Born in 1962 in California, Todd Dever arrived in the typography industry after an initial career in music video production. In the mid-1990s, after searching in vain for a suitable font for former Frank Zappa guitarist Mike Keneally, Dever spontaneously decided to implement his own vision. The result was the Freak font, which Dever has since followed with a host of further designs. In 1996, he founded the internet platform Cool Fonts (www.cool-fonts.com) which he uses to launch his own font designs.

Dever’s creations are generally playful and quietly eccentric. His Newt Juice font design which, according to the creator himself, is ideally suited to graffiti art, stemmed from Dever’s efforts to create a punchy skateboard typeface. His other creations include Killer Ants, Cowboy Burt and Snoofer. As a result of his role as art director at Fuel TV – a broadcaster that carries extreme sports programmes – Dever does not currently take on paid work as a typographical designer, preferring instead to design fonts as a hobby.