What I Learned Teaching Typography Internationally

Over the past fifteen years, my career as a designer and educator has taken me across more than ten countries, from Brazil to Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United States, and beyond. Each classroom I entered̶ whether a semester-long post at Bauhaus University in Weimar, a guest professorship at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, or a short workshop in Moscow or Barcelona̶was never just a place to teach. It became a laboratory of cultural exchange, where design, language, and ways of thinking collided and reshaped one another.

In Europe, I encountered a rigor rooted in history: conceptual frameworks and traditions that demanded respect but also invited re-interpretation. At the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, students embraced experimentation, failure, and process as the true measure of learning. Teaching in the United States, from FIT and SVA in New York to SDSU and Otis in California, revealed a different tension: the pull between artistic exploration and the commercial realities of design education. In Brazil, where I began, the energy was improvised, personal, and deeply tied to cultural identity, reminding me that creativity often flourishes in resourcefulness.

Shorter workshops̶ whether in Turkey, Portugal, Spain, or Russia̶ compressed this experience into a few intense days, proving that meaningful creative breakthroughs can happen outside the traditional semester, through speed, play, and collaboration.

Across these journeys, I discovered patterns that transcend borders: the universal joy of making with one’s hands, the ongoing negotiation between analog craft and digital technology, and the understanding that teaching is never one-directional. To teach abroad is to be taught again and again about culture, about design, and about ourselves. In today’s world of automation and AI, these lessons feel more urgent than ever.

Letterform Lectures are a public aspect of the Type West postgraduate program. The series is co-presented by the San Francisco Public Library, where events are free and open to all.

Yomar Augusto is a Brazilian-American multidisciplinary designer, typographer, educator and artist with an international presence. Raised in Rio de Janeiro, he trained as a graphic designer before expanding into photography at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He later earned a Master's in Type Design at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands. Yomar has exhibited his work worldwide and collaborated with brands such as Absolut Vodka, Coca-Cola, MTV, and Adidas, developing a custom typeface for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He has worked in Brazil, Europe, and the U.S., balancing fine art and commercial projects. As an educator, he has taught typography, experimental calligraphy, and book arts at institutions including Otis College of Art and Design, SDSU, School of Visual Arts, Fashion of Institute of Technology, Danish Royal Academy, Bauhaus University and Willem de Kooning Academy in The Netherlands. He has also led workshops globally and spoken at the Type Directors Club in New York. After nearly a decade in the Netherlands, Yomar returned to New York before relocating to California, where he continues to explore the intersection of design, typography, and fine art.