Onur Yazicigil was born and raised in Turkey and currently lives in Istanbul, Turkey. He received his MFA in Visual Communications Design from Purdue University where he researched the evolution of humanist and grotesque types.
During his stay in the United States he collaborated with the Purdue Theatre by creating animations for the 11th International Exhibition of Scenography and Theatre Architecture at the Prague Quadrennial in 2007. His further involvement with the theatre and performance arts resulted in his illustrating of the 2008-2009 season posters for Purdue Theatre. He won the first prize in typography in 2007 from the Society of Typography Arts in Chicago, and his posters were exhibited in the United States, Italy, South Korea and Turkey.
At the present, he is a faculty member at Sabancı University in the VCD department concentrating on typographic design and graphic design education. He is currently developing a multilingual typeface, Duru, to be used for the proceedings and other publications of the Inter-Society of Electronic Arts. His other interests include lettering and the creative use of OpenType programming.
He is currently co-creator of the first Istanbul Type Seminars to be held in September of 2011.