Explore the intimate connections between who we are and how we express ourselves through type in Identity Is Variable: Essays, Interviews, & Reflections on Identity and Typography.

Design studios XYZ Type and Polymode collaborated to invite fifteen diverse voices from the design world to discuss the ways their personal and cultural identities resonate with typography, through personal narratives, critical essays, and lively conversations. 

Contributors include artist-technologist Mindy Seu, designer-writer Elizabeth Goodspeed, multidisciplinary artist Diana Guerrero-Maciá, designer-poet Sadie Red Wing, and collaborative studio WORK/PLAY. Collectively, the twelve entirely original pieces in the book underscore the fact that typography is never neutral, but rather deeply personal and political. 

The book includes essays by Elizabeth Goodspeed, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, nicole killian, Kyle Letendre, Saki Mafundikwa, Ziddi Msangi, Duy Nguyễn, Chris Skillern, and David Jon Walker; a poem by Sadie Red Wing, and a comic by Kruttika Susarla.

Two discussions are included: one between Be Oakley, Mindy Seu, and nicole killian, and another between Danielle McCoy and Kevin McCoy of WORK/PLAY.

Foreword by Silas Munro and Brian Johnson of Polymode
Note on type Ben Kiel and Jesse Ragan of XYZ Type

Edited by Brian Johnson, Ben Kiel, Silas Munro, and Jesse Ragan
Copy editing by Stephanie Schlaifer

Designed by Polymode and Ben Warner

Published by XYZ Type, 2026

Soft cover, 128 pages, offset printed with three spot colors, 5.83 × 8.27 in.

ISBN: 979-8-21-883832-4