes they do, sometimes they just download the free trial and ghost you,” Daria adds. “Both involve a lot of staring at your own work and zooming in way too close,” Daria ends. “And your family doesn’t quite understand what you do.”