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The Studio

We are an independent design studio specializing in projects in which type design takes center stage. Whether creating a custom typeface, a visual campaign, or a large-scale mural, we help our clients shape their visual futures through a meticulous process and a deep dedication to the craft of design.

Our story began in 2015 when Cyla, after spending time living and studying abroad, returned to Brazil and founded the studio to explore experimental typography in design projects. Since then, the studio has gained recognition for its work, earning multiple awards, being featured in publications, and receiving invitations to speak at conferences and lead workshops around the world.

Constant experimentation with new letterforms and visual languages is what drives us — and what we humbly believe sets us apart.

Cyla Costa

Cyla Costa is a graphic artist and type designer born from the complex mix of cultures that is Brazil. A designer by training, she delved into the world of typography out of passion. She graduated from UFPR in 2005 and specialized in Creative Illustration (EINA, 2007) and Editorial Design (Elisava, 2008) in Barcelona. In 2014, she studied Typography at Cooper Union in New York. Upon returning to Brazil, she founded her own studio.

For her, every project that comes out of the studio reflects a meeting of cultural influences and personal experiences — ranging from films and books, her greatest passions, to small moments of everyday life. Always seeking new creative connections, Cyla brings this diversity into her work.

With 20 years of experience in design and typography, she has become a national and international reference in her field. Her studio, based in Curitiba, serves clients worldwide. Known for its vibrant color palettes and visual versatility, her work has been widely awarded at festivals such as the Latin American Design Awards, Brazilian Design Awards, Brazilian Design Biennial, Communication Arts, and the Type Directors Club.

What we do

We specialize in typography, but we also create all kinds of design projects.
Our services include:

  • custom typefaces
  • editorial design
  • lettering of any kind
  • title design & credits for movies
  • visual identities & campaigns
  • motion design
  • logos
  • illustration
  • book & album covers
  • packaging
  • posters
  • murals
  • typographic refinement for logos
  • talks & workshops

If you're looking for something that's not on this list, reach out to us — we'd love to find a beautiful way to work together, and we never turn down a good challenge.

How we work

Our passion is creating striking new visual worlds, blending expressiveness and function in every project. With a sharp eye for typography and an exploratory spirit, we seek each client’s unique voice—balancing precision and intuition.

We believe in the power of collaboration. Under the creative direction of Cyla Costa, we have a core team and expand our network as needed, bringing on board graphic designers, type designers, illustrators, writers, developers, photographers, and motion designers.

If you're looking for a studio that works with dedication and boldness to bring big ideas to life, let’s connect.

Creative team

Here at the studio, everything is done collaboratively, with creative minds and skilled hands combining their individual talents to craft unique visuals.

This is our core team of creatives:

  • Aline Kaori

    Aline Kaori is a lettering artist, calligrapher, and type designer based in São Paulo, Brazil. Her custom lettering work has helped brands like Budweiser, Vivo, Natura, and Tiffany & Co. connect with their audiences in unique ways.  

    Since 2013, Aline has been dedicated to studying and practicing typography, lettering, and calligraphy, learning from masters such as John Stevens, Julian Waters, and Ale Paul, among others. She also worked at Oficina Tipográfica São Paulo (OTSP) for two years, where she deepened her passion for typography and letterpress printing.  

    Since 2016, Aline has been teaching calligraphy and lettering workshops and providing consultancy for projects related to lettering arts and typography.

  • Daniel Duda

    Daniel Duda is a senior motion designer and animation director based in Curitiba, Brazil. Since 2006, he has been deeply involved in motion design, character animation, and animation direction. Today, Daniel feels comfortable taking on different roles across a variety of projects, whether crafting keyframes or leading teams.

    As an animation director at Smart Diseños from 2013 to 2024, he collaborated with both national and international clients such as Coca-Cola, Peugeot, KLM, Nestlé, Globo, and Itaú. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the LAD – Latin American Design Awards 2024 and the Brazil Design Awards 2023. He is also a jury member for the Motion Design Awards platform.

Awards

Our work has received national and international recognition from organizations such as the Type Directors Club and Communication Arts (USA), Latin American Design Awards and Tipos Latinos (Latin America), Brazil Design Awards, and the Brazilian Design Biennial, with the following projects:

2024
    Type Directors Club
  • Certificate of Typographic Excellence for the project HOW TO HAVE SEX IN 2023
2023
2022
2021
    Communication Arts Typography Award
  • Awarded for the project FUERZA HERMANA
  • Awarded for the mural projects RESPEITO & COLETIVIDADE
Previous Years
    Type Directors Club
  • 2019 — Certificate of Typographic Excellence for the project VIRTUDE CÊNICA
  • 2017 — Certificate of Typographic Excellence for SOU MARIA MAS NÃO VOU COM AS OUTRAS
  • 2016 — Certificate of Typographic Excellence for the project WEEKLY WOODY
    Brazilian Design Biennial
  • 2019 — Selected as a highlight with CLUBE DO LIVRO PARA LEITORES EXTRAORDINÁRIOS
  • 2019 — Selected with the project HOPE ILLUSTRATIONS
  • 2017 — Selected with the project SOU MARIA MAS NÃO VOU COM AS OUTRAS
Events

A big part of our work is also public speaking and teaching. If you'd like for Cyla to speak at you conference or teach a workshop in your city, drop us a line at [email protected] and we can make it happen.

We also have an online course at Domestika: Introduction to Custom Lettering with Cyla Costa, sign up!

    2024

  • Keynote Speaker at Latin American Design Awards 2024 in Fortaleza, Brazil

    Typography panel with Carlos Oliveras Colom & Alejandro Soto at LAD Awards + Festival KUYA in Fortaleza, Brazil

    Letras Intrépidas Workshop at Festival KUYA in Fortaleza, Brazil

    Speaker at the Festival Internacional de Diseño 4GN in Bogotá, Colômbia

    Speaker at Algures, UTFPR University Design Week in Curitiba, Brazil
    2023

  • Talk and Workshop at DiaTipo São Paulo 2023

    #NiUnaMenos: The Collective Power of Women — Online talk with Fer Cozzi & Yani Arabena, moderated by Sol Matas at Type Directors Club — Types Drives Culture “Cha Che Chi”

    Speaker at the amazing design event DeHache 23 in Querétaro, México

    Online talk at Universidade Federal Fluminense Design Week, Rio de Janeiro
    2022

  • Martim — Had a baby, biggest life event ever :)
    2021

  • Online talk at Type Thursdays Barcelona

    Online talk at Diseño y Sociedad – Universidad de Bogotá, Colômbia

    Online talk at DiaTipoX 2021 | GraficAmazônica
    Previous Years

  • Mujeres que hacen Letras Typography panel with Yani Arabena, moderated by Fer Cozzi at Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina — 2020

    Speaker at UNB Advertising Week in Brasília, Brazil — 2019

    Speaker at UFPR Design Week in Curitiba, Brazil — 2019

    Invited artist at the Ladies Who Paint festival in San Diego, USA — 2019

    Talk and Workshop at the Typism Festival at the Gold Coast, Australia — 2018

    Talk and Workshop at Rec'n'Play event in Recife, Brazil — 2018

    Talk at UFPR Design Week in Curitiba, Brazil — 2018

    Talk at Positivo University in Curitiba, Brazil — 2018

    Invited artist at the ING Festival in Dubai, UAE — 2017

    Speaker at DiaTipo Brasília in Brasília, Brazil — 2017

    Speaker at N Design Curitiba with Criatipos in Curitiba, Brazil — 2017

    Organizer of DiaTipo Curitiba with Criatipos in Curitiba, Brazil — 2017

    Talk and Workshop at Hoy es Diseño event in Cali, Colômbia — 2016

    Speaker at DiaTipo Campinas in Campinas, Brazil — 2016
Jury
  • Brazil Design Awards 2024 President of the Craft for Design category
  • Brazil Design Biennale 2024 Typography Jury member
  • Ascenders 2023 — Type Directors Club Jury member
  • Brazil Design Awards 2022 Graphic Design Jury member
  • Bornancini Award 2022 Illustration, Lettering and Typography Jury member
  • Latin American Design Awards 2021 Typography Jury member
  • Art Directors Club 99th Annual Awards 2020 Typography Jury member
  • Brazil Design Awards 2020 Craft for Design Jury member
  • Prêmio Bom Design 2018 Jury member
Exhibitions
  • “Love, Now” Exhibition — Graphic Days 2025 — Turin, Italy
  • Type Directors Club — Exhibition of Typographic Excellence — New York, 2024
  • Brazilian Design Biennale 2024 — Exhibition of projects with distinction
  • Ten Years of Typism Books — ATypI Conference Brisbane — Australia, 2024
  • Images of Struggles. Images of Resistance — UFPR Reitoria campus — Brazil, 2024
  • Aliadas — Group exhibition of female artists — Curitiba, Brazil, 2023
  • Type Directors Club — Exhibition of Typographic Excellence — New York, 2023
  • Tipos Latinos Biennial — Exhibition of selected projects — 2022
  • Brazilian Design Biennale 2019 — Exhibition of projects with distinction
  • Type Directors Club — Exhibition of Typographic Excellence — New York, 2019
  • Design por Mulheres — Brazilian women designers, MAUC Fortaleza — Brazil, 2018
  • Type Directors Club — Exhibition of Typographic Excellence — New York, 2017
  • Typographia Curityba — Tribute and rescue of 19th-century Paranaense Typography at Memorial de Curitiba — Brazil, 2017
  • Type Directors Club — Exhibition of Typographic Excellence — New York, 2016
  • Collage Club of Curitiba — Selected Artists — Brazil, 2016
  • Exhibition of Contemporary Lettering — Sinlogo Gallery — São Paulo, 2015
  • Brazilian Design Biennale 2015 — Design para Todos Exhibition with Criatipos — 2015
  • Tupi or not Tupi — Oscar Niemeyer Museum — Curitiba — Brazil, 2014
Clients & collaborations

We have had the pleasure of working with clients such as Google, Coca-Cola, Adobe, Nestlé, Pepsico, Ambev, Facebook, Amazon, Nissan, Kimberly-Clark, The Washington Post, Penguin Random House, Women's Health, Hearst, Henry Holt, Princeton Architectural Press, RBA, Hachette Book Group, Resources for the Future, Sports Illustrated, Cia das Letras, Exame, Avon, Boticário, Centro Cultural Recoleta, ELO, Globo, Record, SESC, Phrma, Sococo, Pendleton Whisky, Softys, The Kitchn, Workman Publishing, among others.

In collaboration with agencies, studios, and type foundries such as &Walsh, Buck, State, Hardcuore, Al Ghalia, Sterling Becker, Bittar.tv, VML NY, VML Brasil, JWT, Naipe Foundry, Notdef Type, Marketdata, terezabettinardi.com, Dupla Design, Safari Sundays, Illustration X, Norte, and more.

Publications & Press

Our work has been featured in numerous books and publications worldwide, including The World’s Best Type and Typography: The Annual of the Type Directors Club (editions 37, 38, 40, 44, and 45), Communication Arts Typography Annual (editions 11, 12, and 15), Goodtype Book (volumes 1 and 2), Typism Books (volumes 1 through 5), The Lettering Workshops, Les Ateliers du Lettering, Type Tells Tales, Desenhando Letras, Computer Arts Magazine, Interaction X Design Magazine Korea, Zupi Magazine, Tupigrafia 13, Illywords, La Tina, and more.

Cyla has also been featured in several interviews and articles, including:

FIDO
SHOUT OUT COLORADO
RAYITAS AZULES
REVISTA RANDOM
COMMUNICATION ARTS
WOMAN AT WORK BY HEY STUDIO
CONCEITUALIZE PODCAST

FAQ

Take a look here before reaching out :)

If you still don’t find your answer, feel free to email us at [email protected]

  • Interviews & Academic

    We love giving back to academia and fostering discussions about the world of design and typography. However, with our daily workload, we don’t always have time. Send us your request, but if we’re unable to help, you can check out some of Cyla’s interviews in the Publications & Press section — your answer might be there.

  • Jobs & Internships

    We’re a small studio and currently don’t have any full-time openings. But if you’d love to work with us, send us an email with a link to your portfolio — we’re always looking for creatives aligned with our work to collaborate on projects!

    When we have openings, we’ll announce them on Instagram.

  • Events & Workshops

    Whenever possible, Cyla travels to participate in events around the world. If you're organizing an event and would like us to be part of it, send us an email with all the details, and we’ll do our best to coordinate schedules and make it happen.

    The same goes for in-person workshops in your city.

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