Céline Hurka
Céline Hurka (*1995, Karlsruhe, Germany) is an independent type designer and multidisciplinary artist based in The Hague, Netherlands. Her work moves fluidly between tradition and experimentation, questioning the conventions that have shaped typography for centuries. She is fascinated by how meaning is embedded in form and transformed through time, context, and cultural reinterpretation. Letters, to her, are not just functional symbols but powerful carriers of history, emotion, and identity.
Blending historical research with contemporary expression, her typefaces balance precision with poetic sensitivity. Often inspired by overlooked details in typographic history, ornamental excess, personal storytelling, pop culture, and the ephemeral beauty of nature, her work seeks to reimagine the past while embracing the present. Flowers, in particular, serve as a recurring motif, symbolizing fragility, transformation, and visual rhythm.
At the core of Hurka’s practice is a commitment to ethical and feminist approaches, often realized through collaborations with fellow artists. Since 2023, she has worked closely with Yamuna Forzani on large-scale 3D-knitted tapestries. Their ongoing project, Symbols of Utopia, explores female and queer empowerment through symbolism in textiles, bringing together ornamentation, hidden messages and neocraft approaches in textile. The series has been featured in several group exhibitions and art fairs in 2024 and 2025.
A recipient of the Young Guns YG22 Award by The One Club for Creativity in New York, Hurka’s work has been exhibited internationally, from Dutch Design Week to Poster House New York. In addition to her design and artistic practice, she is a programmer for Zefir7 at Stroom Den Haag and lectures at the MFA programs of Type and Media (Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague) and LABASAD (Barcelona).
Education
- Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) – Master’s degree, Type and Media
Awarded with the KABK Type and Media Department Award and nominated for the Thesis award - Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) – Bachelor’s degree, Graphic Design
Exhibitions
- DEMO Festival, Amsterdam, 2025 (group)
- PAN, Amsterdam, 2024 (with Yamuna Forzani), 2024
- Amsterdam Museum, 2024, (group with Yamuna Forzani), 2024
- DDW, Eindhoven, Isola, 2024 (with Yamuna Forzani), 2024
- Food Art Performance (group) “ Food can be...”, with Mattia Papp & Trang Ha, Huis van het Boek, Den Haag
- Biceps, with Jules Janssen, Marseille, 2024
- DEMO Festival, Kairo, 2024 (group)
- Summer’s Gate, Quartair The Hague, with Studio Pointer*, 2023
- Art au Centre, Liege, with Alexander Webber, 2023
- Advertising Type: Women in Digital, Design, Poster House, New York, 2023
- Typography exhibition Women in Type Design, Akademie Düsseldorf, 2022
- Mastering Type, Typostammtisch, Berlin, group exhibition, 2021
- Original Bauhaus, Neue Gallerie, Berlin, 2021
Collections
- Poster House New York
Awards
- Young Guns22, Finalist, New York (2024)
- TDC Winner, Type Director’s Club, New York (2024)
- Department Award, Master Type and Media, Royal Academy of Arts (KABK), The Hague (2020)
- Selection Best Designed Dutch Books (2019)
- SOTA Catalyst Award (honourable mention), The Society of Typographic Aficionados, US
- Silver Cube Award, ADC Annual Awards, The One Club for Creativity (2019)
