Speaker Juan Villanueva

Juan Villanueva is a Peruvian typeface designer, letterer, and educator in New York City.
As a Senior Type Designer at Monotype he contributes to library designs including Helvetica Now, Futura Now, and Walbaum and creates custom projects for global brands such as Google, Microsoft, Tencent, M&Ms, and Entertainment One.

Juan is the co-founder of Type Electives, an online school shaping the future of type by offering courses that go beyond traditional type design education. Previously, Juan was the lead instructor of Type West Online where his curriculum brought together theory and practice, and emphasized community and collaboration. He’s the founder of Type Crit Crew, an initiative to make type design education more accessible and inclusive to students anywhere in the world. He previously taught at Type@Cooper and the City College of New York.

Juan gives talks at design conferences around the world including LADFEST, Letrástica, BICeBé, BIPOC Design History, WATBD?, and TypeCon. In 2021, he created Typefaces as Cultural Objects, an archive that highlights typefaces made by Latin American designers that honor and preserve Latin American culture.

He graduated from the Type@Cooper Extended program in typeface design and serves on the board of the Society of Scribes.

Instagram @juan_kafka

Twitte @Juan_Kafka