Chris Campe, photo by Alexandra Polina
Publications
Books
Alphabets
in the artist book series 100for10
Melville Brand Design, Munich
1. edition 2020
Designing Fonts
An Introduction to Professional Type Design
ISBN 978-0-500-24155-4
Thames & Hudson, London
1. edition 2020
German edition:
Making Fonts!
Verlag Hermann Schmidt
ISBN: 978-3-87439-909-8
1. edition 2019
Praxisbuch Brush Lettering
Handlettering mit dem Brushpen – Schritt für Schritt von den Grundlagen zum eigenen Stil
ISBN 978-3-95845-706-5
mitp Verlag, Frechen
1. edition 2018
Handbuch Handlettering
Eigene Buchstaben und illustrative Schrift gestalten
Haupt Verlag, Bern
ISBN 978-3-259-60165-6
2. edition 2018
Toller Ort
Hamburgs best shops and addresses
Junius Verlag, Hamburg
ISBN 978-3-88506-035-2
2. edition 2017
Hamburg Alphabet
Hamburger Ladenschilder von A bis Z
Junius Verlag, Hamburg
ISBN 978-3-88506-466-4
1. edition 2010
updated new edition
1. edition 2020
selfpublished, please order via mail
Articles
In 2015 und 2016 I was part of the editorial teams for TYPO Berlin and wrote articles for the conference blog. Because the conference was discontinued and the website has been taken down, unfortunately these are no longer available.
More Articles
Was macht eigentlich …?
Ladenschilder in Hamburg
2009 und 2019
in Typotopografie magazine, issue 10
August Dreesbach Verlag, 2019
ISBN 978-3-96395-016-2
Girls Go First?
Gender Representation in Illustration
in Varoom, the Illustration Report, Autumn 2014, issue 27
drawing queer space: the kind of activism drawings do
in Shift: Graduate Journal of Visual and Material Culture, issue 4, 10. 2011
Grants & Scholarships
2023 Artist in Residence at Künstlerhaus Schreyahn
2022 Neustart-Grant of the German royalty collecting society VG Wort
2021 Neustart–Grant of the German royalty collecting society VG BildKunst
2010-2012 Fulbright-Scholar, M.A. student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2001 and 2005 scholarship from the Franco-German Youth Office
2001 scholarship from the German Publishers and Booksellers Association
Network
Illustratoren Organisation e.V.
Professional association for German-speaking illustrators
Buchstabenmuseum Berlin e.V.
Association and museum for the preservation and documentation of letters
Alphabettes
Informal network for women in type design, lettering and typography
Women in Arts and Media e.V.
a interdisciplinary, cross-sector network that furthers gender equality in the arts and media
Exhibitions
Group exhibitions
Domestic Utopias
curated by Julia Bonn, Stefan Endewardt, and others
ngbk, Berlin
15. 06. to 28. 07. 2013
And Then She’s Like/ And He Goes
curated by Chris Campe
A+D Gallery, Chicago
09. 08. to 10. 09. 2012
The Great Refusal:
Taking On New Queer Aesthetics
curated by Oli Rodriguez
Sullivan Galleries, Chicago
24. 08. to 12. 10. 2012
Oh mein Wort!
curated by Timo Frank
Frappant, Hamburg
08. 2010
Lectures
Design lectures
Mal angenommen
Munich Typographic Society (Typografische Gesellschaft München)
25. 4. 2023
How to Create Experimental Lettering with Adobe Fresco
Adobe MAX, Los Angeles
19. 10. 2022
Wie Lettering funktioniert
Tag der Schrift
Schule für Gestaltung Zürich
9. 4. 2022
Muss das so?
Typotable Leipzig
26. 9. 2020
Lettering or Fonts?!
Online lecture with mit Ulrike Rausch on the topic »Purpose«
Creative Mornings Berlin
17. 4. 2020
Watch the lecture
FAQ
Ladies, Wine & Design Berlin
30. 10. 2019
Lettering Hacks
Berlin Letters Festival
17. 05. 2019
How to be Bold
Ladies, Wine & Design Hamburg
18. 06. 2018
Says who?
TYPO Berlin
18. 05. 2018
Tun, was man nicht kann
TYPO Berlin
24. 05. 2017
Is This Just Fantasy
Lecture in the series »Spezial Material«
University of Applied Sciences Hamburg
17. 05. 2017
The Alphabet of Good Advice
Guest lecture for BTK Berlin
10. 12. 2015
Schaufensterkaraoke
Pecha Kucha Night Hamburg, Imperialtheater
18. 02. 2015
Ein Haus, ein Baum, ein Buch
Pecha Kucha Night Hamburg, St. Johanniskirche
20. 11. 2013
An A is an a is an a
Pecha Kucha Night, Buchstabenmuseum Berlin
16. 03. 2013
Lectures at Academic Conferences
Girls Go First?
Negotiating Gender Representation in Contemporary Illustration
VaroomLab Symposium, Arts University Bournemouth
18. 09. 2014
The Male-Female-Fuck-You Drawing:
About the Role of Illustration in Queer-Feminist Communities
3. Illustration Research Symposium, Ethnographic Museum Krakow
08. 01. 2012
Queering Life Drawing: Sexuality, Queer Failure and the In-Between
Queertopia! 4.0: Queer(ing) Poetics: Text, Method, Movement, Thought; Northwestern University
28. 05. 2011
drawing queer space:
the kind of activism drawings do
Making Space – Annual Art History Graduate Student Conference; Concordia University, Montréal
12. 03. 2011
Teaching
HAW Hamburg
Typo-Basiskurs
Intro to Typography for first semester illustration students
summer semester
2020, 2021 and 2023
Lettering and Typografie for Illustrators
winter semester 2022
Na typisch!
Identität und visuelle Darstellung
Lektüreseminar Kunst- und Designgeschichte
summer semester 2014
Siehste?!
Über die Bedingungen des Sehens
Lektüreseminar Kunst- und Designgeschichte
winter semester 2014
Oh, wie praktisch — Theorie!
Lektüreseminar Kunst- und Designgeschichte
summer semester 2013
Fachhochschule Potsdam
Lettering im Skizzenbuch
lettering experiments in the sketchbook
summer semester 2021
Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel
Handlettering und illustrative Schrift
one week seminar during the project week
03. 2017
btk Hamburg
Editoriale Illustration
practical illustration course
summer semester 2015
Lettering-Love
narrative lettering
one week seminar during the project week
12. 2014
Workshops
Experimental Lettering for Posters
HAW Hamburg
1. und 2. 04. 2023
Learn Lettering, German Style
TypeCon, Minneapolis
29. 08. 2019
Brush Lettering Like A Pro
Berlin Letters Festival
18. 05. 2019
Brush Lettering Basics
Sketchnote Barcamp Hannover
02. 11. 2018
Brush Lettering Like A Pro
TYPO Berlin, 17. 05. 2018
Resume in Prose
Professional Training
There were two bookstores in my hometown Walsrode: one with school supplies and one selling Literature, with a capital L. Guess in which of the two I did an apprenticeship as a bookseller after graduating from high school.
Across the street from the Literature bookstore was the editorial office of the Walsroder Zeitung. I always wanted to write, so one day I crossed the street and stammered, »I’m an apprentice at the bookshop, could I write book reccommendations for you?!«
So I learned to write and take pictures as a reporter for the local paper at a rate of 20 pfennigs a line and 20 marks a picture. Along the way, I became so good at writing proposal prose that I lived abroad on scholarship four times, most recently as a Fulbright Scholar in Chicago.
Academic Studies
After my apprenticeship I wanted to go to university, but I couldn’t decide – journalism or design? In the end, drawing was the only thing I kept trying, even though I was never satisfied with my results. And because all the great picture books in the bookstore came from the University of Applied Sciences (HAW) in Hamburg, I went there to study illustration.
But somehow I found the course superficial. I didn’t want to talk about image composition, but about what I was doing when I was making pictures – was I just depicting reality or was I creating it?
To explore this question, after I got my diploma, I went on to study Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Above all this meant: reading Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes, for four semesters, in every course, in English.
Professional Life
After getting my master’s degree, I worked as a freelance graphic designer for companies and publishing houses, including the dpa subsidiary News Aktuell and Gruner+Jahr.
In 2014, I founded my studio All Things Letters and decided to specialize in lettering, because when I do lettering I don’t have to decide between writing and designing and can work on form and content at the same time.
Since then, I’ve been designing everything with letters for publishers, agencies, and companies. I wrote six book about lettering and type design, and together with three friends I co-founded Berlin Letters festival. I also share my knowledge in workshops, lectures and on social media.
Resume in Passport Photos

Sports club, 1989

Railcard, 1990

Job application, 1993

Job application with soft focus, 1993

US driver’s license, 1995

German driver’s license, 1996

Job application, 1996

Application for my apprenticeship, 1997

youth group leader card, 1998

Student ID just before graduation, 1998

Job application, 1998

Job application, 1998

Application for the german-french exchange program for booksellers, 2000

Application Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, 2001

International Student-ID, 2004

Passport, 2005

Carte Orange – Public Transport in Paris, 2005

Student-ID École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 2005

Bewerbung Fulbright-Stipendium, 2009

Visa for the US, 2010

?

Visa for the US, 2011

Student-ID School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2010

Visa for India, 2012

New identity card, 2015

Website update, 2021
Resume in Books
Books that shaped me, more or less in chronological order.
until I was 10
- Luis Murschetz
Der Maulwurf Grabowski - Jörg Müller
Alle Jahre wieder saust der Presslufthammer nieder - Christine Nöstlinger
Wir pfeifen auf den Gurkenkönig - Ursula Wölfel
Die grauen und die grünen Felder - Gudrun Pausewang
Die Wolke - Gudrun Pausewang
Die letzten Kinder von Schewenborn
until I was 20
- Fragt mal Alice
- Ken Follett
Die Säulen der Erde - Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day - Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Richard Wright
Black Boy - Robert Penn Warren
All the Kings Men
until I was 30
- Luise F. Pusch
Sonja - Leslie Feinberg
Stone Butch Blues - Alison Bechdel
Dykes to Watch Out For - Audre Lorde
Zami - Annie Ernaux
La Place - Birgit Vanderbeke
Das Muschelessen - Hermann Kant
Die Aula
until I was 40
- Rebecca Solnit
A Field Guide to Getting Lost - Shalija Patel
Migritude - Kenneth Goldsmith
Uncreative Writing - Rebecca Solnit
Men Explain Things to Me - Radclyffe Hall
The Well of Loneliness - Karen Köhler
Wir haben Raketen geangelt
until today
- Didier Eribon
Rückkehr nach Reims - Anke Stelling
Schäfchen im Trockenen - Ali Smith
Public Library - Marlen Haushofer
Die Wand - Tara Westover
Educated - Svetlana Alexievich
Voices from Chernobyl - Ocean Vuong
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Siegfried Lenz
Deutschstunde - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Braiding Sweetgrass
In May 2020 I also started to keep a record of all the books I have read. Have a look at my reading list.