Elizabeth Carey Smith is a typographer and graphic designer at The Letter Office in New York. The attention paid to fonts over the past few years is long overdue, and we were excited to ask Elizabeth about everything that goes into creating one and how she got the itch to do it. This interview is part of a two-part series; next time around we’ll talk to Elizabeth’s silversmith husband.

Do you consider yourself a typographer or a graphic designer? Where does one end and the other begin?

Typography is the use of type; type design is the design and production of the actual fonts; lettering is drawing one-off letters or words. These all get jumbled together quite often, even by graphic designers. Where I fit in will probably sound convoluted: I’m a graphic designer who specializes in type-based projects, but my obsession with type runs so deep that I’d mostly regard myself as a typographer. I am also a type designer and letterer, so I run the gamut of designing and using letters. Standard projects, where I’m hired as a graphic designer, usually involve designing type-heavy reports and books, so I’m organizing content with type. [W]hereas other designers may use imagery, illustration, and other things as their primary way to communicate a message, type is my medium.

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