UNCONVENTIONAL
TYPOGRAPHERS
TWO POST-MODERNISTS TYPOGRAPHERS IN THE 21th CENTURY, HOUSE INDUSTRIES & JOS BUIVENGA
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“We can’t help but be influenced. Some designers are good at covering up influences or playing them down
enough to make people think they’re doing something original. We celebrate our sources, publicize them, even introduce our customers, fans, and critics to something they never knew about and make them appreciate it. And maybe even get them to not rip it off.”
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David Lee Roth
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Many typographers from previous generations
had approached their work with couple restrictions;
these restrictions went beyond the esthetics questions like display or text, a san serif or a serif, geometrically designed or handwritten. They had limitations that were rather put by the circumstances of the time period, for most part “typographers had to work in typefoundries, type-setting machine companies, or schools in order to see their designs outcome. The typographers in the 1800s, 1900s, and great part of the 20th century were working wherever they found employment� (Robert Bringhurst 141) and in best cases these were typefoundries where they often were given
projects that came already with its own set of rules and purposes. Not that there is something wrong about that, however that seemed to be the way in which most typefaces happen to be produced and then released to the public. Nowadays, with the help of our computers and current technology, contemporary typographers do not have to exclusively rely on large foundries to develop their skills. Although large typefoundries still exist today, there are typographers that have succeeded in the field by arriving in a quite unconventional manner, this paper will focus on these kinds
of typographers, the typographers that found themselves immerse and working in typography by rather less conventional circumstances. With an almost innate start in typography and because of the nature of this approach, the unconventional typographers take typography as an escape of the routine, and because the time they spent exploring with typography was natural and genuine they developed a passion. This passion that perhaps in another given scenario would not have occurred, the typographers I will mention had a roughly similar start but eventually developed their own artistic idiom, contemporary
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ABCDEFGHKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ
1234567890!@#$%^&*() 6
MUSEO SLAB Museo Slab is a robust slab serif with the friendliness of the well-known Museo.
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THIS CLEVER IDEA WAS JUST A REFLECTION OF THESE DESIGNERS’ CAPABILITIES, they are craftsmen illustrating and designing, besides being typographers.
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typographers Jos Buivenga and the group of designers from the House Industries studio.
an entrepreneurial start because in 1993 founders Andy Cruz and Rich Roat started their own studio, Brand Design Co, and later the famous type foundry “House Industries” which rapidly grasped presence in the Typography scene.
Jos Buivenga and the House Industries are a good example of this new and informal approach, Jos Buivenga who started designing typefaces in his spare time while he was an Art Director, recently started to work as a full-time typographer and also has found his own typefoundry called “exljbris.” On the other side House Industries had
Jos Buivenga was born in Arnhem, The Netherlands in 1965, and although he went to school to study Graphic Design he did not graduate. After school, he spent six years trying to make a living as an artist, He eventually found out that being an artist was not his call, Buivenga starts pursuing a job in advertising. Couple years later, Buivenga is working as
an Art Director. While working in advertising he develops an interest for type design, as he mentions in an interview for the Web Designer Depot’s website, in 1994 during his early days of advertising, he got his first Mac. Buivenga assures that this was a turning point for him. The idea of setting his own type at his mac just intrigued him, here Buivenga is an example of how technologies has facilitated and offered a really giant leap for typography and Graphic Design, Buivenga taught himself how to use the publishing software of the time and after working for 15 years in advertising, he starts his one-man
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The American Inn SPOOKTACULAR!!! ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890!@#$%^&*(/)_+
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very scary TYPE
SPOOKHOUSE Originally influenced by the hand-lettered B-horror movie titling sequences.
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typefoundry. What before could have been a long cumbersome or somewhat impossible process; for Buivenga was a rather clear transition from one phase of his life to another, as he claims: “I’ve always regarded life as a river on which I don’t try to canoe upstream too much. Things have always happened to me at their own pace. The one thing I always try to do is to keep an open mind towards everything. I started my first font at 29 - which might already be regarded as late” (Klanten, Ehmann, and Meyer 9).
On the other hand the House Industries, founded and currently based in Delaware, had also an equally informal approach to typography, “When Brand Design Co. opened, Rich Roat and Andy Cruz had a tough time distinguishing their firm from others in the field. To draw attention along with their cash flow, they came up with the idea of selling a product to help advertise the company’s services. They created House Industries as a division to design for Brand Design Co., and in essence, became their own client” (Ebenkamp 40). The font itself was not all, fonts sold by
House Industries became collectable products that came with a strong branding, these products went from posters to toys, shirts to colorful packaging, this clever idea was just a reflection of these designers’ capabilities, they are craftsmen illustrating and designing, besides being typographers. The identity that their typefaces have are a successful marketing solution to which Cruz supports in a short interview for the Creative Review Magazine by disingenuously claiming “drawing type is really boring, we need something to take the edge off” (Creative Review 41).
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r u o f o n g i s a “It’s ciation to e r p s y ap a d d l o d o o g e th e p y t r e t t le d n a h d l h u s o u r w b s a n a h is it t w r a n o n i e t h a r w t ” s e u s l u l i o n m or ink athan pushing a rather ustries
d House In
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QUESTA The Questa project is a type design project of Martin Majoor and Jos Buivenga. For critics and scholars the work by House Industries and Jos Buivenga it does not easily falls into one category, for they have been influenced from many different sources. The one source that House Industries for instance have been famed for is the retro and nostalgic feeling that their work evokes, although they are not content with it. It is mostly bestowed for their revival of fonts popular during the 50s, 60s, and 70s, the times that speak to the so called “Americana” and the American pop vernacular. These American roots are clearly a frequent motif that is part of House Industries’ language.
Cruz once mentioned that House Industries’ output is no more than “appreciation for the good old days when artisans would hand letter type or ink an illustration with a brush rather than pushing a mouse” (Creative Review 41). Fonts such as Moster, Sign Painter, Blacktur, Street Van, and many others are inspired by the Hot-Rod car model, Las Vegas strip, Googie motel signages, Music posters, and others. Celebrating what they admire is what makes these designers very peculiar. In a similar manner Buivenga is influenced perhaps by the cultures and traditions of European typographers,
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“I’ve always regarded life
AS A RIVER on which I don’t try to canoe
UPSTREAM... I STARTED MY FIRST FONT AT 29 - WHICH MIGHT ALREADY BE REGARDED AS LATE” Jos Buivenga
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HOUSE INDUSTRIES Special version of Kentucky Kid (Nicky Hayden) moniker for the Indianapolis MotoGP race. he has mentioned to admire Dutch typographers such as Fred Smeijers, Evert Bloemsma, and German Erik Spiekermann. Some people describe his fonts as humanist for they have old style gestures like the low contrast on strokes, and angled serifs, for Buivenga it could be just a historical interlude before he chooses to design his next typeface. Buivenga’s most recognized font is the Museo family; a contemporary typeface with pipe curved serifs that simulate bent wires. Currently Buivenga is designing “Questa,” a project he works in conjunction with typographer and designers Martin
Majoor. Questa can easily be categorized as Modern typography. To all this diversity of works, it is not easy to label these typographers with one style, especially if one of them releases his typefaces for free. Buivenga has from a beginning released the most used weight of his typefaces for free; with no regret he has embraced his choice by asserting “I am as free as my fonts.” By their own means and after the chase of what brought them genuine joy, contemporary typographers like the people in House Industries and the self – taught Jos Buivenga, their right career path began because
they started to work in projects they found rewarding to them, work that most of the time client based projects did not give them. This approach could have not been the ideal start but for their dedication and passion towards their work. People like these typographers are inspiring examples of how rewarding can be to care, to dedicate time, and effort to ones work, regardless of the economic compensation of the work, for these typographers it was a quest for the satisfaction in their inner work-life, appreciating what they do and forgetting the commercial side of the profession.
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JOS BUIVENGA His typeface “Diablo” was used in the subtittles to the awar-winnig film “Slumdog Millionaire.
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DESIGNER
Peter Verastegui TYPEFACES
Museo Slab, Neutra Text, SpookHouse, SingPainter COURSE
Typography 3 FACULTY
Francheska Guerrero CITATIONS
Vimeo. Perf. Jos Buivenga. Vimeo. Typeradio, 22 Feb. 2010. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. <http://vimeo.com/9641500>. Ebenkamp, Becky. “Boxed In.” Brandweek 39.23 (1998): 40. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. Shaw, Paul. “Photo Finish.” Print 59.2 (2005): 62-67. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. “Centerfold.” Creative Review 22.2 (2002): 41-52. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 6 Nov. 2012. Face to Face, an Interview with Jos Buivenga.” www.ilovetypography.com. Codex Magazine, 16 Apr. 2008. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://ilovetypography.com/2008/04/16/ face-to-face-an-interview-with-jos-buivenga/>.
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