The intelligently bold type and graphic design of Elias Hanzer

Elias Hanzer is an Austrian graphic designer with an appetite for type. Letterforms of all shapes and serifs are an endless graphic delight on his tumblr, even more impressive when you learn that many typefaces are designed by Elias himself. 

Currently studying visual communication at the University of the Arts in Berlin, Elias is spending his time “more and more focusing on type design,” he explains. The results are grotesque, in the design sense of course, recently creating a new typeface, Eh Normal. The typeface is available in three weights, light, regular and bold, and includes three different stylesheets, “Space, Jungle and City,” to showcase its differentiating characteristics.

Further typeface designs from Elias include Moment a “graffiti-inspired scribble typeface,” the designer tells It’s Nice That. To resonate with his inspiration of graffiti “each character comes with an alternate variation to simulate writing on a wall”. Working with designer Lucas Liccini, the font graced a recent cover of Protocol Magazin. 

In terms of graphic design output Elias’ most recent work, a series of posters for lectures at his university, display his ability to arrange and manipulate type. Each of the posters were screen printed “since we wanted to print the poster for the following talk over the previous one, creating an effect of layers," says Elias. The results pack a printed punch with primary colours thickly layered on top of one another. 

With an upcoming internship at abcDinamo a Berlin based type foundry, we look forward to seeing Elias’ growing portfolio and future in font.