René Verkaart of Netherlands started the Charactersfoundry in 2004 as the result of years of type design. He tells us:

“As a little kid I used to draw my own comic books. I was a huge fan of the ‘superhero’ genre. The fonts used in those American comics made me aware of typography for the very first time.

“Since 1995 I’ve been running my own graphic design studio, Stoere Binken Design, with a friend of mine. Most of my early typefaces were designed for product flyers or packaging for Sirius, our longest client. They sell food supplements, CDs, vinyl, DJ equipment and they used to organize techno parties. They flyer very often for self-promotion, and all their products need labels, packaging and detailed promotional material.

“About two years ago I started type design in a more constructive manner. I sat down, made sketches, did legibility tests and started making complete character sets and complete families, which was all totally new to me. Most of my typefaces originated in my holidays. Then I finally had the time to sit down and do some detailed sketching.

“All my typefaces are extensively tested by carefully selected beta testers. This are renowned graphic design studios that test drive the typefaces in practice and give critical feedback to improve the final release versions for MyFonts.

“With Characters I want to show myself and what I stand for. Typography is a very personal thing and a powerful way of expressing yourself and your message.
I’m happy that there are websites like MyFonts where people can find the typefaces that fit to their character and how they want to portrait themselves.

“My typefaces are featured in magazines like Items (Netherlands) and Diseno (Spain).”

Graduated: Academie Beeldende Kunsten, Maastricht, 1995
Favourite typeface: Insider Black

As well as Accelerator and ShellShock, René has designed many more fonts: BorVer, Bionix, Encrypted Wallpaper, FatBoy One, Freaky Animals, Insider, Kryptonite, Nantua, Nantua Flava XL, Nordic A, Nordic Narrow, Porta, SBD Block, SBD Block Cutout, Siventi and Vagebond Condensed / Normal / Extended.

René Verkaart of Netherlands started the Charactersfoundry in 2004 as the result of years of type design. He tells us:

“As a little kid I used to draw my own comic books. I was a huge fan of the ‘superhero’ genre. The fonts used in those American comics made me aware of typography for the very first time.