Typeradio Podcast

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 a

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 t

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 typograp

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.

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

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. Typon

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 ::

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 Niki

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 inte

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 :

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

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 ::

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

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

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

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 tr