The Recipient
Daniela López Hernández
Daniela López Hernández is a graphic designer and type designer from Mexico City. She became interested in letterforms while taking editorial design classes in her undergraduate studies. However, her relationship with letters began even earlier when she suffered hearing loss battling and overcoming cancer as a child. In the absence of sound, she became a deeply visual person. Her disability did not discourage her, but instead, she shares, “What I could not hear, I observed, and what I could not listen to, I read. Words were there for me when sounds escaped me. I began to explore the world through letters and saw letters not only as words but art.” She describes how growing up in the vibrant and colorful Mexico City also has served as a well of inspiration and has influenced her creative practice. She is currently a student in the Type West program and in the future hopes to support other designers living with disabilities to enrich and make the type design community more inclusive.
The Malee Scholarship team is moved by Daniela’s adventurous and courageous spirit and is impressed with her passion and commitment to type design. We are honored to name Daniela as the 2022 Malee Scholar and look forward to seeing the many contributions she makes to our type design community.
The Finalists
The Malee Scholarship recognizes three Finalists who are committed to a career in type design and educating the next generation of lettering artists and type designers. This year, each finalist will receive a $2,000 grant from sponsor David Jonathan Ross that will go towards their type design education, and a copy of the second edition of Designing Type by Karen Cheng.
Tamara Segura
Tamara Segura is an aspiring type designer and letterer. She was born and raised in Mexico City. Her love for letters began early in her life when she drew birthday cards and signs for school presentations. She received her B.A. in Graphic Design and proceeded to study Type Design for a year at Centro University. She has worked as a graphic, branding, and packaging designer for local and global brands at different agencies, while pursuing her dream of becoming a full-time type designer and letterer. She graduated from the Type@Cooper Condensed program and Type West in 2021. Since then, she has been active in the type community as part of the Times New Woman and Letrástica. In 2021 she spoke at Typographics’ TypeLab and participated in the Alphabettes Mentorship Program.
Fernanda Cozzi
Fer Cozzi is an independent type designer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She obtained her diploma at the University of Buenos Aires, where she teaches in the Master in typeface design.
In her work she seeks to explore rhythms, shapes and strokes where randomness and a not-so-obvious rationality meet. Talkative and passionate about letters, some of her work has been selected for renowned typography exhibitions and has participated in various typography conferences and events around the world. When she’s not drawing letters, she’s probably dancing to the rhythm of 90s pop.
Krutika Shah
Krutika Shah is an award-winning communication designer from Mumbai, India and is currently based in Sydney, Australia. She works as a user experience and visual designer, and enjoys exploring type design and typography in her free time. In 2019, she graduated with an honors in Communication Design and a specialization in graphic design. Outside of design, she is passionate about all things related to arts and culture like painting, languages, traveling, photography, and food. She is also a qualified French language tutor and teaches it to kids in her spare time. Her internship with Mota Italic in 2018 further invigorated her interest in type design. In 2020, she was selected as a mentee in the Alphabettes mentorship program where she designed her first Gujarati typeface. In 2021, she was invited as a speaker at Typewknd where she shared her journey with Gujarati type design.
Special Recognition
The Malee Scholarship highlights the following type designers with Special Recognition.