Peter Biľak
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Peter Biľak (Slovak pronunciation: peter ˈbiʎak born 29 March 1973) is a Dutch-Slovak designer based in
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
,
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. He works in the
editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK), is an article or any other written document, often unsigned, written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper or magazine, that expresses the publication's opinion about ...
,
graphic Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...
, and
type design Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...
fields. He has been teaching typography since 2001 at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. He founded Typotheque in 1999, a company that develops fonts for global languages and also operates as a publishing house. His personal focus is on the support of digitally disadvantaged languages and the revitalisation of
indigenous languages An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by its indigenous peoples. Indigenous languages are not necessarily national languages but they can be; for example, Aymara is both an indigeno ...
in
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
,
South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
and
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
.


Biography

Biľak was born in
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
on 29March 1973. He initially studied at the Art Academy in Bratislava, then studied briefly in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Later, he went to Atelier National de Création Typographique in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
for his
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
and
Jan van Eyck Academie The Van Eyck – Multiform Institute for Fine Art, Design, and Reflection (formerly known as “Jan van Eyck Academie”) is a post-academic institute for research and production in the fields of fine art, design and art theory, based in Maastrich ...
in
Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...
,
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, for his postgraduate
laureate In English, the word laureate has come to signify eminence or association with literary awards or Military awards and decorations, military glory. It is also used for recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Gandhi Peace Award, the Student Peace Pri ...
. Biľak started his career with Studio Dumbar, an international design agency in
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
. In 2003, he designed a series of standard post stamps for the Dutch Royal Mail (TNT Post). Since 2004, Biľak has collaborated with the
choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...
Lukáš Timulak on the concepts of dance performances. Together, they were the subject of an exhibition 'InLoop/EnTry' in Stroom, Centre for Art and Architecture. Timulak and Bilak established the Make Move Think Foundation, an organisation dedicated to the facilitation of
multidisciplinary An academic discipline or academic field is a subdivision of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part) and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, ...
artistic collaborations. These collaborations primarily encompass the realm of modern dance performances, though they also extend to the realm of film production. A plethora of institutions and companies have benefitted from the talents of Bilak, including
Nederlands Dans Theater Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT; literal translation Netherlands Dance Theatre) is a Dutch contemporary dance dance company, company. NDT is headquartered at the ''Amare'' building in The Hague. NDT also performs at other venues in the Netherlands ...
, Gothenburg Ballet,
Royal Swedish Ballet The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Gustav III of Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian ...
, Staatsballett Hannover,
Slovak National Theatre The Slovak National Theater (, abbr. SND) is the oldest professional theatre in Slovakia, consisting of three ensembles: opera, ballet, and drama. Its history begins shortly after the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. It ...
, Lyon Opera Ballet and
Les Ballets de Monte Carlo Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo (The Monte Carlo Ballet) is a classical ballet company established in 1985 by Caroline, Princess of Hanover in accordance with the wishes of her mother, Princess Grace of Monaco. It is the national company of the Princ ...
. In addition, Bilak has been instrumental in conceptualising the overarching vision for projects, often entrusted with the design of the evening's set. Alongside Timulak, he co-founded the Make Move Think Foundation, an organization that supports multidisciplinary artistic collaborations, primarily in the field of modern dance and occasionally in film production. Bilak has collaborated with a range of dance institutions and companies, including
Nederlands Dans Theater Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT; literal translation Netherlands Dance Theatre) is a Dutch contemporary dance dance company, company. NDT is headquartered at the ''Amare'' building in The Hague. NDT also performs at other venues in the Netherlands ...
, Gothenburg Ballet,
Royal Swedish Ballet The Royal Swedish Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies in Europe. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Gustav III of Sweden, King Gustav III founded the ballet in 1773 as a part of his national cultural project in response to the French and Italian ...
, Staatsballett Hannover,
Slovak National Theatre The Slovak National Theater (, abbr. SND) is the oldest professional theatre in Slovakia, consisting of three ensembles: opera, ballet, and drama. Its history begins shortly after the establishment of the first Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. It ...
, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Les Ballets de Monte Carlo. His contributions have included choreographic collaboration as well as set and visual design. In many of these projects, Bilak has played a role in developing the conceptual framework and has been responsible for set design. In 2015, Biľak, together with Andrej Krátky, co-founded Fontstand, a desktop app that allows users to try fonts for free or rent them per month. In 2015, in partnership with the Lebanese designer Kristyan Sarkis, Biľak established TPTQ Arabic, a sister type foundry dedicated to research and exploration of Arabic type. In collaboration, they developed Arabic and Latin fonts for prominent institutions and organisations, including Louvre, Abu Dhabi, Mozilla, Ford, and Lincoln. He also co-created ''Dot Dot Dot'' with Stuart Bailey in 2000. He is a member of AGI and lectures on his work internationally. He is a writer for numerous design magazines and contributes writing in Print, Emigre,
Eye (magazine) ''Eye'' magazine is a quarterly print magazine on graphic design and visual culture. History First published in London in 1990, ''Eye'' was founded by Rick Poynor, a prolific writer on graphic design and visual communication. Poynor edited t ...
, Items, tipoGrafica, Idea (magazine), Abitare, and Page. In 2013, after raising €30,000 in a crowdfunding campaign, Biľak founded ''Works That Work'', a creativity-focused magazine, which was published twice a year by Typotheque.   The magazine was not available for purchase in retail outlets; rather, it relied on a reader-based distribution model. This model was the subject of a study by the
Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...
and the
Nieman Journalism Lab The Nieman Foundation for Journalism is the primary journalism institution at Harvard University. History It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...
at Harvard.


Fonts

Biľak has designed
typefaces A typeface (or font family) is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, bold), slope (e.g., italic), width ...
, many of which have been released through his independent
type foundry A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and ...
, Typotheque, established in 1999. His early work includes ''Craft'' (1993), ''Eureka'' (1995), and ''Eureka Sans'' (1998), published by
FontShop FontShop International was an international manufacturer of digital typefaces (fonts), based in Berlin. It was one of the largest digital type foundries. The ''FontFont'' library of fonts contains designs by 160 type designers, among them renow ...
. Biľak gained broader recognition with the release of ''Fedra Sans'' (2001) and ''Fedra Serif'' (2003), both of which became widely used in multilingual publishing and branding contexts. These typefaces were notable for blending
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
principles with humanist warmth and were among the first to support extensive script systems including
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
,
Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...
,
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, and later
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
,
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
,
Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
, Chinese,
Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...
, Georgian,
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
,
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
,
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...
,
Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
, Thai. Biľak continued to expand Typotheque's library with superfamilies such as ''Greta Text'' (2007) and ''Greta Sans'' (2012), designed to meet the demanding needs of editorial design. His 2008 typeface ''History'' offered a modular approach, allowing users to create hundreds of stylistic variations from a single system. Other significant releases include ''Irma'' (2009), ''Julien'' (2011), and ''Karloff'' (2012), which explores contrasts in visual taste through the juxtaposition of "positive" and "negative" design principles. In 2013, Biľak introduced ''Lava'', a text typeface optimized for digital and print reading environments, followed by ''Manu'', ''November'', and ''October'' in 2016. More recent projects include ''Ping'' (2019), a flexible sans-serif family, ''Q-Project'' (2020), and ''Zed'' (2024), continuing his exploration of type design for global scripts and user interfaces.


Exhibitions

* ''What You Hear When You Read'',
Kunstmuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...
, 2019 – Solo exhibition exploring the relationship between reading and sound.   * ''Typo en Mouvement'', Le Lieu du Design,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, 2015 – Group exhibition focused on the dynamic aspects of typography.   * ''Memory Palace'',
Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
, London, 2013 – Featured as one of twenty designers commissioned to interpret a multidimensional narrative.     * ''Neue Schriften'',
Gutenberg Museum The Gutenberg Museum is one of the oldest museums of printing in the world, located opposite the cathedral in the old part of Mainz, Germany. It is named after Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of printing from movable metal type in Western Euro ...
, Mainz, 2013 – Group exhibition presenting contemporary developments in type design.     * ''Bewegte Schrift'' / ''Type in Motion'',
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...
, 2011 – Included Biľak's interactive installation ''Dance Writer''.     * Connecting Concepts,
National Institute of Design The National Institutes of Design (NID) are a group of autonomous public design institutes in India, with the first institute established in 1961 in Ahmedabad. The other NIDs are located in the cities of Kurukshetra, Amaravati, Jorhat and Bho ...
, Ahmedabad, India, 2011 – Travelling exhibition on the conceptual foundations of Dutch design.     * ''Van Grote Waarde – Iconen van de Pos''t, De Affiche Galerij,
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
, 2011 – Exhibition on the visual history of the Dutch postal service.   * ''Graphic Design: Now in Production'',
Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...
,
Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
, 2011 – Survey exhibition of contemporary graphic design practices. * Open Projects, 21st Festival International de l’Affiche et du Graphisme, Chaumont, 2010 – Curated by Cristina Chiappini and Silvia Sfligiotti.   * ''InLoop/EnTry: Peter Biľak & Lukáš Timulak'', Stroom Den Haag, 2010 – Showcased collaborative projects between Biľak and choreographer Lukáš Timulak. * ''Quick Quick Slow, ExperimentaDesign Lisbon'' (EXD’09), 2009 – Group exhibition exploring the theme of time in graphic design, curated by Emily King.     * ''Freedom and Order: Quattro Grafici Olandesi'', ISEA, Urbino, Italy, 2008 – Featured alongside Karel Martens, Mevis & Van Deursen, and Maurer Mooren.


Awards

In 2012, he was named as one of
Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...
' 12 Game Changers, due to his contribution to non-Latin typography. In 2014, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic awarded Biľak the Goodwill Envoy award for spreading the reputation of
Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
. In 2019 he was awarded the Gold Prize in the
European Design Awards The European Design Awards, also known as the ED-Awards, are annual awards presented to European designers for outstanding work in the communication design field. The ED-Awards is a joint initiative of design magazines from across Europe and endors ...
for his font "Ping," a typeface that supported hundreds of
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
-based languages, and 10 non-Latin languages.


Selected bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *      


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bilak, Peter 1973 births Living people Academic staff of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague Design writers Dutch graphic designers Dutch magazine founders Dutch typographers and type designers Graphic design studios Independent type foundries Slovak graphic designers Slovak typographers and type designers