Captivated by graffiti since his childhood, Nils later developed a fascination for lettershapes. During Nils undergraduate studies at Muthesius art school Kiel, type and typography became his primary interest. The school’s type design classes led by Albert-Jan Pool had played an important role in defining Nils' next step – the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague. Nils Thomsen successfuly completed his Master Degree at postgraduate course Type]Media in 2010.

The graduation typeface “Meret” at Type]Media, has been further developed by OurType and joined the collection in 2011.

Meret received the letter.2 Certificate of Excellence in Type Design from the Association Typographique Internationale in 2011.

Christian Schwartz took Meret in 2011 as the new text face for the American business “magazine fast company”. In 2013 Meret was chosen to one of the best typography of the year by communication art magazine.

From 2011 Nils Thomsen worked at Bureau Johannes Erler in Hamburg for two years. During this time he participated in the redesign of the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, contributing to its new corporate typeface. Nils part was the "text-face" and the additional headline "serif-face".

In the beginning of 2013 Nils started his own business, drawing typefaces and working as a freelancer in Hamburg. In early 2014 Nils Thomsen founded Nils Types to start distributing his own fonts.