Post Typography announces agency partnership with Topos Graphics, founders Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals move into advisory role

The design studios Post Typography and Topos Graphics are excited to announce a new partnership. Led by Topos Graphics founders Seth Labenz and Roy Rub, this new partnership leverages Topos’ extensive experience working for cultural, non-profit, and commercial clients including Knight Foundation, The Jewish Museum New York, MoMA PS1, David Stark Design and Production, Oolite Arts, and KIND Healthy Snacks to provide a continuance of outstanding work for Post Typography’s cultural and change-making clients.

Post Typography co-founders Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals are stepping into an advisory role while they pursue new opportunities and projects. They will continue to work with select clients and lead high-profile projects in collaboration with Topos Graphics and independently.

Outside of Post Typography, Willen plans to continue design projects and creative direction at the intersection of placemaking, public space, civic design, and art. He’s seeking new and boundary-pushing collaborations that build on his interdisciplinary skills in experiential design, arts branding, and design strategy for cultural institutions, cities, and communities.

Strals will continue working with a select group of clients, including 2SP Brewing Company, Union Craft Brewing, and the Maryland Film Festival. “I’m looking forward to continuing these great relationships as well as focusing on creative and art direction, design, lettering, and illustration for new clients and working with new teams,” Strals said.

Willen and Strals have great expectations for Post Typography’s partnership with Topos Graphics as well as what’s next. 

“We’re excited about this evolution of Post Typography,” said Willen. “Seth and Roy [of Topos] are creative kindred spirits, and they’ll continue the ethos and stellar work Post Typography is known for. This partnership offers new opportunities for everyone, and gives Nolen and me room to grow and collaborate with new people.”

“Post Typography have been pushing the envelope with wit, humor, and class for over a decade, changing Baltimore in the process, and garnering a reputation as one of America’s top design studios,” said Topos Graphics principal Seth Labenz. “Roy and I are thrilled to be combining forces and expanding our client base to include the good relationships Bruce and Nolen have cultivated over that tenure. We’ve worked to establish ourselves in the arts, culture, and non-profit sectors of New York and Miami and now look forward to connecting with the Baltimore community in the near future.”

Post Typography was founded in 2007 by Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen. The Baltimore- and NYC-based agency creates ambitious design work in print, digital, and built spaces for clients that include the U.S. Forest Service, Baltimore Museum of Art, Special Olympics, Time Magazine, Random House, and John Legend. Post Typography’s work has been recognized by the Type Directors Club, Communication Arts, Print Magazine, the Society of News Design, and the Society of Publication Designers among many others.
posttypography.com

Topos Graphics, founded in 2005, is a collaborative design studio with offices in New York and Atlanta. The studio answers client challenges holistically through multiple means: logo design, branding, motion graphics, print collateral, publications, signage, social media, environmental graphics, and objects. Guided by ideas, Topos Graphics creates positive impact with thoughtful and formally precise work.
toposgraphics.com

Nolen Strals helps his clients find and define their voice. Whether shouted along noisy canning lines or whispered in bookstores, his concepts and executions balance intellectual and visceral charge. His art direction, custom lettering, design, and writing have elevated a range of clients including 2SP Brewing Company, the Maryland Film Festival, Union Collective, John Legend & The Roots, and The Washington Post. Nolen has worked with clients across the US, co-authored Lettering & Type with Bruce Willen, appeared in numerous design publications and award lists, and his designs have been an indelible part of Baltimore’s visual landscape for two decades.
nolenstrals.com

Bruce Willen creates concept-driven work to stir senses and minds. As a designer, strategist, and creative director, Bruce collaborates with cultural, civic, and design innovators on projects that jaywalk through the intersection of experiential design, placemaking, art, and civic design. His work at Post Typography has shaped the visual language of Baltimore and has been published in dozens of design books and periodicals, including a Post Typography monograph from European publisher Pyramyd Éditions. He is the co-author of the book Lettering & Type (with Nolen Strals) and has written for the Washington Post, Design Observer, and other publications.
brucewillen.com