Design Context: December 2014

To get more variety in quotes and references for this project and my essay, I decided to look for some interviews with typographers. My main focus was to find some interviews with hand drawn typographers, however any other points of views will be good to collect as well.

Below are a collection of extracts from interviews which are relatable to my chosen subject.

Truth Founder, Darren Scott Interview - September 19th 2014

Link: http://www.truth-creative.co.uk/news/19/9/2014/truth-founder-darren-scott-interview

Can you discuss your typographic heroes, in terms of the work that inspires you, both historically and contemporarily and the inspiration this has on your own practice?Firstly I think it is really important to have heroes, someone that inspires you to achieve more and want to be better. My heroes were always typographers and type designers, from the age of 15, when I first saw Neville Brody’s work for Face Magazine. It made me realise that type could be illustrative and decorative and communicate a whole lot more than what the words were actually saying, and also that typography was about controlling how messages were read and controlling the emotion behind the narrative. Brody’s work was always so decorative and impactful, it pushed the layout to it’s limit. This then led me to the work of Jan Tschichold, then Constructivism, Dada and the Bauhaus.

What gives you the greatest pleasure in type design?
The greatest pleasure I take from designing fonts is firstly the achievement of working out what is essentially solving a great big puzzle, but then seeing how people interpret it and the context in which they use it. Only by drawing type yourself do you really understand the skill and craft required to create a perfect character shape, like the New Baskerville 2 or the Gill Sans lowercase g, things of such beauty, an impossible dream. I once spent a day redrawing the Pistilli ampersand just to walk in his shoes and understand the process and level of craftsmanship that went into producing such a seductive character. I remember I blogged about the whole experience and a young American Designer contacted me to ask if I would send her the artwork to have tattooed on her back. I did, and she did!

Why is type design still relevant?

Of all the design crafts typography has to be the most important. As a designer, it is the most powerful tool at your disposal and one you will use every day of your life. The ability to set type and control the connotations of the message is to control the minds of the reader. An appropriately chosen typeface can make copy appear sad, happy, aggressive, exciting, modern or traditional – it has that power. When used effectively it is without doubt the most powerful communication tool available to a designer. That is why in my opinion the most influential designers in history were also typographers or type designers.

The Sharpie Blog, Dan Cassaro - January 20th 2012

Link: http://blog.sharpie.com/2012/01/youngjerks-dan-cassaro-shows-off-his-sharpie-stuff/

What inspires you and your work? Powerful rock and roll music, old train cars, Dads, the bric-a-brac section at the thrift store and various other ephemera. I think it’s important to try and pull from things that go deeper than a aesthetic level. Bruce Springsteen’s music is good because it sounds great and is fun to sing along to but there is something happening on a much more visceral level. I think it’s good to try to create work from that angle instead of just trying to make visually pleasing images. You don’t want to be making graphic design elevator music you know?

How would you describe your style?I don’t know, this is hard. As a designer I’d like to think that style is adapted and applied depending on the project. The illustrator part of me definitely has a common thread that runs through all my work though. I’ve been thinking that “clumsy modernism” is a pretty good way of explaining what I’d like to achieve with my work. I like the economy and boldness of modernism but all the pretentiousness surrounding it makes me want to barf a little. I want my work to be succinct but just “off” enough to give it charm and approachability. I spent a lot of time in college learning how to kern a headline and now I feel like maybe I’ll earned the right to intentionally UN-kern it. A little wonk goes a long way.

Your designs are have a cool edginess to them; how do you come up with new ideas?I try to stay open to things just happening. Too many people treat design like an assembly line and it makes for a lot of visually acceptable, but flaccid design. I’d like to treat it more like an adventure, more like fine art. I don’t stay too married to the sketches that I do (if I sketch at all) and that lets me discover new ways of working. I like having that moment when you discover that you can create something that you didn’t know you were capable of before and have it happen almost by accident. My end results often looks very different from my original intentions. That system isn’t really conducive to the standard system of client approvals but it’s a very exciting way to work. Adventure!

How do you use Sharpie markers in your work? Favorite Sharpie? Why?I do a lot of my pen work and doodling with Sharpe Fine Point. I usually like using cheap paper and letting the ink pool up in the edges and bleed a bit. It’s nice to take those drawings that show a human hand and bring them into the computer and add that dimension. Using pen on paper helps keep me tied to the physical which is something I never want to lose touch with. I used Sharpie paint markers for the mural at the Ace Hotel. It was all kind of fancy type work so I wanted to keep the line work loose and fun. I made sure to only use really wide tip pens for this to keep myself from getting too fussy.

FRANK, Sean Williams - October 14 2013

Link: http://www.frank151.com/news/talking-typography-an-interview-with-sean-williams.html

The photographs you take are quite simple and natural in comparison to your more tactile designs. Do you approach them as separate entities or are they intertwined?
I think I take different approaches to my photography and design. With photography I can only plan so much in advance, and when on a shoot I tend to go with the flow and go with my gut for what feels right. For my type designs I’d say half of my time is spent on the planning before I even start designing. I work on the stencil until I’m pleased with it and then move on to where I think the best place for each word would be and how they’ll fit together. Only then do I allow myself to start the final design artwork.

For those reading who are unfamiliar, do you mind telling us a bit about typography and how you use it to make these awesome portraits?
Good typography is the technique of arranging type to be aesthetically pleasing. In my typographic portraits I hand draw the type in such a way that the words come together to form portraits. I manually distort each letter to fit the space I need it to fill. The funny thing is that I’ve studied and currently work a lot with type, but it wasn’t until I began these illustrative designs that I began to truly appreciate typography.

Typography is used in comic books, graphic design, and graffiti—where do you see typography heading as a craft?
I think typography is always evolving and being reinterpreted through art. Whether it’s hand drawn, letterpress, or done on a computer, there are infinite ways to express the same character. And with the combination of video, type becomes dynamic with infographics being a trend lately. I expect artists and designers to continually experiment and push the limits of typography, and I’m positive it will be around for a long time. Although I’m an art director, you still need words!

Nate Williams, An interview with Nate Williams

Link: http://www.n8w.com/wp/927

What makes you choose to draw your type by hand?Hand rendering gives a word a tone, it tells the viewer how to interpret it on a subliminal level. It’s like music in a horror movie, you might not notice the music, but it makes the scene much more convincing and sets the tone on a subliminal visceral level. When I was a child I had learning disability, a form of dyslexia. When I read my eyes would jump all over the page so instead of seeing what the letters represented, I would just see a mix of weird forms and shapes. I thought of letters as objects rather than what they represented.

When you are hand drawing type, do you think about drawing the word itself, or do you articulate individual letters?I would say “words” for the most part. Most of my hand lettering is part of a bigger family. I think if I focused on making each letter very unique, it would be almost too stylized and distracting, but there are always exceptions.

When drawing a word, is the meaning and context always important, or just how it looks?Both … sometimes the word can look conceptually like something the word is about .. and other times it just sets a mood … how to interpret the word, happy, sad, energetic, etc.

How important to you is the interplay of text and image?Very important, I like mixing lettering with imagery. I think they balance each other out, because imagery is very organic and letter forms are very mechanical so it provides a nice contrast. Both, Imagery and text, can provide information the other cannot.

Do you think fonts are improved if they are hand drawn?It all depends what your objectives are, there isn’t one solution for everything.

Why is there more hand lettering in design today?Probably because it’s a response to the high-tech boom in the 90’s where everything was slick and highly polished. Now the pendulum has swung the other way. Eventually it will return to the middle and both the “high-tech” look and “hand drawn” look will just be another tool for designers and illustrators to achieve specific objectives. As the world becomes smaller because of globalization, people crave things and experiences that are not from a template.. things that make them feel like their life is special and they are a unique … I think that is why the following are on the rise.. hand drawn type, non chain restaurants, limited edition silkscreens local beers, DIY, local coffee shops, handmade books, self published music/writing, etc ..

Canali, Job Wouters

Link: http://www.canali.com/en/ledizione/200-steps/job-wouters-interview

‘I suppose the thing I like most about handwriting is the universal quality of it. Obviously, everyone writes. So everyone can relate to a well-written piece. When you see some beautiful calligraphy done well – especially if it is done live – you can connect’.

‘In calligraphy there is always a tension between expression and control. These are the two forces that look like they’re opposite but in a sense they are not. They join along as partners in a good piece of work’.

‘A specific material or tool can often become the source of inspiration. At one point I realized that traditional graphic designers use fonts… They’re quoting someone else’s work… I thought, I want to regain this sort of control. I want to own everything that I make. I wanted to draw everything. But then to have the same amount of freedom or communication possibilities as a regular designer, I needed to train my hand in all these different directions, and the more directions I could do, the more powerful I could be’.

‘People always say “Oh, handwork is so good because it’s imperfect.” But the thing is that most craftsmen strive for perfection. I’m not aiming for faults, but of course they’re part of the work. It’s more a matter of control. At one point I realized I could control brushes and paint and the analogue tools way better than the digital counterparts. So although I grew up with the computer, and am very happy using it, for the actual making of something, I can do it far better by hand’.

Design.org, Simon Walker - October 24/25 2011

Links:
http://design.org/blog/designer-interview-hand-letterer-simon-walker-part-i
http://design.org/blog/designer-interview-hand-letterer-simon-walker-part-ii

What advice would you give designers who are interested in incorporating more lettering into their design work?
Not to be intimidated and expect quick results, but to just start doing it. One of the best ways to become acquainted with letters and how they truly work is to try and re-create them yourself. You'll notice things about the interactions between the parts of individual letterforms you never really noticed before. Use existing fonts as a guide and study what makes them work, too: how does the "c" relate to the "e"? Are all the ascenders and descenders consistent, or do they vary? Which rules can you break to get more interesting results?

It may take time - I've a long way to go myself, and am really just an amateur myself when it comes to true font creation - but it is a skill I think most designers can learn if it truly is their passion. You'll probably get better advice from a better, more seasoned type designer, but that's how it's been working out for me so far.