Shelley Gruendler

Type Camp Founder

Shelley Gruendler, founder of Type Camp, is a typographer, designer, and educator who teaches, lectures, and publishes internationally on typography and design.

She holds a PhD and an MA in The History and Theory of Typography and Graphic Communication from the University of Reading, England and a Bachelor of Environmental Design in Graphic Design from North Carolina State University, United States.

Shelley has presented at the Getty Museum, TypoBerlin, ATypI, TypeCon, How, AdobeMAX, and TEDX; has published articles in the Adobe Create blog, the Adobe Typekit blog365 TypoCommunication Arts, How, Slanted, and Step; and has judged international typography for Communication Arts, visual communication for Core77, and book design for the Alcuin Society. While she has enjoyed doing all of these, her true love is traveling the world for Type Camp.

"Helping people learn at Type Camp encompasses all the wonderful things about education without any of the rubbish, like irrelevant grades, stuffy classrooms, and uninterested classmates. It's a true learning and sharing environment. All of us become a team with the common goal of learning more together. I'm always impressed with the results."

food

I think popcorn is the perfect food. Oh, and I love the sweet/sourness of Bread and Butter pickles.

book

Both whodunnit pulpy murder mysteries and dusty books on type, printing, and book design all from the 1930's.

drink

Ice-cold Coca-Cola in a 6 1/2 ounce bottle is perfection.

film/tv

Anything that passes the Bechdel Test plus a strong female lead.

travel

Always Southern India, but Japan is pretty awesome, too.

collection

I collect all kinds of cool things (really!), but if you call me a hoarder, I will totally punch you in the face.

invention

The quill pen. (Yeah, it's not necessarily a recent invention!) I wrote with a turkey feather in a class with Euan Clayton and was amazed at how easy and super smooth it was to write with.

plant

My home is filled with lush green plants - but I have yet to figure out how NOT to kill an air plant though. 3 dead so far....

sound

Not while I'm writing. Shhh!

blog

The Alphabettes - they're doing everything that's just right for this day and age. So proud to be a part of it!

animal

Elephants.
Wombats are a close second.

expert

I'm surprisingly good at Jeopardy/Trivial Pursuit and Angry Birds. Clearly great skills for an adult to generate income.

when not at type camp

About to take a nap, in the middle of a nap, or waking up from a nap.