About Typotopo

Typotopo is a type design studio in Oakland, California, founded by me, Peter Cho. This site is a collection of font designs and experiments in type, motion, and form from over the years.

The work here stems from my long-time fascination with letters. Letters are the building blocks of written communication, and letterforms are symbols that are at once representational and abstract. From an early age we learn to write letterforms in our own hand and also recognize mechanically produced typeforms as the same symbols. When the keyboard replaces the pen as the writer’s primary tool, we lose the manual connection to the continuous handwritten mark in favor of the efficiency of digital reproduction. I’m interested in the relationship between the handwritten and the machine-made.

I also just love type, and I’m happy to have this creative outlet to share this love with the world. I remember first becoming interested in typography in the eighth grade when I got my first computer: a Mac Plus with an ImageWriter II printer. I spent many happy hours designing zines and newsletters, exploring early page layout programs, and buying fonts from the Adobe catalog on 3.5 inch diskettes. I even had an early copy of Fontographer, though the horrible fonts I made as a teenager are thankfully gone now. Many years later, I joined the Type@Cooper West Extended program (now known as Type West), where my love for fonts evolved into a love for designing type.

I’d love to hear from you—feel free to contact me any time. You can find me on the socials at @typotopo and @pchocho on Instagram and @pcho on Twitter. See my professional profile at pcho.net.

typotopo