Mining Raw Letters is a studio for type, design and aesthetic research. Operating from Berlin, the studio was founded in Switzerland in 2025 by New Zealand type designer Nell May and German writer and developer Kevin Kuhn. We work where letterforms, language, research and code meet. We love to build custom type systems, digital archives and visual identities through deep research and exploratory frameworks.

We’re always interested in new projects, collaborations, saying hi….

Mining Raw Letters
Nell May and Kevin Kuhn
Wilsnackerstr 19
10559 Berlin, Germany
+49​ 156​ 3010​ 4408
studio@miningrawletters.com
LinkedIn Instagram

Bios:

Originally from Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington, Nell May is a designer specialised in type and typographic research. She holds an MA in Type Design from Ecal, Lausanne, Switzerland as well as an MFA (Hons) from Elam School of Fine Arts, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, New Zealand. Nell is a member of the antipodean typographic collective Counter Forms.

Kevin Kuhn grew up in Ulm, Germany. He holds a Master of Philosophy from Tübingen and a PhD on Aesthetic Communication and Writing Processes from University of Hildesheim, where he also taught Creative Writing and Literary Studies. His research and novels explore the intersection of literature and digital culture – how current technologies and social media ecosystems shape identities in digital and AI-driven environments.

Recently:

• Digital archive identity and custom MRL Scriptorium typeface developed for Scriptorium Hanns-Josef Ortheil: now live.
• Kevin Kuhn’s 12-module online creative writing course for the Zeit Akademie: now online.
• Mining Raw Letters hybrid poster/video game School Pixel x Early World awarded a Judge’s Choice in 2026 Type Here 3 Aotearoa. Exhibited at Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, 21 Aug – 10 Oct, 2026, Auckland.
• Kevin Kuhn interviewed by Professor of Game Art Marion Plank for Gamepathy: Wie wird aus einer Schrift ein Videospiel? (How does a typeface become a video game), Aug 2026. In German.
• Mining Raw Letters interviewed by Professor of Game Design and Game Studies Rudolf Thomas Inderst for Titel Kultur magazine, Aug 2026. In German.

Selected texts:

• The Visual World of Anthroposophy: Dynamic Lettering, Typefaces and Language, Nell May and Kevin Kuhn, Source Type, Zurich, 2025.
• A Quantum Physicist’s View’s on Type: a conversation with CW Gardiner on LaTeX and mathematical typesetting, Nell May, Ecal Stories, Lausanne, 2025.
• Insects in the Night: a nocturnal journey through light-on-dark type, Nell May, The National Grid, Issue 9, Christchurch, 2025.
• Reporter Number 5, Nell May, Correspondence IV, edited by Anna Welham, The Physics Room, 2025.
• Before the Entrance to Hell: The Experience of Pain in Kafka’s Life and Work, Kevin Kuhn, 2024. PDF on request.
• Die Ästhetik des Romanentwurfs, Kevin Kuhn, Zur Genealogie des Schreibens, hg. v. Davide Giuriato, Martin Stingelin und Sandro Zanetti, Bd. 26, Brill: Fink, Paderborn 2020.
• Novels by Kevin Kuhn: Hikikomori, Bloomsbury Berlin Verlag 2012 and Liv, Piper, 2017.

This website is typeset in Waitomo Mono Black, a cut of Nell’s text font family which will be released with Counter Forms.

Copyright 2026 Mining Raw Letters