Designer Kara Zichittella talks about her typographically-led projects

Designer Kara Zichittella started her studio Zeitype in 2015 while she was studying for her master’s at Leeds College of Art. “It was set up as a platform to showcase my personal projects and new commissions,” Kara explains. “I mostly work independently, but sometimes collaborate with friends on self-initiated projects and incentives.”

Kara grew up in Hawaii, which “doesn’t have much of a design culture to refer to”, but she’s always been interested in drawing and painting. “My dad pushed me to apply for the Visual Communication Design programme at Arizona State University’s Design School, Here, traditional Swiss principles of design were encouraged and my passion for design grew from there,” she says.

Kara’s portfolio is full of projects that aim to “generate conceptual solutions with a strong typographic approach” and creating typefaces is something the designer really enjoys. “I like the utilitarian nature of making typefaces or visual systems which can work to give a project a unique sense of identity,” explains Kara. “[In my work] I apply a conceptual and pragmatic logic to the design process. I’m very interested in the way complex ideas can produce simple and effective work.”

Most recently Kara has been working with Invisible City Editions, a record label from Toronto, designing album artwork for some vinyl reissues. “I’m also developing new weights for Dial Mono, a monospace typeface collaboration with friend and designer, Josh Baker.” Her use of type and colour is thoughtful and the designer uses imagery sparingly giving her work a graphic aesthetic. “My aim with Zeitype is to make engaging work which communicates an experience or mood through typography,” says Kara.