BECOMING VOCAL – DESIGNER TALK BY TRÉ SEALS

SPRING 2023 – VISITING ARTIST, SCHOLAR, AND DESIGNER PROGRAM

TRÉ SEALS is a multidisciplinary designer and font foundry creator. After graduating in 2015 with a degree in Visual Communication Design, Seals went on to open his brand consultancy known as Studio Seals. Through Studio Seals, he worked with over 250 partners, ranging from small startups to national and global brands. In 2016, he founded a diversity-driven type foundry known as Vocal Type. Inspired by the lack of diversity in the graphic design industry, each typeface highlights a piece of history from a different underrepresented race, ethnicity, or gender—from the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Argentina to the Civil Rights Movement in America and beyond. Since founding Vocal Type in 2016, Seals’ fonts have gone from being inspired by progressive movements to becoming a part of them: taking shape in the form of Black Lives Matter street murals, brand campaigns for the 2020 Virtual March On Washington, political campaigns like that of Stacey Abrams, logos like the Amazon Labor Union, and so much more. Seals created custom fonts and designed the book SPIKE, a monograph of the filmmaker and cultural icon, Spike Lee. Seals has earned numerous accolades for his work including being named an Ascender by the Type Directors Club, a Young Gun by the One Club for Creativity, a Black Design Visionary by Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum, and one of the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30. His current solo exhibition at the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design in Richmond, VA is titled Characters: Type and Progress.

Tré Seals’ is the VASD Program’s Spring 2023 designer. Go here to learn more about the VASD Program.