Meet Antonina Zhulkova, type designer and design lead at TypeType

Antonina Zhulkova is a type designer and design lead at TypeType, based in Moscow. She is responsible for aesthetics, loves Excel spreadsheets, and has spent more than nine years at her first and only job.

We asked Antonina a few questions about her work, inspiration, strange design tasks, and her experience with Design Warm-ups.

About Antonina

“My name is Tonya, I live in Moscow. I’m a type designer and a design lead at TypeType, responsible for aesthetics.

I love Excel spreadsheets. For the third year I’ve been trying to meditate every day, with varying success, and this is my first and only job for over 9 years.

Outside of design, I try to spend more time offline and I’m looking forward to warmer weather. Currently reading In the Flow of Change, but it’s not for everyone.”

What inspires you?

“What inspires me is looking at letters in any form.”

For Antonina, inspiration is not limited to polished design references. It can be found in handwritten notes, old books, street typography, printed materials, type specimens, and unexpected visual details from everyday life.

What is the strangest task you’ve had at work?

“I can’t recall the strangest task I’ve had at work, but in type design there’s actually a lot of weird stuff — like Excel spreadsheets :)

From the outside, it’s not always obvious that beyond fonts there’s a huge amount of organizational work and process planning involved.”

Type design may look like a purely visual craft from the outside, but in reality it also includes systems, planning, documentation, coordination, and many small decisions that keep the whole process together.

What advice do you wish you had heard earlier?

“The advice I wish I had heard earlier is to always try to gain new experience and knowledge from different fields, and to make an effort to understand other perspectives.

I think this greatly improves your own skills and helps you communicate better with your team or clients.”

About Design Warm-ups

“I joined with a task at the very beginning of the project, and it’s been really interesting to watch how the warm-ups evolve, what great people take part, and how the community grows.

In my opinion, this kind of community is very important for all of us.”

Design Warm-ups is an educational project for designers, product teams, and businesses. We create practical tasks, run online sessions, and bring together people who want to grow through practice, feedback, and shared experience.