AN
INTO
Anthology of Type Designers and Designers That Have Made an Impact on Type
Edited by Sandy Y. Tsai Roski Design Press, 2013
Typographers and Designers
chapter one
Jeffery Keedy Written by Sara Burton
Born in 1957, Jeffery Keedy (aka Mr. Keedy) is a writer, educator, and type designer in the postmodern era. He has been teaching at the California Institute of the Arts for the past 23 years. He has worked for magazines such as Emigre, Details, and FUSE, and both his writings and type designs have been published in multiple places. Keedy first became interested in type in the 1980’s when he could not find a typeface that he felt was relevant to the current time, or could portray the “spirit of the time.” He found typefaces to be outdated, and therefore could not find one that really fit any of his projects. He believed that design should be more related to popular culture than to problem solving. But Keedy does not just believe that any new, innovative type could necessarily be described as “good.” He merely has the belief, as many do, that although various typefaces can be described as “experimental,” only a few become classics. Keedy’s two fonts available to the public are Keedy Sans (published through Emigre) and Lushus (published through FUSE). Keedy Sans is very much a combination of different fonts, and includes straight lines, curves, both sharp and rounded edges, and a variety of stroke sizes. Keedy explains that “when I am designing a typeface, I try to work with at least two or three different ideas that are often in direct opposition to each other. If you can pull it off, it gives the typeface a more complex
character and the typographer a greater range of expression to work with.” Keedy Sans has also been described as illegible and confrontational, and Keedy continues to explain that “absolute clarity, or extreme distortion, is too simplistic a goal because it is ground that has already been well covered.” Although I believe that this is a unique take that not a lot of typographers have, I am personally a fan of the complete opposite. I believe that a font with the purpose of being read should be completely legible, while the font with the purpose of design can be beautiful and only legible to the designer. I am not a huge fan of Keedy Sans, although I like Keedy’s concept of creating it. I think that it is good to learn what designs we personally like, and can expand from them, combine them, etc, to create something completely unique and amazing. Keedy’s other main font, Lushus, also utilizes a variety of stroke sizes and serifs, but only uses sharp edges and straight lines. Although Lushus has gotten a lot of criticism for being ugly, it was created specifically for FUSE magazine and works for that purpose very well. Keedy’s fonts in general have very specific uses, and could only be used for headlines in oppose to normal text. Overall, I find Keedy’s creative concepts to be very interesting, but I am not overwhelmed by his execution of these concepts.
Jessica Hische Written by Amapola Alfonso
Letterer, designer, and illustrator, Jessica Hishe, is a talented young woman well known for her type design. The first time I became acquainted with her work was when I saw the movie Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson. The hand-drawn lettering is absolutely lovely and it fits the overall theme and feel of the movie quite well. I did not know that Hishe was the designer of that typeface until recently. Her Daily Drop Cap project is what truly amazed me and made me fall in love with her work. Not only did it boost her career, enabling her to work with some large clients, it displayed how talented of an artist she was. The beautiful illustration, color, structure, and aesthetic of each letter is remarkable. Every single letter is unique and has a special quality of it’s own. I can see the love and passion she put forth in each design. A lot of thought and strategizing is put towards her process. The letters are well edited, structured, hand-written, graphic, colorful, vibrant, energetic, complex, imaginative, and an entire list of other verbs that describe just how dynamic and wonderful each alphabet letter is. She has quite a plethora of work, but what stands out to me the most is her own individual style that makes her work recognizable. Ranging from vintage, retro, script, geometric, and illustration, she is able to combine various styles and integrate it into a cohesive typeface. I’m a huge fan of the coloring she chooses as well because it complements the font choice
and lettering. Nothing is overdone, and find her work to be refined and fun. I love how she can use a simple script against a white background and give it so much personality with the variation of strokes from thick to thin like her advertising campaign for Bath and Body Works. Besides my appreciation for her work and making type sexy, I find her advice inspiring as well. As an avid type designer, she utilizes the computer a lot. Not only does she focus on designing lettering, she is also knowledgeable in HTML and CSS as a web designer. Her philosophy on seeing the artistry in technology and mixing arts and tech together can be applied to my own work as a graphic designer. Integrating technology into one’s art can be extremely beneficial, especially in web design, a field I am currently interested in. Not only will people be more knowledgeable, acquire more skill, and be more proficient throughout, it is liberating being able to make whatever you want to make independently. The two big pieces of advice I could get from her, after watching her online interviews, are not to be lazy and wait and to continuing learning. If you want to learn how to do something, just do it! And, the most important thing to learn in college is the desire to learn. To instill the thought that learning does not stop will make a better designer, especially in the craft of type design.
Marian Bantjes Written by Schessa Garbutt
“The world is full of wonder. But the world of graphic design, for the most part, is not,” Bantjes states matter-of-factly in a presentation at the 2010 Ted Conference. The Canadian artist and writer began her design career in 1984 as a book typesetter, where she says that the most exciting part of the job was formatting the title pages. Between 1994 and 2003, she worked at the Digitopolis design firm in Vancouver, Canada, doing ‘strategic design.’ However, two decades into her career, Bantjes had what she calls a “transformative experience,” where she realized that she should be doing the work she wanted to, rather than adhering to what design had become, which was a set of rules. In her 2010 book, I Wonder, Bantjes talks about being inspired by religious texts such as illuminated manuscripts and their ability to encourage reverence in the reader which would reinforce the intense feelings of having a divine experience. Although she isn’t religious herself, Bantjes picked up on the reason why the ornamentation and attention to deal in these works evokes awe in the viewer. She says that it stems from the viewer’s wonder about how exactly the object was made as well as an admiration for the attention to detail that the artists gave as an act of worship. In comparison to this, contemporary graphic design seems flat. Of this disparity Bantjes says that the “true marriage of art and information is woefully underused in adult literature.” I Wonder is a great example of the way that Marian has combined work and play
in order to create stunning and refreshing works that emphasize the importance of the visuals in communicating the message while engaging the reader in a way that makes them want to do a double take. I was drawn to her work because of my own love for hand-lettering and customization. Many see the computer as their only tool, especially in an age where almost everything ends up digital anyway, but Bantjes isn’t afraid to use pencils and paint, sugar and sand. Her approach as well as her aesthetic (often looping, connected, or patterned lines) has inspired me to see letters as shapes and layouts as tools that make it fun for the eyes to move around the page. Her craft leaves me breathless - I feel like the intricacy of her work might blow away if I’m not careful enough. I find myself taking time to meander around the design and let the lines guide me. The puzzle-like nature of Bantjes’ work would seem to distract from the content and discourage viewers from trying to decipher it, but I find the challenge refreshing and inviting, especially because so much of today’s graphic design attempts to lay things out as clearly as possible, to the point where one skims, moves on, and forgets. Much of design is made with the idea that it should be legible from far away, but Bantjes’ intrigues the viewer and makes them come closer. As I continue to learn design, I hope to have some of that spirit inside of my own work.
Mike Perry Written by Victoria Porter
“I believe in the transformative power of making things” Designer, typographer, and artist Mike Perry is a strong believer in working with his hands to make something great. This philosophy has proven successful in his many hand drawn works. As a designer he has worked in many mediums such as books, magazines, newspapers, clothing, drawing, painting, and illustration. And has worked with clients including Apple, The New York Times, Dwell, Target, Urban Outfitters, eMusic, and Nike. He is interested in the ways hand drawn informs the cotemporary art and design world and deepens the connection of the viewer to the hand of the artist. Mike Perry grew up with an artist grandfather who spent his time making paintings and picked up some of the skills himself, today he spends most of his days in his Brooklyn studio making hand drawn type, patterns, sketches and occasionally sculptures. Day and night he is making doodles and sketches, creating new typefaces and graphics that inspire and transform into his new works. His recognizable hand drawn aesthetic is in demand by many corporate clients. His work has also been exhibited around the world, and he has been recognized in many publications. . In 2004, Mike Perry won Step magazine’s 30 under 30 designers of the year. In 2007, he was recognized as a “Groundbreaking Illustrator” by the Computer Arts Projects. In 2008, he received Print magazine’s New
Visual Artist award. Along with his print and commercial work Mike Perry has published 4 books and has his own publication along with many zines he has collaborated on. In his first book, Hand Job, A Catalogue of Type, he says that typography is his core passion. His work in typography and hand drawn patterns has been of interest to me for the past six years, when I purchased his book Over and Over, A Catalogue of Hand Drawn Patterns. What attracted me to Mike Perry as both a typographer and artist is the raw human element of his work, the variability that comes up in hand drawn work. Looking at his work I feel a connection to him as an artist, I can see the work of his hands and the strokes of a pencil or pen. This connection causes me to feel a sense of connection with the work itself, it becomes alive for me, with the stories the artist created dancing around my mind. The other aspect of his work that attracts me is his pop aesthetic, Mike Perry caters to the hip young, “hipster” crowd in his work. A trend in this hipster crowd there is a shift away from machines moving back to hand drawn images. This aesthetic is particularly interesting in that he also uses bright pop colors and odd images. His look is unique and different, but exactly what a generation is looking for in their design preferences as showcased by Mike Perry’s cliental. As an Artist, typographer, and designer Mike Perry has been very successful in effecting the cotemporary art and design world and deepening the connection between the viewer of his work and his own hand.
Chris Ware: Comic Typographer Written by Nolan Robertson
When one thinks of typography in the world of comics, BAMs and POWs seem to be the first thought to many a viewer. Thankfully Chris Ware is able to break out of the comic stereotype in all of his works, while still holding onto the entertainment value of a good cartoon and good design aesthetic. His first typographic work was published in the late 1980’s in The Daily Texan comics’ page. Though these were just his college years, he began to explore print technics in order to aid in his self-publishing. Later in life, Chris Ware was able to make several award winning comics as well as a few book publications. Even though his product looks computer generated, most of it is hand drawn with only coloring dealt with in the computer. As an artist Chris Ware is highly influenced by ragtime aesthetics in his work and is able to use that aesthetic with proper appropriation. Since his comics tend to focus on social isolation, emotional torment and depression, his use of his older nostalgic type is able to put the viewer at a distance. When reading his comics and type, it really feels like another world. Chris Ware himself has even stated, “… I try to use the rules of typography to govern the way that I ‘draw’, which keeps me at a sensible distance from the story as well as being a visual analog to the way we remember and conceptualize the world.” His work truly flourishes when he varies his typography to exude different emotions in his characters’ tone. Its legibility remains while switching between script and sans serifs,
majuscule to miniscule and sentence case to small caps. Chris Ware wants to the audience to understand “… the ‘essence’ of comics, which is fundamentally the weird process of reading pictures, not just looking at them.” This process shows the importance of the legibility of his type. If the type and the pictures are both “read” the image turns into a completely legible story. Another benefit to Chris Ware’s type is that even when it is stretched and morphed to fit a shape, it does not feel awkward or out of place. The only decoration that can be seen out of place is the overemphasis on the area around the title type in the middle of the page. It takes the viewer’s eye away from the rest of the page, and it feels like there was more time spent in the title than the entire comic. This makes it harder to appreciate the entire piece, if the typographic title overpowers the actual story being presented. Through Chris Ware’s breaking free of the comic book stereotype of typographic treatment, he is able to succeed in creating a new aesthetic, or rather a new appropriation. This is and was a huge step for the world of comics and graphic novels in order to bring forward the ideas of what should be shown in comics and how it should be expressed through typography.
Historical Letters
chapter two
Adrian Frutiger Written by Auri Mathisen
“When I put my pen to a blank sheet, black isn’t added but rather the white sheet is deprived of light” – Adrian Frutiger Aside from being an extremely prolific typographer, having designed over thirty typefaces in his lifetime, Adrian Frutiger was also an experienced graphic designer and sculptor. He is one of the select few who can claim to have worked with hot metal, photographic and digital typesetting, though his diverse background is the very reason he became acutely aware of importance of legibility. For most of his life Adrian Frutiger worked for Deberny & Peirnot updating typefaces but also worked as a freelance typographer. Frutiger was contracted to design logos, typefaces and brand images for corporations. His work is most notable for being quickly recognizable and very legible. In his designs, Frutiger put emphasis on the clear communication of information and the beauty of his typefaces. Frutiger was also an accomplished writer, publishing several books areas of typography and design. One of his most influential ideas was his proposal to create a reference system based on numbers directly related to the proportional relationships of each variation within a font family, in favor of what he termed more imprecise references such as “condensed” and “bold.” Adrian Frutiger was born in 1928 near Interlaken, Switzerland in a valley bordered by the Bernese Alps. His early typographic interests were
strongly influenced by the Bernese Oberland traditions of woodcutting and making paper silhouettes. The Bernese would cut intricate paper designs out of black paper, inspiring an appreciation of the contrast between black and white forms in Frutiger. As Frutiger’s style matured he maintained his preferences for scratch, cut or engraving techniques instead of traditional black ink. Ondine, one of his first type designs, was created by cutting and pasting black paper shapes. The process of removing black from the paper simultaneously added whited, allowing Frutiger to look at the space between letters more like a sculpture. His most famous typefaces are Univers and Frutiger, claiming to be some of the most widely used faces in both the 20th and 21st centuries. Frutiger developed Univers for Deberny & Peirnot in 1957 as a solution for a sans serif font that would be pleasing when setting longer texts. The font was originally commissioned in several weights and later refined for screen display to include sixty-three variants. “Frutiger” was commissioned by the Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1970, originally named Roissy but renamed when it was released to the public in 1976. Designed so that each individual character would be easily recognizable, Frutiger created the font using neither strictly geometric nor humanistic characteristics making it legible and casual as well as perfect to improve the readability and easy recognition of airport signage. It succeeded in this purpose so well that the font has since been used for highway signs in both France and Switzerland because it is so clear.
Firmin Didot Written by Natasha Crisano
I am typing this right now in Didot. Not Bodoni, but Didot – elegant, modern, Didot. My favorite typeface. I know it won’t be printed like this, but I don’t mind. There’s something about typing in Didot that makes everything sound better because it looks somehow more carefully written, more meaningful, and more eternal. That’s the effect typefaces have on an audience, and that’s just one of the things Didot says to me. I knew I loved Didot before I even knew its name. Uncultured in the art of recognizing typographic subtlety, I thought it was Bodoni. I’m just one person in a long history of confusion, much to the chagrin of typefaces’ original creators. Back in 18th century Europe, Firmin Didot had a legendary rivalry with Giambattista Bodoni, architect of the famous Bodoni type family. Born in Paris in 1764 to a family of typographers and printers, Firmin Didot, with his famous competitor, created the now iconic footprint of the modern typeface. Characterized by extreme vertical stress and contrast between thick and thin lines, modern typefaces have graced everything from editions of Homer and Vergil, to the covers of Vogue and Vanity Fair, to the strobing LED screens of DJ trio Swedish House Mafia. That’s what I think of when I see Didot: the scene of my favorite music. Picture a crowd of thirty thousand people under a black sky lined with lasers cutting through the ambient smoke just left by fireworks. Picture
speakers stacked as tall as three-story buildings, blasting progressive house music. The cultural events I enjoy don’t usually feature serif typefaces. Traditionally, serifs reside in the polite world of museums and ballets. Serif’s harken us back to some older time that seemed more cultured, more civilized, and less crass or uncouth. It’s no wonder that Helvetica initially earned the epithet, “grotesk.” Not that there is anything wrong with any of the ‘serifed’ activities, but I tend to get a real thrill out of the sans serif’s natural habitat: the rave. Usually characterized by typefaces that look like the came from the 2060’s, not the 1760s, sans serif typefaces monopolize the neon mayhem. They invoke a picture of technological advancement and modernity: sleek, clean, and stripped down in a mechanical way that eliminates all those pesky frills hanging off the letters. You might think of the rave as a strange dwelling place for the three-hundred-year old Didot. For some reason though, it works. And, standing in the sea of white and neon that was Swedish House Mafia’s final performance, mentally kerning every piece of signage as I saw fit, I wanted to know why. First, we can look at the history of Didot against other typefaces. I would argue that Didot was actually the sans serif typeface of the 1760s. Sure, it wasn’t actually sans serif by our classification standards, but it had a similar effect. Just the word modern, which today one might use to indicate a sans serif typeface (as in the general vernacular description, “I want a sleek, modern logo” or a “modern look”) was given to classify Didot at the time of its inception. It still retains that name today, though there are technically more “modern,” as in recent, typefaces. Didot was
the stripped down version of the old style typeface: more vertical, with more economic, straight horizontal serifs as opposed to those in the slanted footprint of its ancestor. I think of the modern typeface like a transitional fossil in the evolutionary chain of the letterform from old style to its common sans serif representation today. Ultimately, when you get into typography, like really into typography, as in counting-em spaces-and-comparing-counters-and-tiddles-intotypography, you learn how the devil’s in the details. But, even a viewer uneducated in the proper terminology that defines all these subtleties can sense their permeating presence. Technically, comparing the alphabet of Didot to its rival Bodoni reveals the difference between the thick and thin hairlines to be greater in Didot. The counters are wider, and the serifs of the Didot letters never run into each other on letterforms like the W, which has a wider footprint overall in comparison to the Bodoni equivalent. You can look at letterforms until you know every in and out, every leg and arm and ligature, until you’ve literally dotted every ‘I’ and crossed every ‘T’, but the answer to Didot’s popularity, from raves to epic poetry, lies deeper than that. Didot is the quintessential combination of the vernacular and technical definition of a “modern” typeface: fresh and sleek, yet elegant and refined, respectively. It doesn’t say “from an older time”; instead it says “timeless.” Didot is somehow transcendent of time and space – it obeys no fickle audience, no changing trends. It is not some odd article of clothing that sees a single season of wear. It’s classy and it’s classic and it’s continuous. As I heard the last notes ring out from Swedish House
Mafia’s final performance, this message of Didot surrounded me. Now that the holy trinity of electronic music is breaking up, I wonder how they will be remembered or even if they will be remembered at all. All we will have is pictures, videos, and of course, their iconic logo featuring Didot to represent the experience. Will Didot play a role in representing Swedish House Mafia as an EDM classic and not just a passing fad? I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t bet against it. Firmin Didot would be proud. I can imagine him saying, “Take that, Bodoni.”
Eric Gill Written by Cristin Lim
Eric Gill’s presence and influence in the artistic realm has truly been remarkable. Gill was a world-renowned artist that worked in many mediums that included sculpture, design, stonecutting, printmaking and typography. He was an avid writer and published many articles and a generous teacher that took on many students. Gill was also a “deeply religious man” with unorthodox and sometimes controversial personal practices. Gill was born in 1888 in Brighton, Sussex (in eastern England) and initially aspired to be an architect. After enrolling at the Chichester Technical and Art School, he quickly became disenchanted and frustrated with architecture. In lieu of taking architecture classes, Gill began to take calligraphy and stonecutting classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1903, he officially abandoned architecture to become a professional letter-cutter and calligrapher. After getting married, Gill initially settled in Sopers and worked mainly as a sculptor. One of his first sculptures, “Mother and Child” was displayed in the town center. Sopers, gathering inspiration from Gill, would eventually become a bustling and thriving art center in eastern Sussex. During his travels, Gill met many influential artists. Together, after World War I, several of them formed The Guild of St. Joseph and St. Dominic on Ditchling Common. The guild helped educate young artists (one of Gill’s students form the guild was David Jones). Gill eventually
settled in Wales where he established a printing press and workshop space. He was commissioned to created many works by many powerful companies in London. In 1925, Gill created Perpetua for Morison and the Monotype Corporation. Perpetua was based on Roman inscriptions. In 1927, as a result of reworking a typeface designed by Johnson for London Underground, Gills Sans was created. Gill’s patrons included the BBC, the University of Leeds, the London Electric Railway, the Post Office and more. He created stamps, relief sculptures, prints, and took on a number of apprentices. During the late 1930s, Gill was named Royal Designer for Industry, the highest British award for designers. Gill passed away in 1940. To this day, he remains a monumental figure as an artist and literati and his presence can still be felt today. Gill continues to have a following; the Eric Gill Guild was formed shortly after his death. Additionally, Gill’s papers and personal library are both archived at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA.
The Contemporary Wordsmith
chapteR THREE
Chip Kidd Written by David Good
As a young person growing up with access to an infinite selection of art in all of its forms at my fingertips, it is easy to glide over a piece of work in this digital age. Sometimes, however, while surfing the web or perusing through illustrative books, I will come across a design that is so well done, it cannot be ignored. Whether it be because of the color palette used, the synthesis of type and image, or a cleverly planned visual pun, the artist so successfully conveys his message that the resonation of it arrests the viewer, forcing them to take a step back and appreciate the creation. This reaction occurs within me when viewing Chip Kidd’s work. Petey Routzahn reports that having studied design at Penn State University, Kidd was inspired by a professor to avoid redundancy within his work. The particular example given describes the instructor drawing an apple on the board and then writing “apple” underneath it. His point being that as a designer, it is vital to not overstate one’s intended message. Such an approach inspires me because it forces the designer to think outside of the box, and to figure out different ways to show meaning. As a linguistics major and design minor, I am fascinated by the many ways we communicate, and look to combine both verbal and visual language in my own art. Kidd’s work successfully achieves that balance and therefore is a designer who sets an excellent example for me. The ability to portray such harmony lends itself to an ability to concisely
depict a message. Since there is so much information that we are exposed to every day, it is important that the design is interesting without becoming redundant. Kidd does a phenomenal job with this, using funky type styles or gripping type placement, so much so that I am helplessly drawn to take a closer look. I particularly appreciate his whimsical typographic use for book covers. In this case, we can judge a book by its cover because he aims to breakdown a motif, theme, or character that embodies the essence of the novel when designing the cover. Chip Kidd’s work will continue to inspire me to push myself when creating visual imagery. This is vital to me as a designer who is soon to graduate university and step into the professional world because it allows for an understanding of how design is looked at and what differentiates good design from bad design in this modern, ever-changing era.
Jessica Hische Written by Alexandra Nguyen
Jessica Hische is a young artist with a vivacious personality that can be seen in her unique and captivating work. While in college, Hirsche focused primarily on graphic design due to the fact that she couldn’t focus on any other work. And like most graphic designers, she became obsessive and dedicated to every design piece. Her artistic capabilities extend from illustration to graphic design, primarily typography. She built her career around freelance works but she argues that a monumental moment in her career was a project that gave her the name, “That Drop Cap Girl.” Her series of Drop Caps is extensive and overwhelming impressive. Her Drop Cap series are especially interesting because they demonstrate Hische’s incredible talent for turning something small and insignificant into an elegant and exciting masterpiece. Different Drop Cap projects that she has done include: Penguin Drop Caps and Daily Drop Caps. Each set are completely separate and different from each other except for the fact that they both deal with the twenty-six letters from the alphabet. Looking specifically at Hische’s Penguin Drop Caps, one can see her innate ability to elegantly display type in a bold and vibrant way. The Penguin Drop Cap series is made up of twenty-six books, and each book is designated a specific literature. Then by the literature’s author, a letter is designated to that specific book. All the covers and type are in very bright and bold colors which one would originally think would clash with each
other. However, Hische somehow was able to choose very different and bright colors to compliment each other while simultaneously unifying all the books in the series together. Hische also designed the Daily Drop Caps. This series is currently made up of twelve different alphabets. She began the project in September of 2009 in which she illustrated a decorative letter every day. Although all the alphabets seem to be unified through color schemes and her specific style, every letter is completely different from one another. She seems to have an endless talent to keep creating new and different ideas for forms that are reproduced over and over again. Hische uses many different forms in imaginative methods that seem a little unconventional but work perfectly. One letter that stands out from the rest is her use of a sunflower and a leaf for the letter “Q.â€? She does not keep to one style or form in which her alphabets never seem repetitive or boring. While maintaining steady freelancing projects, Jessica Hische is able to produce many side projects as well. She has a blog in which she frequently posts large amounts of work. Her blog depicts that she is constantly thinking and creating more ideas. She never rests because she loves her work and loves creating it. To have the ability to be able to constantly produce work without even being told to do so is an unique trait. The blog not only has her trivial thoughts, but also contains her thought processes in a thought-provoking visual manner.Â
Marian Bantjes Written by Allison DeJulius
Marian Bantjes is a Canadian artist known for the incredible intricacy in her work. Using a combination of extremely precise vector work and extraordinarily impressive hand work, she creates pieces that draw you in. Ornamental, patterned, and full of layers, her art often resembles a puzzle or optical illusion. Marian’s work utilizes a beautiful, organic fluidity, while still maintaining a form and structure, allowing her pieces to be both unruly and methodical. Her focus on the ethereal and love of surprise bring a sense of whimsy to her work. Her unique outlook mirrors her unique story. Marian started work in the visual communication field in 1983 and was a book typesetter for 10 years. From 1994 to 2003, she served as a partner and senior designer at Digitopolis in Vancouver. She was highly successful there and was responsible for forming the “identity” of many organizations, thus becoming well-known and highly regarded within the graphic design world. After 20 years in graphic design, Marian left her firm and began working internationally from her home-studio on Bowen Island off the west coast of Canada, near Vancouver. Although she could be called a typographer, illustrator, designer, or even writer, she has taken to describing herself as a “Graphic Artist”, stating, “where my work as a graphic designer was to follow strategy, my work now follows my heart and my interests with the guidance of my ego, to create work that is mutually beneficial to myself and the client.”
With this life change, came a shift in her art. She began doing work that was more personal and detailed, as well as more unusual. Ironically, her escape from the grid, resulted in her heightened success. Throughout this shift, she began writing for a design blog called “Speak Up”, and gained notice in the blogosphere for her insightful and endearing posts. The work that she deemed “personal” was swiftly becoming the work for which she is now renowned. It took that change in her surroundings and lifestyle to spark her style and find her true passions. One project that she really attached herself to was making “Valentines”. She started designing and sending them out in 2005 and they evolve greatly every year. For the first couple years, they were single images. Then she experimented with hand-drawing them, and later with laser cutting old Christmas cards . She sends them out to friends and family, as well as companies and colleagues. Her focus shifted to answering the question: “What is worthwhile?” That is, what is worth the spending of her time and energy? Although she admits that sometimes she is motivated by money, she also tries to focus more on the people she works with, as well as the audience she reaches with her art. Her custom type work, use of strange materials, unprecedented level of ornament, and highly introspective approach, sets Marian apart and has given her international acclaim as a top-notch visual designer, or more importantly, a world-class Graphic Artist.
Modern Masters
chapter four
Chip Kidd’s Design Philosophy Written by Dyllan Fernandez
Chip Kidd has carved out quite a niche for himself in the design industry. Unlike many of the others featured in this volume, Kidd is not primarily known for his typography (though it is generally both clever and impeccable); he rose to fame as one of the preeminent designers of book covers. If you have set foot in a bookstore or library in the past twentyfive years, you have inevitable experienced Kidd’s designs first hand. He has created many hundreds of book covers for the likes of James Elroy, David Sedaris, Michael Crichton, and numerous more. His designs are unique, clever, daring, and eye-catching. He pushes the boundaries of acceptable design, usually to great effect. This is not so much the result of being some sort of design rebel, in fact, it boils down to the very basics of design and answering the question “What does the story look like?” Kidd, in describing one of the first and most central realizations he made when he first started creating book covers for Knopf says that his job boils down to answering the question: “What do the stories look like?” In answering that question, he is able to answer the design problem of a clever and successful cover as well. The cover art (and with Kidd, it truly is art) should reflect the content in a way that tells the reader what is really inside, and engages the reader enough to want to read it. One of his most famous designs is the cover to Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. It features the now-iconic graphic image of a T-Rex skeleton with
some typography “thrown on” which is “slightly suggestive of public park signage.”1 This approach makes his designs revolutionary in that they are obviously quite effective, (after all, that skeleton became so popular it was used as the logo for both the film and the fictional park within the film) while operating on a sub-surface level. One of the more striking aspects of Kidd’s designs is his willingness to break the rules of design in ways that serve to make the book more dynamic and interesting and that reflect the content in original ways. He has made books with transparent jackets, books with partial jackets, books that look wet or dirty, and more. Even his own book of collected work has only half a cover. One of the first Chip Kidd covers that made me stop and wonder who had created it was his cover to Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight… series. Each cover features an extreme close up of The Batman as almost unintelligible shapes looming over small close ups of supporting characters with, finally, the title in simple sansserif font across the bottom third. It is striking and different from the way comics are packaged but it emphasizes the closeness of the narrative and the scrutinization of The Batman’s character. Chip Kidd’s fearlessness in design brides the gap between the author and the reader in new and exciting ways, an approach that endears him to most every famous author he works for. Neil Gaiman, whose inspirational speech on turning hardship into art was made into a book in collaboration with Kidd, sums this up nicely: Chip Kidd took my MAKE GOOD ART speech and made it into a piece of art in its own right. Along the way he committed, joyfully and
intentionally, every design “mistake� he wanted to, and it all adds up to something wonderful, beautiful and, I think, helpful2. It is this quality which has contributed most to Kidd’s impressive rise to stardom as the rock star of graphic design.
Kenya Hara Written by Alli Nakamura
Kenya Hara is a Japanese designer who embodies a range of skills but tends to focus on objects and experiences. He is currently the Art Director of MUJI and the man behind the ‘design think tank’, Hara Design Institute. Hara is also professor of the science of design at Tokyo’s Musashino Art University and a curator of numerous international exhibits. What I love most about Hara’s philosophy is “the importance of emptiness”. His minimalistic style conveys a fragile aesthetic of functional and elegant design. Hara’s designs explore the experience of its users and the layers of human perception. I admire Hara for his minimalistic style because while it may appear to be ‘plain and simple’, he keeps it interesting and functional. Hara Design Institute is a group of 20 designers, including Kenya Hara, who work together to strategically visualize an idea through research and observation of the problem to be solved. I love the structure of the team dynamic. Bringing together minds to brainstorm allows for a variety of perspectives and ideas for solutions. Their process of observing people in order to discover new problems ensures an up to date solution for the fast pace evolution of technology and user experience. Hara Design Institute covers projects from branding and advertising to product, packing, and experience. The MUJI 2009 “Like Water” Campaign was an advertising project where MUJI hoped to be like water, a brand that ‘consoles and enriches peoples lives’. Hara says MUJI is neither ‘glamorous like liquor, nor alluring like perfume.’ MUJI’s products are modern and sleek yet
humble and practical. I just bought a few pens and a cardholder while in New York at the MUJI store. Walking into the store was an experience in itself. The New York streets were chaotic with the hustle and bustle of city sounds and shoulder bumping rush hour. As soon as I walk into the MUJI store I am met with classical music, floral aroma fragrance, and an open organized space of products. The experience was calming and my mind was able to slow down and interact with the environment. It sounds silly but with the pens I bought, its exciting to write and draw, my experience is enriched because of the clean lines and low center gravity designed mechanical pencil. Taking an everyday tool that people usually don’t acknowledge as design and turning it into an experience is inspiring. The entire shopping experience in the MUJI store was simple Nothing too flashy or in your face but it was respectable quality. It didn’t try to be more than it was. The products were relatable, they seemed practical and I felt like I needed to buy everything in the store to improve my user experience in my daily routine. Kenya Hara is a man of open senses, he is aware of his surroundings and the purpose of design in the world. He is simple and sophisticated. There is depth to his thoughts and construct of ‘empty space’. His finesse is strong with absence. His process is creative through strategy and observation. I hope one day I will be able to effectively clean up the clutter in my design. I strive to understand the importance of emptiness as Kenya Hara utilizes it for a memorable experience.
Paula Scher Written by Sandy Y. Tsai
Paula Scher is known for her influential work in typographic styles and identity design. Her career began in the 1970s and 80s when she first began designing album covers, teaching herself design by experimenting and combining different styles such as Victorian, art nouveau, art deco, or pop. She was driven by her repulsion of Helvetica, the “boring, fascist, clean, and repressive” typeface that gave her passion to create anything that wasn’t Helvetica. That was the passion that drove Scher to defy the popular design style at the time. She approached her work with a childlike gambling mentality that gave her the ability to use type in a way that had never been done before. She started influencing others when she created the identity for the Public Theatre and designed all of their graphics. Her work for the Public Theatre can be described as “loud, visible, and urban”; it was about the words and used type as image instead of just text. The work she designed for the “Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk” campaign utilized this style to make noise-using type. The type flows and jumps up and down with its different sizes, proportions, and directions, creating such depth and movement that it emulates music. Her work was so popular and influential that it became the style of New York City. Scher’s style of using type as image and creating loud patterns with letters was seen everywhere in the city. Scher describes it
as a “moment of serious play”, when her intuition to use type as image led her to create something that challenged our convention of using type. Unfortunately, she also felt that her work suddenly became so popular that it somehow became a rule and an expectation. Paula Scher thrives on the opposite of rules, conventions and fulfilling expectations. She did her best work when she was “totally and completely unqualified for the job,” like when she designed environmental graphics for The New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Scher placed signage on floors that ran across the walls, reflecting the performative aura of the building. In the new territory of designing graphics for interior space she was able to use type in new ways again. Scher has also designed identity systems for various well known institutions such as the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, and Museum of Modern Art. Scher describes her work as intuition that comes to her in a single moment. Her now worldwide logo for CitiGroup best showcases her ability to integrate intelligence with succinct design, combining an umbrella into the “t” of Citi. This now well-told story is known as the idea that Scher drew on a napkin in a first meeting. She describes her best work as those that she approached with no education of that area of design. Paula Scher says that she lives for the moments she thinks something is going to be the best thing she ever did, and that led to fresh and unconventional typographic illustrations.
Matthew Carter Written by Elena Russell
Matthew Carter, son of English typographer Harry Carter, was born in London in 1937. Before attending Oxford University, 19-year old Carter trained at a type foundry in the Netherlands under type master P.H. Raedisch, who taught him the art of punch cutting. Punch cutting is a form of traditional typography in which letter punches are cut in steel to make a cast. As a designer, this put Carter ahead, as most type designers did not actually have the skill of traditional cutting. For the next several years, Carter practiced his design by freelancing throughout London. His jobs included those of sign painting and lettering. They sharpened his skills until he was soon hired by Crosfield Electronics as typographic advisor. This was the agent for Lumitype fonts, giving Carter the opportunity to work with the head of the type drawing office, Adrian Frutiger, at Deberny and Peinot. Carter moved to New York in 1965 to work in the office of Mergenthaler Linotype. There, he created his famous Snell Roundhand script. Upon returning to his freelance job at Linotype in London, he produced a series of works that included the Galliard type family and Bell Centennial, which would be used for AT&T telephone directories. Once the need for traditional typography declined in the market, Carter recognized the need for a new business model, and founded a digital type foundry called Bitstream Inc, with fellow colleagues. With a desire to
focus more on the creative, less technical side of type, he founded Carter & Cone in 1991 with Cherie Cone ten years later. This agency became grounded on the creation of custom type solutions for a global clientele. The first opportunity with Microsoft for Carter came in 1994 when he developed the Verdana design. Verdana was a san serif typeface created specifically for digital use, in a time when the computer was beginning to populate American households. This first endeavor led to his creation of more fonts for on screen use, including Georgia and Tahoma type families. Georgia is a serif typeface and Tahoma is another sans serif. All of these creations reflect Carter’s goal to improve types aesthetic and readability. Outside of his work with Microsoft, Carter has contributed to the ClearType Japanese Meiryo project, as well as type designs for the Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic, and Devanagari writing systems. His foundry created custom fonts for multiple clients in the corporate world, including The New York Times, Boston Globe, Time, Wired, The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Sports Illustrated, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Business Week, Yale University, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center. Today, Carter continues to practice his ability to create typefaces that are highly valued in function, distinction, and beauty. He continues to contribute toward the development in successful design and typography through his involvement on many boards and multiple organizations. He has received a number of awards for his innovation, and is currently the senior critic on Yale’s graphic design faculty.
Zuzana Licko Written by Colin O’Shea
Zuzana Licko was born in Czechoslovakia in 1961 while it was under communist rule. She emigrated to the United States shortly after at a young age. Although Zuzana has said that she does not remember much of her life in Europe she has said the emigration has kept her always questioning. Zuzana attended the University of California at Berkley starting out as an architecture student and changing to graphic design. She was enamored with typography as an illustration and started to learn computer graphics in school right when the computer became a factor in typography. Zuzana met another designer who was at the UC graduate school and who was from Holland, Rudy Vanderlans. They married shortly after and became partners for a side project that Rudy started. Émigré magazine started as a cultural journal to showcase artists, poets, and architects. Zuzana began contributing as the type designer for the magazine where she began making and constructing types for the magazine. The group did not have much access to different types since the technology was still new and limited. This lack of creativity made Zuzana have to try and make these new typefaces. To accommodate for the low-resolution printer she created typefaces, Emporer, Oakland, and Émigré for the magazine. These typefaces quickly became popular and inquired about from the public. As Émigré was growing as a magazine/journal Zuzana began editing screen fonts for Adobe and Vanderlans was designing more magazines.
But they kept Émigré going as a side project developing new fonts and designs. Zuzana created more geometric shapes for typefaces such as Matrix and Modula. Émigré became a magazine that presented designers and designs that went against the established norms of the design world. Using their own fonts they became enough of a success where the two could focus solely on Émigré. The constant theme of change and risktaking were key proponents to Émigré’s design and Zuzana’s fonts. She continued to design new edgy fonts that incorporated and reacted to the traditional rules. But she says she almost always designs on the computer a nod to the technological influx that she was molding into. Zuzana has criticisms about her fonts but she never let criticisms get in the way of inspiration, “To be perfectly honest, I didn’t pay that much attention to it. It was amazing to see some of the reactions. I was flattered by even the negative commentary, especially when it came from the establishment. Just the fact that they were paying attention meant something. I think the reason it didn’t get me down is that designers kept buying our fonts.” She has also made several new fonts based on traditional fonts such as Mrs. Eaves, a font made from Baskerville. She has continued to use guidelines and boundaries as a means of inspiration for creating new fonts as reactions to the boundaries. Zuzana Licko is quite a successful typographer and has made many meaningful typefaces. She as well has established a very successful magazine with her husband and has done so as a woman and immigrant in a field more dominant by males. She is an inspiration for her creative thought and typographic designs.
Designer Mayhem
chapter five
David Carson Written by GianCarlo Aguilar
David Carson was one of the most influential graphic designers of the 1990’s. Also known as the “Grunge Typographer,” Carson’s work demanded careful attention from the reader. He challenged the traditional legible-and-readable use of type by using letters as art forms rather than just as parts of a word. His radical use of typography has influenced the way in which graphic designers of our time view and use type. His first exposure to graphic design did not take place until he was 26, at the University of Arizona. His creative pursuits led him to a 3-week workshop for graphic design in Switzerland, were he met his first greatest influence, Hans-Rudolf Lutz. Shortly after, he began to work in publishing, on magazines, were he became famous for his layouts and unconventional use of typography. Ray Gun, an alternative music and lifestyle magazine is what Carson is most remembered for. His personality, particularly his humor, can be seen in his work. In one issue for Ray Gun, he used Dingbat as a font for what he considered to be a mundane interview with Bryan Ferry. Three years after starting at Ray Gun, he left to start his own design studio, David Carson Design. When looking at his work, you begin to see the creative mind behind it, one that is funny, clever, original, and challenging. In an interview, Carson’s advice to young designers is to “experiment, have some fun. Put yourself into the work.” We can see that Carson is living out his
own advice. What I find interesting about his work is that it requires high attention from the viewer. One cannot always simply glance at his work and understand the message that he is communicating. What is important to note is that his works do have a message; they are not merely letters thrown onto a page, they have meaning. One can feel a sense of accomplishment when successfully decoding his work. Needless to say, his style is unique; “widely imitated, but never matched.” David Carson’s work was avant-garde for its time. Due to his influence, designers have begun to challenge the conventional use of type. David Carson can be an inspiration to all, not just designers. After reading an interview with him, his last piece of advice that he always gives is this: “… remember the definition of a good job: If you could afford to, if money wasn’t an issue, would you do the same work? If you would, you’ve got a great job! If you wouldn’t, what’s the point? You’re going to be dead a long time. So find that thing, whatever it is, that you love doing, and enjoy going to work for, and not watch the clock or wait for weekends and holidays.”
Edward Fella Written by Michelle Armstrong
Edward Fella is an artist and graphic designer whose art focuses on the postmodernist concept of deconstruction. Fella graduated from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1987 after having a career for over 30 years as a commercial artist in Detroit for automotive and healthcare clients. He is now a faculty member at CalArts and has become heavily influential in the design world with his hand-drawn typography. He believes the unique drawing and typography aesthetics he has developed are an “unconscious discharge” of all the artistic forms and styles he used during his years as an advertiser. Fella’s key work focuses on lettering and typography and his type styles have been called “American Folk Art Typography.” He is most noted for creating the typeset called “Outwest,” which he drew by hand.” However, Fella is not the typical graphic designer. Fella practices what he calls “exit-level design,” in which he turns design into art by deconstructing it. He uses the forms from graphic design, decorative illustration, and lettering and mixes them all together to create his own style. This combination of design and illustration makes him a “design illustrator.” By deconstructing design and violating all the basic rules of what is considered “good design,” his hand-drawn typographic work creates ambiguity, multiple meanings, and visual puns. Fella, himself, refers to his work as “stylistically getting it wrong;” however, he strongly believes that “anything can be made into anything.”
One element that makes Fella stand out among many modern graphic designers is the obvious touch of his hand in both his illustrations and his typographic designs. All his lettering is hand-drawn and carefully crafted with color pencil, watercolor, or ink. Whether the letterforms are soft and flowing and wave-like, aggressive and sketchy, or strong and bold, Fella’s hand is clearly always present. His letters may at first appear casual and spontaneous, but this spontaneity creates work that is filled with energy, power, and excitement. His use of hand-drawn type styles at once contribute to create this spontaneity and energy; however through the use of juxtaposition of varying type styles, incorporation of illustrations to create font, and through the use of strong and bright colors such as red, blue, yellow, green and orange, a sense of power and raw energy is born within his design. By choosing to use bright and bold colors and by drawing whimsical yet intricately detailed letter shapes, Fella creates a balance between order and chaos. Nevertheless, despite their chaotic nature and contradictory elements Fella’s words flow logically and his letters are surprisingly readable. The contradictions and illustrations help to pull the viewers eyes through out the piece and make his work fun and engaging to view. Fella’s work’ are explorations of what design can be and are obsession to minute details. His design is about deconstructing and breaking down all the current accepted rules, creating new rules, and rebuilding the world of design. Though this deconstruction and chaotic hand-drawn art he creates fun, entertaining, and inviting works.
Mike Perry Written by Joy Park
Fully equipped with his mountain-man beard and circular spectacles, Mike Perry resembles a modern day Moses-gone-whimsical. And although we’re taught not to judge a book by its cover, in this case we will permit it. After all, Mike Perry is a king when understanding and exploiting the power of making a first impression when it comes to his design work. Mike Perry is graphic designer living in Brooklyn, who is devoted to the impact of the hand-drawn in the visual culture. He grew up in Missouri, and started drawing when he was four. Since graduating from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a degree in graphic design, Perry moved out to work on the east coast. And in 2006, he opened his very own studio. He has worked in a variety of mediums, including magazines, books, newspapers, clothing, painting, drawing and illustration, and his client list includes the New York Times, Nike, Urban Outfitters, Target, Apple and more. True to his appearance, Perry’s work has a whimsical, cartoon-like quality, with color exploding out of every nook and cranny. He works extensively with drawings and type, and the combinations of the two. Almost everything is hand-drawn. What I like about Mike Perry’s work, outside its unique presence in a visually oversaturated society, is how he takes quirky shapes and simple line drawings to create elaborate,
interesting artwork, whether it is an alphabet or a poster. Just merely by layering, resizing and coloring, Mike Perry turns a simple pen squiggle into, not just one, but many masterpieces. My first impression of Mike Perry was of shock. Perry published a book on hand rendered type, and the plastered on the cover is its title, Hand Job. A clever pun that stunned his publisher into almost not taking his book. The book was a huge success. It contains a catalog of other wellknown graphic designers who create and use hand drawn lettering, as well as displaying a milieu of the beautiful type itself. I couldn’t stop leafing through it. After Hand Job, Mike Perry published three more books, Over and Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns, Iron Me On, and Pulled: A Catalog on Screen Printing. He also self-publishes his magazine, Untitled. Each book focuses on a smaller piece of the pie, but ultimately they all reflect Perry’s belief in the power of making and being a part of the tangible process of producing an object. It’s refreshing to experience typography still done by hand because of the digital, computer-generated nature of graphics today. There is almost a thirstiness and desire in our society now to return to crafts and its imperfections. Expanding far beyond the world of design and typography, a trend away from, not against, the miracles of technology is picking up speed. It’s a part of the reason why Mike Perry is so successful; major corporations and businesses see the appeal and visual vitality of Perry’s offbeat work. I certainly do.
“Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphy - like anything that lends its grace to language typoraphy is an art that can be deliberately misused. It is a craft by which the meanings of a text, or its absence or meaning, can be clarified, honored and shared, or knowlingly disguised. This book exists to honor clarity” - Robert Bringhurst
“A classic in it’s field” - Library Journal
Roski Design Press ISBN 0-38105-332-3 $39.95 US / $49.95 Canada