Flavia Zimbardi is an award-winning type designer and visual artist from Rio de Janeiro currently based in Berlin. Passionate about promoting gender equality and celebrating the diversity of artistic movements in Latin America, she creates custom and retail typefaces deeply informed by cultural heritage and activism, while publishing reflections on authorship and creative practice through Contraforma.
Founder of the initiative Women in Type, Flavia frequently collaborates with fellow female designers, and partners with esteemed foundries such as Commercial Type (e.g., Roboto Serif) and Frere-Jones (e.g., Mallory), and clients including Google Fonts (e.g., Fraunces), Adobe Fonts (e.g., Joschmi), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Penguin Random House, Pentagram, and Jones Knowles Ritchie. A renowned alumni of the Type@Cooper Extended Program, she made history as the first Brazilian woman to have a typeface awarded by the Type Directors Club in 2018 for her graduation project Lygia, which was also selected for the 8th Latin American Typography Biennial (Tipos Latinos).
Lectures:
»upcoming« O Ensino em Tipografia na Formação do Designer (Panel)
with Bruno Ortega, Mary Vonni Meurer, and more
DiaTipo, São Paulo, Brazil
12 December 2025Vision 2040: The Future of the Font Industry—Future Leaders (Panel)
with Maria Doreuli, Jakob Runge, Lisa Huang, and Omaima Dajani
The Font Business Conference
14 June 2025Colaboração como Ferramenta Criativa
DiaTipo, São Paulo, Brazil
14 December 2024Women in Type: Empowering Voices through Collaboration (Panel)
with Tida Tep, Inga Plönnigs, and Ayaka Ito
Type Electives
22 March 2023Women in Type, Stronger Together
HyperTalks
5 May 2023Fraunces, Amigável e Irreverente: O Perfeito Antídoto Contra-Cultural
Dia Tipo X, 9ª Tipos Latinos
25 March 2023Olhe Mais para Dentro, Menos para Fora: O Processo Criativo de Lygia e Lygia Sans
Dia Tipo X, Gráfica Amazônica
3 August 2021Type design Practice, Inspirations and Experiences (Panel)
with Daria Petrova, Verena Gerlach, and Kimya Gandhi
TypeThursday, Berlin, Germany
9 September 2021Creative Side Gigs & Your Future (Panel)
with Dan Rhatigan, Ben Welch, Agyei Archer and Jojo Giltsoff
Typographics 2019, The Cooper Union, New York/NY, USA
14, 15 June 2019Post-digital letterpress
with Erik Spiekermann and Ferdinand Ulrich
Adobe MAX 2018, LA Convention Center. Los Angeles/CA, USA
15 October 2018Adobe Hidden Treasures of Bauhaus Launch (Panel)
with Céline Hurka, Luca Pellegrini, Hidetaka Yamasaki and Ferdinand Ulrich
moderation Frank Grießhammer
Ramscale Studio, New York /NY, USA
12 June 2018
Teaching:
Font Business: A Beginner's Guide Exploring Career Pathways
Type@Cooper Extended Program, New York, USA
Part of the Cooper Union post-graduate certificate in Type Design – since the summer of 2024.De A a Z: Fundamentos do Desenho de Letras
DiaTipo, São Paulo, Brazil
December 2024Type Design — Fundamentos do desenho de letras (Workshop)
Platô Studio, São Paulo, Brazil
October – December 2021
Judging:
Type Design judge for the 14th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial in 2024.
Typography judge for the Latin American Design Award (LAD) in 2024.
Typography judge for the One Club and ADC Global Award (102 ADC) in 2023.
President of the jury in the category Craft for Design for the Brasil Design Award (BDA) in 2022.
Graphic Design judge for the Brasil Design Award (BDA) in 2020.
Editorial Design judge for the 12th & 13th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial in 2017 & 2019.
Awards:
9th Latin American Typography Biennial, Honored by Tipos Latinos for the type families Lygia Sans and Fraunces.
98 ADC – Honored by the One Club and ADC Global for The Lost Typography of Bauhaus
• Silver Cube, Category: Typefaces
• Bronze Cube, Category: Innovation / Typography
• Bronze Cube, Category: Advertising
• Bronze Cube, Category: Digital
• MERIT, Category: Use of Typography8th Latin American Typography Biennial, Honored by Tipos Latinos for Lygia.
TDC64 – The World’s Best Typography, Honored by Type Directors Club for Lygia.
12th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial, Honored by ADG Brasil for the Artists & Fleas' Exterior Signage.
TDC63 – The World’s Best Typography, Honored by Type Directors Club for the Artists & Fleas' Exterior Signage.
10th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial, Honored by ADG Brasil for Capricho Magazine Graphic Concept (2010).
9th Brazilian Graphic Design Biennial, Honored by ADG Brasil for Capricho Magazine Graphic Concept (2006/07).
Prêmio Abril de Jornalismo – Magazine of The Year, Honored by Editora Abril for Capricho.
Press & Publications:
Ohno Radio #11, Podcast Interview
PAGE Mag, Feature “Acht spannede neue Type Foundries” by Antje Dohmann
FutureFonts, Interview “Meet Undercase Type”
Communication Arts Magazine, Feature “Five Typographers Share Their Treasured Finds”
Type Director Club Member of the Month, Feature/Interview
Folha de São Paulo, Feature/Interview “Designer brasileira cria fonte inspirada em Lygia Clark” by Paula Queiroz
Diagrama #19, Podcast Interview
Projeto Curadoria, Feature/Interview