Typeradio Podcast

Michiel Schuurman graduated from Amsterdam’s Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2002. As a graphic artist he specializes in typography, pattern and poster design, embracing a fearless and bold approach. Based on both nature, algorithms and psychedelia, his intricate pattern designs for textiles manufacturer Vlisco (a.o.) are renowned. Michiel often screen prints his own works himself. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI). Recorded on September 24th of 2019 in AGI Open Conference in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Michiel Schuurman :: Sleeve design screen print video :: Vlisco exhibit article :: File Download (27:41 min / 38 MB)

Erik Brandt is a graphic designer and educator who has been active since 1994. He is currently chair of the design department and professor of graphic design at MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design). He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and curates Ficciones Typografika, a project dedicated to the relationship between type and urban space. A practitioner of the ‘life long learning’ practice, he talked to us in detail about how he started Typografika, and raised a lot of questions about which could be the role of graphic designers today. Recorded at the AGI Open conference in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Erik Brandt :: Ficciones Typografika :: Erik Brandt instagram :: File Download (33:53 min / 47 MB)

Roel Wouters runs, together with Luna Maurer, the multi-media interactive design studio Moniker, based in Amsterdam. Their work process explores the relationship with technology as a way to show human behavior. Roel talks to us about how technology shapes and informs their work, teaching and his brother Job, who was previously interviewed on Typeradio. Recorded in Amsterdam, 21st of June 2019. Moniker :: Conditional Design :: 1234567 video by Roel & Job Wouters :: Roel Wouters (>2012) :: File Download (31:52 min / 44 MB)

Janno Hahn, a Dutch (typo)graphic designer based in Amsterdam, defines himself as a ‘semi-autodidact’ and is mostly known for his distinctive typographic work for buildings, bridges and public spaces. He talks to us about the materials, tools and philosophy of his work, very much based in craftmanship. Janno explains the idea of what is honest design to him, and also talks about his mentors Gerritjan Deunk, Gerard Unger, René Knip and other designers he collaborated with. Recorded on June 21st, 2019 in Amsterdam. Janno Hahn :: Spaarndammer spoorbrug :: Houthaven bruggen :: File Download (37:43 min / 52 MB)

Richard Niessen is a Dutch designer who lives in Amsterdam, sharing a studio space with his partner Esther de Vries since 2007. His work explores the relationship between graphic design, poetry, and craftsmanship. Richard talked to us about his project ‘The Palace of Typographic Masonry’, an imaginary game-like structure that is used to order the elements, principles, and sources of this art and the ‘1:1:1’ publications, that compile interviews with designers and artists. Richard also mentions some of his references like Bas Oudt, his former teacher at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. The interview is full of inspiring notes about his design process. Recorded on June 7th of 2019 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands Richard Niessen :: The Palace of Typographic Masonry :: 1:1:1 publication :: File Download (60:16 min / 83 MB)

Hansje van Halem is a Dutch designer based in Amsterdam. Her work revolves around the experimentation with shapes, colors, textures and type, both digitally and manually. In this interview she reflects on the work process of projects like the identity for the Lowlands festival or the ‘Theory of Type Design’ book by her former teacher Gerard Unger. Also her “In Patterns’ exhibit at Bijzondere Collecties in Amsterdam is discussed. Recorded on May 31st of 2019 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Hansje van Halem :: In Patterns exhibit Bijzondere Collecties :: Lowlands Festival :: File Download (54:50 min / 75 MB)

Rick Vermeulen is a well reputed graphic designer and co-founder of the Rotterdam design collective Hard Werken. Hard Werken started in the late 1970’s as a magazine of general culture that would become an icon of its time. Rick talks to us about its foundation, and how later Hard Werken Design emerged as the first collective studio in Rotterdam (running from 1979 till 1994), consisting of core members, besides Rick, Henk Elenga, Kees de Gruiter, Gerard Hadders, Tom van den Haspel and Willem Kars.  Recorded at All Eyes On Type, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Rick’s website :: Mosterkamer profile :: Eye magazine interview :: Hard Werken book :: File Download (39:31 min / 54 MB)

Bernd Volmer is a German graphic and type designer who got his degree at ArtEZ in Arnhem and studied Type and Media at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague in The Netherlands. Apart from his (type)design practice, he worked as font engineer at FontShop / Monotype in Berlin. Bernd talks to us about his origins, studies and his future dream projects, including his own beer brewery! Recorded at All Eyes On Type, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Bernd Volmer :: File Download (14:53 min / 20 MB)

Aleksandra Samulenkova is a freelance type designer who originally comes from Latvia and lives in Haarlem, The Netherlands. She worked in Berlin for Lucas De Groot and is currently part of the developing team of the Bold Monday type foundry, for which she developed the Cyrillic and Greek versions of the IBM Plex Type System. She talked to us about the design process of Pilot, the typeface she initiated while studying at Type&Media, and what it’s like to have lived in different cities. Recorded at All Eyes On Type, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Aleksandra Samulenkova :: Pilot typeface :: IBM Plex :: File Download (19:36 min / 27 MB)

Guido & Vincent de Boer are two brothers that share a passion for letterforms. Initially educated as graphic designers they both developed a career as typographic artists. They are part of the collective High on Type that brings together calligraphy & typography. They talk about their rituals and their childhood, how they grew up together as two (of three) brothers. And how, at age nine, they collaborated doing grafftti and copying letterforms from flyers, Also about how each developed his own style. Finally, they share with us the ideas and philosophy behind the All Eyes on Type symposium. Recorded at All Eyes On Type, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Guido :: Vincent :: All Eyes On Type conference :: High On Type :: File Download (28:28 min / 39 MB)

Job Wouters aka Letman is a skilled letterer and mural painter, but not only that. He studied graphic design at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and typography at the KABK in The Hague, where he now also teaches. He talked to us about his smoking habit, his first typographic memory and how he started as a graphic designer. Today his work balances between art, illustration, typography and design. As an artist he follows his own paths based on his intuition. He talks about the exhibition he was part of at Marres in Maastricht, and his dream project. Recorded at All Eyes On Type, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Letman :: Marres - The Painted Bird exhibit video :: File Download (28:07 min / 39 MB)

This American graphic designer, teacher, researcher, writer and explorer of digital animation using Python and Drawbot, entered into graphic design through his fascination with type and the books he was reading for his PhD in political science. He talked to us about his relationship with typography, the development of technology in type, and questions what it is to be a designer today. Recorded at Robothon 2018, The Hague, The Netherlands. Maurice Meilleur :: File Download (15:30 min / 21 MB)

After graduating in multi-media design at the university of art and design Halle, Germany, and doing a type design master in Zurich and one at Type&Media, The Hague, Nina worked as designer, typographer and coder. She finally landed a job as senior typeface designer at Frere-Jones Type. Since 2016 she also teaches type design at Yale School of Art. She talked to us about her key moments in life, her moving to New York and a bit about her personal vision on the lack of awareness of differences between good and bad type design. Nina’s website :: Frere Jones Type :: File Download (38:39 min / 53 MB)

Jeff Devey is a sign painter, letterer, pinstriper and hot rod builder fromTwin Falls, Idaho, USA. Jeff basically lives the coolest dream ever, as he started out mainly specialising in race car lettering and striping. In this interview he talks about how he started at car shows and developed a professional career as a signpainter. Recorded at the Letterheads Amsterdam Signpainters conference, 2016 Jeff’s instagram :: Jeff’s facebook :: File Download (20:04 min / 28 MB)

Mike Meyer has been sign painting his entire life. and an active member of the Letterheads movement. Since 2013 he has been workshops all around, and he appears in the film Sign Painters. In this interview, Mike Meyers talked to us, in a very reflective way, full of personal anecdotes, about his practice. And his trespass of knowledge through teaching, for which he advices to apply the three D’s: Desire, Dedication and Discipline… and a fourth letter, the T of Time. Also about the renaissance of the sign painting craft. Recorded at the Letterheads Amsterdam Signpainters conference, 2016 Mike Meyer Facebook :: Better Letters :: Sign Painters - the film :: File Download (32:05 min / 44 MB)

Having done research in medieval manuscripts, Brody Neuenschwander completed his doctorate on the methodology of German art history in 1986 at the Courtauld Institute in London, while studying calligraphy at the Roehampton Institute. This crossed education carried him to become a professional calligrapher with a passion for the relationship between writing and language. Among other things he talked to us about tools, the different ways of teaching writing to children in school nowadays, the presence of calligraphy in art and how to deliver messages through the written words –as he did for Peter Greenaway’s movies; contributing with a very valuable insight into the role of calligraphy in society. Recorded at the Letterheads Amsterdam Signpainters conference, 2016 website :: video portrait :: Prosperous Books opening sequence :: File Download (32:00 min / 44 MB)

Born in 1959, Paul Cox is a multi-talented French artist. Although keen to become a musician he is well known for his graphic design, illustration, paintings and stage art. Inspired by music and 19th century paintings, his work is characterized by improvisation and crossing borders between literature, dance, architecture. As an author of children books, he created ‘Abstract Alphabet: a book of animals’ published in 2001 by Chronicle Books, where colourful organic shapes make up the letters, which form the names of twenty-six different animals. Cox has started collecting the whole of his work (paintings, installations, illustrations, graphic design etc) in book form, the first volume of which, ‘Coxcodex 1’ was published at Editions du Seuil in 2004. Recorded at the Integrated Conference 2015, Antwerpen, Belgium Paul Cox portrait :: Abstract Alphabet book :: Coxcodex 1 book :: Another Paul Cox book :: File Download (29:59 min / 41 MB)

Joost Grootens is a Dutch graphic designer, who studied architectural design at Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam. He established Studio Joost Grootens (SJG) in 1995. His studio is very well known for their information design, infographics and the design of books related to architecture, art, design, photography, research… Analytical thinking and the use of type as an essential element, are the main traits. In his own words: ‘Every book is about celebrating the printing process.’ Recorded at the Integrated Conference 2015, Antwerp, Belgium Studio Joost Grootens :: Joost Grootens monograph :: File Download (29:16 min / 40 MB)

Gayaneh Bagdasaryan is a graduate of Moscow State University of Printing Arts and has designed Cyrillic localizations for most major type libraries. She began her type design career at ParaType in 1996 and founded Brownfox type studio in 2012. Gayaneh is also the initiator of Serebro Nabora, a prominent annual international type conference held in Russia. Gayaneh explains how she became interested in typography in the first place. We also wonder how Russian typedesigners worked before and after perestroika. Gayaneh talks about her font foundry and why it took her so long before she started it. We discuss whether it’s possible to create a new typeface nowadays and hear all about how the Serebro Nebora Conference started. Recorded at the Serebro Nebora 2015 Conference in Moscow, Russia. Brownfox foundry :: Serebro Nabora conference :: Gayaneh's fonts at Paratype :: Typotalks interview :: File Download (23:26 min / 32 MB)

Alexandra Korolkova is the principal type designer at Paratype and a teachter of type design and typography in Moscow. In 2013 she was awarded with the prestgious Prix Charles Peignot, so we ask her about how the award influenced her career, and her statements on the design of Cyrillic in her acceptance speech at Atypi 2013 in Amsterdam. Does designing Latin or Cyrillic make any difference for her? We asked her about her heroes, the fast developments in Russian type design of recent years, and the awareness of typography in Russia in general. Alexandra further talks about her book Living Typography, that has been published in the meantime , and her ‘dream project’ PT Sans and PT Serif. Recorded at the Serebro Nebora 2015 conference in Moscow, Russia. Alexandra Korolkova :: Alexandra Myfonts Creative Characters interview :: Alexandra Typejournal interview :: Paratype :: Alexandra’s book (russian) :: File Download (29:25 min / 40 MB)

Ukrainian designer Anna Kulachek works and lives in Moscow. She teaches graphic design at the Higher School of Economics and is art director at the Strelka Institute. Earlier she worked for the communication research centre Fabrica in Italy and Design Depot in Moscow. We talk with Anna about why she decided to move to Moscow to study graphic design. We wonder what the differences are between graphic design from the West and the East (Russia and Ukraine). Anna explains how the Cyrillic writing system is very much influencing the way she designs. We end the interview with the question if she still has a dream job, something that she would really like to do in the future. Recorded at the Serebro Nebora 2015 Conference in Moscow, Russia. Anna’s website :: Anna’s Tumbler page :: Strelka Institute :: Anna’s poster designs for Strelka :: Higher School of Economics, Moscow :: File Download (20:48 min / 38 MB)

Type and graphic designer and teacher Ilya Ruderman lives and works in Moscow. He is a graduate of the Moscow State University of the Printing Arts. Later he received a MA degree from the Type & Media course at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. After returning to Moscow he started teaching type and typography at the British Higher School of Art and Design. For several years he was also an art-director, when In 2014 he founded CSTM Fonts with Yury Ostromentsky. Ilya talks about how Alexander Tarbeev introduced him to type and typography. And about his first type design project, back in 1999. After his studies Ilya moved back to Moscow. We talk about the different projects that he did over the years. How he has been working as a graphic designer during the day and as a type designer during the night. We also wonder how he became, for western type foundries, the go-to-guy for the cyrillic extension to a certain type family. And because it’s one of his favorite questions on Typeradio, we ask Ilya about his drinking habits. Recorded at the Serebro Nebora 2015 Conference in Moscow, Russia. Ilya’s videos :: Type Today :: Type Thursday interview :: Permian typeface :: Typejournal interview :: File Download (33:41 min / 46 MB)

Born in England, Richard Hollis has been a freelance graphic designer since 1958. He has worked as a printer, art editor, production manager, writer, teacher and lecturer. Hollis taught at various London art schools, as well as co-founded, with Norman Potter, the Graphic Design Department at the West of England College of Art in Bristol in 1964. His book design includes John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’, and a large body of work for the Whitechapel Art Gallery. He has also made a significant contribution to the history of graphic design in through his books including ‘Graphic Design: A Concise History’. In the interview with Richard Hollis we talk about his personal values. And how your own values are expressed through the way you work and the way you behave towards the people you’re working with or working for. Richard explains how he hardly ever changes typefaces. He always uses the same typefaces in making catalogues and books. We wonder, apart from the kind of job or the topics that he’s designing for, if his political views can be seen in his design work. We also talk about his fascination for Swiss Graphic Design and he explains why he has written a book about the topic: ‘Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style’. We end the interview with how a painting of two tortoises, that Richard has seen at the Mauritshuis, is related to writing. Recorded at the Karel Martens Symposium at KABK, The Hague, the Netherlands. Richard Hollis :: Reputations Eye Magazine article :: Eye Magazine articles by Richard Hollis :: Robin Fior obituary by Richard Hollis :: Richard Hollis ICA London presentation :: Richard Hollis on Emil Ruder :: File Download (33:05 min / 61 MB)

Dan Rhatigan is a type director at Monotype, based in New York. He works on custom type development projects and consults on typographic issues with customers, and from time to time he gives talks about type and typography. Prior to Monotype Dan worked as a publishing technologies analyst, as a designer in New York, and with numerous freelance clients. Over the years, he has also taught graphic design, typography, and branding. We talk with Dan Rhatigan about his role and tale as a type director at Monotype. We’re curious if they get a lot of submissions and if Dan also judges these himself. Dan also gives us his view on the major developments in the near future for typography and type design. We wonder how he looks upon the lack of knowledge some users have working with OpenType. He explains how he is regularly surprised how little the world outside of type design really understands about the sophistication of the tools that are being prepared for them. And of course we talk about Dan’s typographic tattoos and wonder if he has plans for a new one. Recorded at the Robothon 2015 Conference in The Hague, the Netherlands. Dan Rhatigan at Monotype :: Personal website :: Interview Eye magazine :: Interview It’s Nice That :: Dan on the Rhyman Eco font :: File Download (25:42 min / 47 MB)

Ian Swift aka Swifty is a dedicated graphic artist. Since embarking on his career at The Face magazine in 1986 he has pursued an individual course which has led him to specialise in the music industry and youth culture aesthetics. Equally at home with a club flyer or a complex movie title sequence, he has successfully run his own practice ‘Swifty – Grafix’ for over two decades. His work has featured in dozens of books and magazines and in 1997 he launched ‘Typomatic’, UK’s first independent font foundry. While his reputation and working life is rooted in the typo-grafix world recent exhibitions reveal a shift in Swift’s focus towards a body of artworks with a more exploratory and personal dimension. Ian Swift talks about his upbringing and how he wanted to be in the army when he was younger. He explains what triggered him to go to art school and become a graphic designer. And how he got in contact with Neville Brody, while in his third year at Manchester Polytechnic. Later on he worked for Straight No Chaser magazine. We wonder if he thinks this is where he developed his own visual language. Ian explains how the magazine became a vehicle for his font design as well. Furthermore we talk about his attitude towards licensing fonts, ‘The only thing I can actually call my own are my fonts.’ Recorded via Skype in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. (We apologize for the audio quality) Swifty :: Type-O-Matic :: Creative Bloq interview :: Straight No Chaser blog :: Swifty’s art :: Swifty exhibit at Design Manchester :: File Download (26:53 min / 25 MB)

Nick Sherman is a typo­grapher and typographic consultant based in New York City, co-founder of Fonts In Use and columnist at A List Apart, serves on the board of directors for the Type Directors Club, the Adobe Typography Customer Advisory Board, as well as the artistic board for the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museumh He is both a graduate of and consultant for the typeface design program at Cooper Union. He graduated with honors from the Graphic Design pro­gram at MassArt in Boston, where he also taught undergraduate typography and letterpress printing. Nick has worked at Font Bureau, Webtype, and MyFonts, directing web design and promotional material for typefaces in print and digital media. In this interview we talk about Nick’s rituals involving pizza. We wonder if there’re any similarities between pizza and type. Nick explains how he got interested in graphic arts at an early age through music. And how he later on started focussing more on typography. We also talk about the project he did for the Hamilton Wood Type Museum and his work for MyFonts, Font Bureau, Webtype and Fonts in Use. We wonder if Nick can see how type trends go, where it’s getting influenced by, and if he thinks that we’re reaching some sort of a saturation point? Recorded at the Robothon 2015 Conference in The Hague, the Netherlands. Nick Sherman :: Nick at Font Bureau :: Webtype :: Nick at A List Apart :: Nick at Fonts In Use :: A month of pizza :: File Download (31:24 min / 58 MB)

Born in Croatia, Nikola Djurek is a typographic designer with interest in programming, teaching and old letterforms. Nikola studied in Croatia, Italy and The Netherlands and earned his PhD degree in graphic type design. He combines his practice – Typonine – with teaching typography and type design at the Universities of Split and Zagreb in Croatia. We start the interview with Nikola explaining the number nine in Typonine. We’re curious if he considers himself more to be a type designer or a graphic designer. Nikola is also running a small family vinery in Zargorje, Croatia and we wonder if there’re similarities between type design and winemaking. Does he think a typeface gets better with time? We talk about the Balkan war and how it influenced Nikola’s life and way of working. We also talk about his typeface Balkan and the extreme reactions it got. Nikola explains his intention with the typeface. Recorded at the Robothon 2015 Conference in The Hague, the Netherlands. Typonine :: Typonine posters :: Gjurek wines :: I•typography Interview :: Balkan Sans :: File Download (16:04 min / 22 MB)

In this second part of the interview we talk about April’s photography project, a series of low-res digital images named Drive-by Shooting. She treats these images like paintings and works on them for endless hours and days. Futhermore we talk about the Miracle Manor Retreat. April tells us why she started this B&B spa-motel 17 years ago in Desert Hot Springs, California. We end the interview with the question how she would liked to be remembered. Recorded at Made in Space studio in Los Angeles, California. Drive-by Shooting :: Drive-by Shooting video :: Miracle Manor :: File Download (14:55 min / 27 MB)

April Greiman is a thinker, designer and artist. Originally from New York, April studied design and painting in Basel, Switzerland and the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri. In 1976 she moved to Los Angeles where she established her multi-disciplinary practice Made in Space. Greiman has been instrumental in the acceptance and use of advanced technology in the arts and the design process since the early 1980s. We talk with April Greiman about her family background and how she ended up studying in the Midwest. April explains why the Macintosh computer and software played such a significant role in her work. We also talk about her unpleasant introduction to the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), about the period she was chair of the Visual Communications program at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and her short involvement with Pentagram. Recorded at Made In Space studio in Los Angeles, California. April Greiman :: Made In Space :: April on Technology :: April on Transmedia :: LA design history :: File Download (35:43 min / 66 MB)

Kali Nikitas wears a lot of hats, as an academic administrator, educator, graphic designer and curator. Kali is Department Chair of Communication Arts and MFA Graphic Design at Otis College of Art and Design. She and her husband, Rich Shelton, are the partners of Graphic Design for Love (+$). We start the interview talking about Kali’s teaching experience and how her perspective on teaching has changed over the years. We’re also curious why she has moved around so much and like to hear more about her long-standing relationship with the Netherlands. Because Kali has curated several design exhibitions we wonder if there’re similarities between teaching, running the design department and curating. One of her exhibitions is called ‘And She Told 2Friends: An International Exhibition of Graphic Design by Women’. Because it took place twenty years ago, we talk about it’s relevance nowadays. Recorded at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Kali Nikitas :: Kali at Otis :: STEP magazine interview :: Video of Kali's Schindler house :: File Download (29:47 min / 55 MB)

We continue the interview with Ed Fella discussing the differences between art and design. Ed explains how we don’t have any problems with distinguishing art. But the general public does have a more difficult time telling the difference between a kind of ordinary conventional graphic design and stuff that’s special or that’s on a higher end. We wonder what Ed thinks about the 21st century graphic design, with a new global esthetic already emerging. We end this part talking on post-modernism versus modernism. In particular about his big debate with Massimo Vignelli back in the 1990s. Born and raised in Detroit we ask Ed about his feelings on the decline of the city. We also discuss the change in the usage of certain tools in the history of the profession, where we use more and more smart tools in stead of so called ‘dumb’ tools. Because Ed never used any digital means in his work, he feels he can’t compare a digital piece of work with an analog piece of work. We end the interview with Ed explaining why he would like to be a bodysnatcher… Recorded at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Yestoday :: Ed’s Tumblr page :: Trend List :: CalArts :: Ed at Walker Art Centre :: Cranbrook :: File Download (30:43 min / 56 MB)

Edward Fella (1938) is an artist, graphic designer and educator whose work has had an important influence on contemporary typography. He practiced professionally as a commercial artist in Detroit for 30 years before receiving an MFA in Design from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1987. He has since devoted his time to teaching and his own unique self-published work. Since Ed already knew about our signature first question we’re curious about the answer he prepared for it. We also hear more about his family background, upbringing and education. Ed tells us how he started working at a commercial art studio at 18 years old. In 1985, after been in advertising for 30 years, Ed went to Cranbrook to get a master’s degree. We wonder if he thinks his work, if he would have taken the step earlier, would have developed in the same way? Recorded at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Ed Fella :: Letters on America :: Ed at Emigre :: Pushpin :: video interview :: File Download (29:25 min / 54 MB)

Graphic Designer Felix Pfäffli was born in 1986 in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he graduated in 2010 at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts to start his own studio Feixen. Since 2011 he’s a teacher at the Lucerne School of Graphic Design and teaches in the fields of typography, narrative design, and poster design. We ask Felix Pfäffli if he always wanted to be a graphic designer. And because he started teaching at a relatively young age we wonder if it has any influence on his way of teaching. Felix also designs typefaces. We’re curious if he always designs them for a specific project or purpose. And of course we hear more about the poster series he did for Südpol in Lucerne. Recorded at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Feixen :: Südpol posters :: Slanted video interview (German) :: Felix' brother Mathis :: Designboom interview :: File Download (25:14 min / 23 MB)

Willem Henri Lucas studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and post graduate at the Sandberg institute in Amsterdam. From 1990 to 2002 he served as a professor and chair of the Utrecht School of the Arts’ Graphic Design department. Currently he is the chair of the department of Design Media Arts at UCLA in Los Angeles. Willem was a young student when going to art school. At the age of 26 he started teaching at the HKU in Utrecht. We wonder why he moved to LA in 2004, and we talk about the many differences in design culture between the Netherlands and the US. As a designer Willem works for clients mostly based in the field of culture and art. He also did a small detour in advertisement, because he felt that he needed to see what that was like. Recorded at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Willem Henri Lucas :: AIGA archive :: UCLA Design Media Arts :: WHL interview video :: File Download (33:12 min / 31 MB)

Originally from Southern California, David Jonathan Ross started drawing type at Hampshire College in Western Massachusetts. He joined The Font Bureau in 2007, where he draws letters of all shapes and sizes for custom and retail typeface designs. After a decade of living in New England, David recently relocated to sunny Venice, California. We talk with David about the difficulties of font naming and the importance of having a good name for a typeface. David also speaks about his reversed stress Wild West font Manicotti and the process behind it. Like to what extend he does research for such a project. We wonder what David enjoys more, working on general or more specific orientated projects. We end the interview with an early typographic memory. Recorded at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. David Jonathan Ross :: Font Bureau :: Manicotti project :: Input project :: File Download (19:03 min / 18 MB)

Indra Kupferschmid is a German typographer, writer and teacher based in Bonn and Saarbrücken. After studying visual communication in Weimar, she founded her own studio. Since 1997 she has been teaching typography and type design, since 2006 as Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saarbrücken. We ask Indra how she got interested in typography and graphic design. We talk about some interesting projects she has been involved in. Like her writings related to Helvetica. We wonder if her opinion on the typeface has changed now she knows so much about its background story. Because of Indra’s strong interest in typeface classification we like to hear more on the subject. And we also discuss the Fonts In Use website, the online archive of typography usage, and it’s added value. Recorded at the HBK Saar – Workshop Typographic Chinese Whispers II – in Saarbrücken Germany. Kupferschrift :: HBK Saar Communication design :: Helvetica Forever :: Fonts In Use :: Neue Haas Grotesk :: File Download (29:30 min / 41 MB)

Deirdre Lawrence has been the Principal Librarian at the Brooklyn Museum since late 1983. Before coming to the Brooklyn Museum, she was Associate Librarian at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She received her M.L.S. from Pratt Institute and studied art history on the graduate level. Deirdre tells us how she became a librarian at the Brooklyn Museum and why the profession appealed to her so much in the first place. We talk about the Museum’s collection. How the collection is built and how they acquire their artist books. We also wonder if Deirdre has a personal favourite within the collection. And because she is working with and around books all day, we’re curious what her personal collection consists of. Recorded at the Klingspor Museum – Symposium on the occasion of their 60th birthday – in Offenbach Germany. Brooklyn Museum :: Brooklyn Museum blog :: NYARC - New York Art Resources Consortium :: NY Times article :: video of ‘6 Empty Bookcases’by Sjoerd Hofstra :: File Download (14:06 min / 20 MB)

Gottfried Pott is a German typographer, calligrapher, author and teacher. He studied graphic design at the Werkkunstschule in Wiesbaden, under Professor Friedrich Poppl. With an emphasis on lettering art, he also studied painting and music. From 1988 to 2003 he was a professor in calligraphy, design and history of lettering at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. In this interview with Gottfried Pott we talk about his passion for teaching and calligraphy. And how he’s inspired by other subjects of interest, like his love for music and interest in art, politics and literature. He explains how all these subjects are related to each other. We wonder if his handwriting has changed over the years. And if he for instance can see what kind of personality someone has, just by looking at a piece of calligraphy or handwriting. But of course this is top secret! Recorded at the Klingspor Museum Symposium – on the occasion of their 60th birthday – in Offenbach Germany. Gottfried Pott at Linotype :: Pottpourri lettering demonstration :: Klingspor Calligraphy Workshop :: Karl Georg Hoefer :: File Download (27:29 min / 38 MB)

Jovica Veljović, born in Serbia in 1954, has been designing typefaces for URW, ITC, Adobe and Linotype since 1980. He received his master’s degree in calligraphy and lettering at the Art Academy in Belgrade, where he also taught Typography until 1992. Since 1992 he lives in Germany and has been a Professor in Type Design and Typography at Hamburg University. Jovica Veljović talks about how he got interested in typography and type design by encountering a marvelous book about alphabets by Hermann Zapf. He also refers to his first awareness of letterforms as a small kid looking at the beautiful handwriting of his grandfather, who was always showing him his special letter ‘k’. We wonder how Jovica started working for ITC were he met Herb Lubalin, just two weeks before his death. Looking back Jovica is aware that he had the chance to meet the right people. People who really cared about what they’re doing. And this mentality or way of living is exactly what he would like to pass on to the younger generation. Recorded at the Klingspor Museum Symposium – on the occasion of their 60th birthday – in Offenbach Germany. Linotype interview :: Veljović on his Agmena typeface :: Hamburg HAW :: File Download (20:41 min / 28 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Decoder by Gerard Unger 2) Sound piece by Carina Schwake 3) Chinese whispered typeface by Nina Christine Stössinger What Nina heard was a trained singing voice, possibly digitally sampled; so she imagined the type to look like something a trained hand might write, digitally cleaned. It is fluid – letters are usually made of a single stroke and don’t feature sharp corners –, but somewhat minimal and deliberate. Nina ‘translated’ the equal length of the tones to a monospaced design; the slowness of the singing to a generous width; and the swelling of the volume within each tone to a swelling stroke that usually starts and ends in a thin point. And then, of course, the layering of voices to the layering of font styles: “The piece soon combines two voices, and towards the end introduces rhythm changes and ligations that make the voices differ. So I drew two related layers that overlay and intertwine, with the second one offering a set of discretionary ligatures. – This was seriously fun to draw!” HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (1:33 min / 2 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Nitti by Pieter van Rosmalen 2) Sound piece by Sebastian Knöbber 3) Chinese whispered typeface by Jasper Terra Jasper’s first impressions of the sound piece where: Apple (start up), clock, time, typing, typewriter, deadline, copy writer. The sound was rhythmic in a mechanical or systematic way (clock) but human and a-rhythmic at the same time (typing). The initial sketches focussed on the systematic rhythm (the ticking could be the distance between stems), and led toward a monospaced letter that could be used on screen or a typewriter. Perhaps by someone working in a cubicle or office environment, who has a deadline but at the same time aspirations of being a writer. The combination of the systematic and human led to the final idea; a small family of two fonts; the first a sans that fits obediently into a cubicle (monospaced) and is used on screen at the office, the other breaking out of the cubicle with more organic forms and serifs (based on the leaf of the Apple logo) for use on the book cover of an aspiring writer. HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (0:42 min / 1 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Bint by Donald Roos 2) Sound piece by Nina Kronenberger, Barbara Hinz & Jennifer Graf 3) Chinese whispered typeface by Alexandre Saumier Demers Making a typeface from sausages was the obvious solution for Alexandre’s sound piece: festive sounds of Bavarian music, accompanied by obnoxious burping, followed by loud crunching and munching. The main part of the process was to develop a script that generates sausages from a string (skeleton). This helped Alexandre enormously to draw the 508 sausages needed for his project. The second element was to find a style that would carry the spirit of German folklore, so he combined his new ‘sausage’ tool with Fraktur letters. It was a perfect match, the recipe was ready and the end result very tasty! HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (0:43 min / 1 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: New Alphabet by Wim Crouwel 2) Sound piece by Jennifer Graf & Barbara Hinz 3) Chinese whispered typeface by Hugo Timothée Marucco Hugo based his type concept mostly on the structure of the sound which was composed of two distinct parts. Indeed, the first one is a fast loop of digital sounds evoking the old video game universe, like early Pong or Tetris. The second part is completely different. The rhythm is a lot slower and almost silent, we only hear some traditional Chinese instruments. This two layer-structure became the main concept of Hugo’s typeface; Digital and Zen. He wanted to mix these different feelings without losing the particularities of each part. “That is why I came up with this idea of drawing a monospaced font with two widths and weights. I only drew caps to keep the blocky aesthetic of a pixel games. It was important to visually express the atmosphere of the music. Mixing the two styles you get a really noisy or quiet feeling, the more you mix them the less legible it gets. Like in a game: it gets harder and harder!” HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (0:56 min / 1 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Rijksmuseum by Paul van der Laan 2) Sound piece by Jill Els 3) Chinese whispered typeface by Mark Frömberg Mark’s projection of the sound piece was a guy cycling along a beach promenade in great haste, full of joy. He’s on his way to pick up his love, who he hasn’t seen for ages, from the train station. A happy, transparent atmosphere, sunshine falling through leafs, embroidered with daydream music. Suddenly he’s waiting tensed midst an anonymous crowd, receiving the message that she will never come back. Broken heart, intensely dazed, he is unable to cope with the situation, losing a love is like losing senses, tunnel vision, pain. Mark raised this to an abstract level into two key words: Expectation and Disappointment. Which means: Joy & liveliness, irrational & cursive, jumping rhythm, transparency, decorated, multi-dimensional, exaggeration. Put against: Disturbing & negative, pain, dull & hollow, cold & spiky, confusion. Since the two audio parts overlap in the middle, it leads to: clutter & tension, nervous dissonance & intersection. The third part of the sound is very electronic, precise and fading out. Having these attributes collected, Mark just added them all up (1+1+1) and finished his design. HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (1:03 min / 2 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Macula by Jacques le Bailly 2) Sound piece by Aileen Dietrich & Laura Müller 3) Chinese whispered typeface by T]M group This looping sound, featuring a palindrome played forwards and backwards, conjured ideas of letters that could be read forwards and backwards, as well as the concept of infinity. The Type]Media group set out to draw letters that contained two versions of themselves conjoined on top, one rotated 180 degrees. Text set in this typeface can thus be read from both sides — a unique feature specifically designed for settings of palindromic text. To emphasize the theme of infinity, endlessness or continuous motion, we constructed each letter out of a single continuous line. This solution was truly a group effort: The initial ideas and sketches were developed together and the file was passed around allowing communal contributions and editing. HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (1:01 min / 2 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Eames by Erik van Blokland / House Industries 2) Sound piece by Camille Gergen & Carlotta Weisert 3) Chinese whispered typeface by Mark Yehan De Winne Over a backdrop of John Coltrane playing ‘My Favourite Things’ on the saxophone, an assortment of other audio snippets (sniffs, scratches and other quaint sounds) were thrown in for good measure. Mark envisioned a jazz club in the 1960s, full of people having a little too much fun. His concept, named Coltreijn, is a high contrast fat face with ball terminals, similar to type found on old BlueNote records, but drawn to mimic the broken structure of neon lettering. The heady mix of weird sounds inspired a series of oddball alternate characters that feature prominently in the Stylistic sets and Contextual Alternate feature, where the placement of the swash alternate comes in at the second and sixth character, mimicking the time signature found in ‘My Favourite Things’. HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (1:02 min / 2 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Brokken by Donald Beekman 2) Sound piece by Tumaj Talimy 3) Chinese whispered typeface by Sláva Jevčinová Sláva: “Who else got to watch cartoons for research? Lucky ME! The first seconds of Tumaj’s sound reminded me of this splendid genre. It inspired me to design a very simple cartoon typeface with handwriting flavour and specific features that resemble cartoon characters (big counters=big heads, thin weight=tiny body, long thin serifs=long feet). Nevertheless, The second part is a bit disruptive and carries a negative impression with it. The sound interprets a dwarf’s hard work of digging in the mines, therefore I decided to include certain OpenType features. Despite the disturbing part, the main goal was preserving playfulness for the project. That’s all Folks!” HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (0:39 min / 1 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Laundry by René Knip 2) Sound piece by Merle Sommer 3) Chinese whispered typeface by David Chmela As David first listened to the soundtrack, it seemed just a bunch of strange sounds. So he did a little sketch of the whole track and realised that the individual sounds represented the letters of the alphabet. The sounds reminded him of hardware stuff from workshops, analog machines, intermittent by clicking and a crowd in the background. David: “My idea was to create a kind of analog machine that makes type, so I made set of stamps that I used to create individual letters. The final design of the alphabet is influenced by typewriter, one of my associations related to the sound.” HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (0:54 min / 1 MB)

December 2013, Typeradio held a two day workshop in cooperation with Indra Kupferschmid and 10 students of the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste (HBK Saar) in Saarbrücken, Germany. Each student was assigned a typeface, designed by a Dutch designer, along with the assignment: ‘translate the typeface into a one minute sound piece’.
 The resulting 10 sound pieces were the starting point of another workshop, in collaboration with Jan Willem Stas and the students of the Type]Media 2014 typography master coarse in The Hague, The Netherlands. Each T]M student was handed an (anonymously labelled) sound piece and their challenge was to ‘create a typeface concept inspired by the sound’. The results were quite surprising! 1) Original typeface: Neutral by Kai Bernau 2) Sound piece by Maria Sieradzki 3) Chinese whispered typeface by James Taylor Edmondson At first James thought the audio piece sounded like a combination of water, air, and electricity. Initially, his sketches focussed on combining those three elements. Eventually, he distilled these sounds into one object: the microwave. “The audio sounded like a running microwave, but recorded from the inside. My idea focussed on taking a standard style, and calling it ‘Frozen’. It was a condensed style with room to grow in all directions. From there the type got progressively warmer in the microwave. The next styles added were ‘Warm’, and ‘Hot’. As the shapes loosened up, they melted into each other and then burned to a crisp with the styles ‘Scorching’ and ‘Burned’. The most exciting thing that can happen in the microwave is the explosion. Put into type here as the ‘Exploded’ style, it has the same metrics as Burned, so interesting effects are made possible. This was an insanely fun project.” HBK Saar :: Type]Media :: File Download (0:44 min / 1 MB)

Dan Reynolds is a type designer and typographic researcher. Born in Baltimore, he studied graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design, visual communication at the HfG Offenbach, and typeface design at the University of Reading (UK). After several years with the marketing and font development teams at Linotype GmbH, he founded his own design practice in Berlin, Germany. We talk with Dan about his first typographic memory. What got him interested in design and typography and how he ended up living in Germany. Although Dan comes from a family of academics, he prefers a more esthetic approach of type design. He would rather doodle letterforms and then worry about how they’re going to be used. Because Dan – while studying, teaching and working at a typefoundry as well as a freelance type designer and researcher – has seen almost every single aspect of the profession we wonder how all that knowledge on these different fields come together in his daily practice. Recorded at the Klingspor Museum Symposium – on the occasion of their 60th birthday – in Offenbach Germany. Type Off blog :: Dan at Linotype :: Christian Schwartz Deutsche Bahn :: Dan on Rudolph Koch :: Typostammtisch Offenbach :: File Download (21:59 min / 30 MB)

HORT is a Berlin-based graphic design studio made up of a mixed bag of uniquely selected, creative and spirited people. When away from his Humble HORT Hub, founder (and head creative) Eike König takes on the role of mentor. He is currently the Professor of Graphic Design and Illustration at the University of Arts in Offenbach, Germany. In this interview with Eike König we talk about the international character of the design studio. How the team is carefully put together over the years. His relation to each individual and the dynamics within the group. Eike also explains how the hiring of interns is a big thing at HORT. Next to that he gives us his thoughts on ‘future thinking’ and explains that there are more important things in life that we can achieve than perfection in itself. Recorded at the Integrated 2013 Conference in Antwerp, Belgium. NB: At the beginning of 2014, after the recording of this interview, Eike’s father passed away. We are sorry for his loss. HORT :: HORT's work for Nike :: HORT Hello video :: File Download (30:55 min / 43 MB)