Sofie Beier

Curriculum vitae

Education
2005 – 2009 (June)
Practice based doctorate, PhD, the Royal College of Art, London
Subject: 'Typeface Legibility: towards defining familiarity'
Funded by grants from ‘Microsoft Advanced Reading Technologies’ and the ‘Rootstein Hopkins Foundation’

1995 – 2000
Visual Communication at The Danish Design School, graduated June 2000


Work

September 2017 – now
Head of Centre for Visibility Design at Royal Danish Academy 

February 2020 – now
Professor WSR, Royal Danish Academy

January 2014 – January 2020
Associate professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design

October 2009 – December 2013
Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design

October 2012 – April 2013 
Visiting researcher at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading, UK.

August 2008 – September 2009
Part time lecturer at The Danish Design School

2000 – 2005
Graphic designer at the Danish design studio Gul Stue

Research areas

Few people notice when reading a font of high legibility, but many notice when the opposite is the case. Small changes in letter shapes can extend the maximum reading distances of traffic signs, improve the visibility of text on medicine packaging, and enhance the reading experience on computer monitors.

Many type designers, and many perception psychology researchers, have shown interest in typeface legibility. Unfortunately, relatively few of these have made use of the knowledge provided by the other field. In my work I aim at uniting the two approaches.