2026 marks ten years of Blaze Type, the renowned, celebrated foundry founded by Matthieu Salvaggio in 2016. From fairly humble beginnings, having launched with three typefaces, the journey of Blaze Type isn’t typical of the typographic industry, with Matthieu himself having no formal type design education and, by his own admission, no master plan of what he wanted to do. A decade on, Blaze Type’s catalogue now boasts over 100 type families, and the foundry continues to push contemporary typography into exciting, new, variable spaces. Not to mention its custom work for brands the likes of H&M, GF Smith and BVB Borussia Dortmund. Blaze Type’s rigorous roster of thoughtful, wide-ranging typography – and equally deep understanding of a complex craft – is the result of a decade of doing, and doing what you love. “It went really fast,” Matthieu says, looking back on the last ten years, “I suppose it’s the case when you are blessed with working in a field you’re passionate about.”
Continuing to reflect, and with so many extensive type families and custom work under his belt, Matthieu knows there is plenty he’s learned since the early days, but the biggest lesson is how perpetual typefaces really are. “Type design is an everlasting work,” he says, “there’s no such thing as a ‘finished’ typeface if you ask me,” arguing that there is always room to upgrade, develop and expand – more alternatives, stylistic sets, weights, languages and so on. “We’ve become quite experienced in the engineering part of font design,” Matthieu adds, an element of the craft that he believes is often overlooked, especially by aspiring type designers. “I had no formal training in type design – I just refused to accept that was a reason not to do it,” he explains. “I learned by doing, broke things, fixed them, broke them again, that approach never really left us,” adding, “Blaze Type is still built the same way: instinct first, system second.”