The typographic research lab open2type is founded by Stefanie Schwarz and Dirk Wachowiak. Both studied in Germany and the US before Dirk received his MFA in Graphic Design from Yale University in 2005 and Stefanie her MA in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins at the University of the Arts London in 2012.

Since their student days Stefanie and Dirk have developed a typographic body of work that is located in a variety of research contexts but sometimes also turned into rather applied and commercial projects. Their typefaces are released by Acme Fonts (London), FontFont (Berlin), T26 (Chicago), Fontworks UK (Cheltenham), Sudtipos (Buenos Aires) and the Indian Type Foundry (Ahmedabad).

Stefanie is an associate of the London-based institution DesignScience and Dirk a member of the Art Directors Club Germany. Since 2022 he is professor for typography and visual systems at Hochschule Trier. 2019–2022 Stefanie has been professor for typography and type design at Bauhaus Universität Weimar. Now she is head of the ABK Type Lab at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart.

Individually or together Stefanie and Dirk have also lectured or held workshops at:
School of Design Hochschule Pforzheim (GER), Hochschule Augsburg University of Applied Sciences (GER), Royal College of Art (UK), Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, University of the Arts London (UK), HFG Offenbach University of Art and Design (GER), Hochschule Konstanz University of Applied Sciences (GER), Kingston University London (UK), Winchester School of Art (UK), Yale University School of Art (USA), Typografische Gesellschaft Austria, guest critics: Parsons School of Design (USA)