# Irene Vlachou ([iːriːniː vlaxuː](http://ipa-reader.xyz/?text=i%CB%90ri%CB%90ni%CB%90%20vlaxu%CB%90&voice=Lotte)) Typeface Designer (Greek + Variable) Bristol UK + Athens GR ## Web + Social (on-grid) [www.ivtype.com ](www.ivtype.com) [www.fauxfoundry.com ](www.fauxfoundry.com) [email](mailto:iv@ivtype.com) [twitter](https://twitter.com/irene_vlachou) [instagram](https://www.instagram.com/irene_vlachou/) ## Short bio (the basics) Irene Vlachou (*1981) gained her Masters in Type Design at the University of Reading in 2004. She subsequently started to collaborate with international type foundries and corporations, working as a type designer and as a Greek type consultant. From 2013 to 2019 she was senior designer and variable font expert at Type-Together. From January 2020 she is back to full time freelancing Greek and variable fonts. ## Fonts + Projects (selection) [**Colvert Greek**](https://typographica.org/typeface-reviews/colvert/) (2012, [Typographies.fr](http://typographies.fr)). Colvert is a joint effort of Irene Vlachou, Jonathan Fabreguettes (Perez), [Kristyan Sarkis](https://tptq-arabic.com/authors/kristyan_sarkis) and Natalia Chuvatin. [**Parmigiano Greek**](https://www.typotheque.com/blog/parmigiano_cyrillic_and_greek?taf=3) (2012–2014), as part of the larger [Parmigiano Typographic System](https://www.typotheque.com/blog/parmigiano-type-system) of [Riccardo Olocco](https://www.riccardolocco.com) and [Jonathan Pierini](https://www.typotheque.com/authors/jonathan_pierini). In 2017, in collaboration with [Laurenz Brunner](https://lineto.com/information/designers/lineto-designers/laurenz-brunner), she worked on the Greek counterpart of the [**Documenta exhibition**](https://www.documenta14.de/en/)’s identity font, Bradford Greek. In 2018, she designed [**Stratos Greek**](https://www.productiontype.com/family/stratos) for [Production Type](https://www.productiontype.com) to complement Yoann Minet’s Stratos. At [Type-Together](https://www.type-together.com) she has engineered three variable fonts: [**Protipo**](https://www.type-together.com/protipo-and-the-variable-font-format), [**Portada**](https://www.type-together.com/portada-font) and [**Bree**](https://www.type-together.com/new-release-bree). Since 2017 she has been participating in the [**Google Summer of Code**](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com) on behalf of the [Greek Open Source Community](https://gfoss.eu), as a mentor on the Greek expansion of the libre fonts [Arima Madurai](https://github.com/eellak/gsoc2018-arimamadurai), [Cantarell](https://github.com/eellak/gsoc2018-cantarell) and [Eczar](https://github.com/eellak/gsoc17-Eczar). In 2018 together with [Emilios Theofanous](https://www.monotype.com/studio/emilios-theofanous) and [Frank Grießhammer](https://fonts.adobe.com/designers/frank-griesshammer) we reworked the Greek set of [**Source Serif Pro**](https://adobe-fonts.github.io/source-serif-pro/). In early 2019 her [**Unica77 Greek**](https://lineto.com/typefaces/unica77?font=JGlvahKhf9M&tab=about) was released by Lineto, a design in progress for almost two years in collaboration with Christian Mengelt from Team’77, Unica‘s original designers. In June 2019, together with [Laurence Penney](https://www.lorp.org), she released the experimental project [**FauxFoundry**](https://www.fauxfoundry.com), a webfont service offering fallback fonts, such that multiple scripts can be presented with reasonable fidelity to the web designer’s intent, even when the primary font does not support those scripts. Currently working for Greek, thus providing Greek fallback fonts for fonts that do not contain Greek. The system uses takes measurements from Latin fonts that correspond with the set of parametric axes developed by Type Network. ## Tutorials + Publications (more online stuff) [Polytonic Greek: a guide for type designers](https://irenevl.github.io/Polytonic-tutorial/) | Irene Vlachou | February 2020 [FauxFoundry presents FauxGrec à la grecque](http://futuretext.org/fauxgrec-a-la-grecque-specimen-by-fauxfoundry) | Irene Vlachou | Laurence Penney | November 2019 [Greek Type Anatomy](https://www.type-together.com/greek-type-anatomy) | Irene Vlachou | October 2019 [FauxFoundry presents FauxGrec](https://archive.org/details/fauxfoundry-fauxgrec-2019/mode/2up) | Irene Vlachou | Laurence Penney | September 2019 [Building variable fonts with Feature Variations](https://github.com/irenevl/variable-fonts-with-feature-variations) | Irene Vlachou | June 2018 [Google Fonts Greek Sets](https://github.com/googlefonts/gftools/tree/master/Lib/gftools/encodings/GF%20Glyph%20Sets/Greek) | Irene Vlachou | January 2017 ## Talks + Workshops (typo-holidays) ~~[FauxGrec or how to design in 12 dimensions without losing your mind](https://www.granshan.com/conference) | Irene Vlachou | TypeTech Munich | March 2020 ~~ [Variable fonts for icon systems](https://github.com/topics/pjatk2020) | Irene Vlachou, Laurence Penney | Interactive week PJATK Warsaw | March 2020 (workshop) [The future will not be mono-tonous: the variability of text](http://futuretext.org/irene-vlachou-laurence-penney-the-future-will-not-be-mono-tonous-lecture/) | Irene Vlachou, Laurence Penney | FutureText | November 2019 (video) [Variable fonts: responsive-animated-flexible-efficient typography](http://futuretext.org/variable-fonts-responsive-animated-flexible-efficient-typography/) | Irene Vlachou, Laurence Penney | FutureText | November 2019 (workshop) [Parametric Fallback Fonts for the Web](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYNz-fST-Sg) | Irene Vlachou, Laurence Penney | ATypI Tokyo | August 2019 (video) [Greek fallback fonts for the web. A parametric approach](https://ictvc.org/2019/en/programme/speakers/) | Irene Vlachou, Laurence Penney | ICTVC 7 Patras | June 2019 (30 mins) [Designing Dynamic Logos](http://ictvc.org/2019/programme/workshops/) | Irene Vlachou, Laurence Penney, Kostas Bartsokas, Emilios Theofanous | | ICTVC 7 Patras | June 2019 (workshop) [Movable Type Vol. 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Q54ap8Hwg) | Irene Vlachou | Dynamic Font Day Munich | November 2018 (video) [Dancing around the .designspace](https://vimeo.com/channels/ampersandconf/280817760) | Irene Vlachou | Ampersand | June 2018 (video) [How to deal with stress](https://twitter.com/irene_vlachou/status/961234088467292161) | Irene Vlachou | Typografie-Symposium auf Schloss Raabs | August 2017 (video) [The Evolution of Greek Typefaces](https://vimeo.com/235023039) | Irene Vlachou | ISType 2017: Variations | June 2017 (video) [Greek typeface design, presentation and 2-day workshop](https://www.unic.ac.cy/event/irene-vlachou-greek-typeface-design-presentation-and-2-day-workshop/) | Irene Vlachou | University of Nicosia | March 2017 (workshop) [Greek fonts for the UI environment](http://www.ictvc.org/ictvc2010/en/speakers) | Irene Vlachou | ICTVC 6: discussing priorities, developing a field | June 2016 (25 mins) [Multi-script typeface design](http://www.ictvc.org/ictvc2010/en/speakers) | Amelie Bonet, Irene Vlachou | ICTVC 4: Lending grace to language | June 2010 (20 mins) [Typeface Design Workshop](http://www.ictvc.org/ictvc2007/3/98/&pid=271/index.html) | Eva Massoura, Irene Vlachou | ICTVC 3: From verbal to graphic | June 2007 (workshop) \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- © Irene Vlachou 2020