Who:

Department of Letters is the work of Carl Shura, a Toronto-based designer focused on identity and brand strategy, exhibits and wayfinding, and type design.

Carl designed his first digital font under the direction of Kevin King, as part of the GDC Dair Typography Workshops at Toronto’s CoachHouse Books (2016), and he’s since honed his practice with lettering and type-focused projects, both personal and professional, spanning across environmental graphics, signage, wayfinding, and custom font design. Carl’s formal education in the field includes a summer residency at SVA NYC TypeLab (2019) and the post-grad type design program at The Cooper Union (2021). He now teaches design and production in the School Of Design at George Brown College in Toronto.

Over the course of a decade, Carl’s had the pleasure of learning under some of the world’s best type designers and educators, who’s influences can’t be overstated: Kevin King, Patrick Griffin, Rod McDonald, Tobias Frere-Jones, Ksenya Samarskaya, Christian Schwartz, Dan Rhatigan, Lynne Yun, Erik van Blokland, Maria Doreuli, Tal Leming, Troy Leinster, Hannes Famira, Gen Ramirez, and Zrinka Buljubašić.

He is a member of TDC (Type Director’s Club), RGD (Association of Registered Graphic Designers), and is the ATypI Delegate for Canada (Association Typographique Internationale). Carl launched Department of Letters in late 2024.

What:

Department of Letters makes ready-to-use fonts for every project, and custom type for every need.

The current roster of fonts available includes Circulation Serif (award-winning!), Circulation Sans, and Mullion (award-winning!). Over time these will grow into other weights and styles — if they’re popular, I guess! New typeface weights and styles for families will be added when completed and updates will be sent directly to you if you opt-in for emails when you buy any of these fonts.

Each font contains 480+ glyphs, supports 200+ latin script languages, and includes contextual, discretionary, and regional alternates. Additional opentype features and stylistic sets are accessible through your software interface.

Zipped download packages contain OTF, WOFF, & WOFF2 font files and your license agreement.All fonts are covered by a standard license based on the number of people in your studio or company. Check out the license for the details.

Need custom type work, logos or wordmarks, installations, exhibits, environmental graphics, signage or wayfinding?
Department of Letters does it all.

Contact carl@deptofletters.ca