Designer and typographer Fabio Biesel aims to be “surprising, not perfect”

Fabio Biesel is a graphic designer and typographer based in southern Germany, “between cows and the lake of Constance”, as he describes. Rather than technical perfection, he wants his typography to “convey a feeling”: “it’s the imperfections that inspire me more”, Fabio tells It’s Nice That. After doing a vocational training course in graphic design, he started a degree in communication design at the University of Technology, Business and Design in Constance, but chose to defer after taking on work as a freelancer: “I got to work on some cool projects, and I decided to leave for a while to gain more work experience”.

His typeface, Güggeli, was inspired by “a house in Denmark with windows that were always totally awry. It’s not the most legible font, but it’s one that conveys a mood”. The balance between clarity and playful details is explored in his second typeface, Increase, too. “It’s chaotic and stubborn, but also very personable,” hell tells us. The typeface is another great example of Fabio’s approach, defined by “not taking my work too seriously, and making fun visible”. His typographic approach is full of expressive imperfections, combining hand-drawn elements with computer graphics: “It can be hard to find a way to be funny and serious at the same time. My aim is for my work to be surprising, not perfect.”