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Jonathan Barnbrook

Questioning Artists

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BiographyEducationTypographyTypeface DesignThe Political Role of DesignAdbustersDamien HirstDavid BowieCommercial WorkInspiration/Influences

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Jonathan BarnbrookBorn 1966, Luton, UK

Lives and works in London, UK

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ince graduating in with distinction in graphic design from Saint Martin’s School of Art and

the Royal College of Art in London, Jonathan Barnbrook has developed a multifaceted practice that includes activism, graphic design, typeface design, industrial design and motion graphics. Barnbrook founded his design studio, Barnbrook Design in 1990. His typefaces were originally released through Californian innovators Emigre. In 2010, his most famous typeface ‘Mason’ released by Emigre became one of the first digital acquisitions of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Additionally his stone-carving is on permanent display of the 20th century gallery in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1997 he established his own font company VirusFonts, releasing well-known fonts such as ‘Bastard’ and ‘Tourette’. In 2007, his contribution to Briish graphic design was recognised with a major retrospective exhibition at the Design Museum in London entitled ‘Friendly Fire’. A monograph of his work ‘Barnbrook Bible’ was simultaneously published by Booth-Clibborn Editions. In 2008 he was given an honorary doctorate by Staffordshire University for services to typography. During 2009, the exhibition ‘Collateral Damage’ presented a retrospective of Jonathan Barnbrook’s more political design output, and travelled to multiple countries including France, Slovenia and Croatia. Barnbrook believes design shapes the environment, changing the way we perceive things and informing our choices. In this sense, design is a ‘culturally valid form of expression’ with something to say. He also stated that he believes ‘design can change the world when it works in service of the right people and gets an issue on the mainstream political agenda’.

In marking this responsibility, Barnbrook has art directed for the anti-corporate collective Adbusters. He participated in the First Things First 2000 Manifesto published in 1999, signed by graphic designers, students and photographers who proposed a reversal of priorities in the way graphic design was used commercially. He created a billboard in 2001 entitled ‘Designers, stay away from corporations that want you to lie for them’, quoting influential American graphic designer Tibor Kalman publicising the manifesto. Barnbrook has also produced many copyright-free designs for political or social justice purposes. Barnbrook has worked with a variety of clientele, from artists to selected commercial and non-commercial clients. He created complete graphic identities for major cultural institutions including the Mori Arts Center, Tokyo and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and has undertaken branding for the 17th Biennale of Sydney. He designed Noam Chomsky’s book cover, ‘Doctrines and Visions’ (2005), David Bowie’s record cover ‘Heathen’ (2002) and collaborated with artist Damien Hirst on his collectable monograph, ‘I Want To Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now.’ (1997). Which won a series of awards including the Art Directors Club of New York Gold Prize. The Tokyo Type Directors Club Non-Members Grand Prize. New York Type Directors Club, best in show. For his film work he has won two D&AD Awards, the Epica Grand Prix. Barnbrook was selected in the 10th Istanbul Biennale in 2007 and was an exhibiting artist at the 17th Biennale of Sydney.

Biography

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Jonathan Barnbrook is a British graphic designer, film maker and typographer

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DesignerProductLondon

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that’s a of the

schools

Jonathan Barnbrook

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Why did you start designing?

People do things for the most tenuous of reasons. I think my art teacher said I should, so I did, which seems a silly reason but recently I found all my old school books and I was intrigued by all the graffiti on the front of them. It was the time of Punk and New Wave, I wrote the names of the bands I liked on the covers of my book. Only I had copied all the typefaces perfectly for the band’s logo. It seemed that it was really important for me to get this right - so there was an instinctive thing about wanting to do letter design already there. Looking back I saw it was because the typestyle of the band’s name expressed the ideology and the atmosphere of the band’s music so I was obviously sensitive to that and that is often the same job I am required to do in my work as a designer.

Where did you study?

When somebody comes to see me I never ask what college they have been to, I believe this question is unfair, I am just interested in what sort of work they have finally produced. For the purposes of completion though he were go: I spent 8 years at college. I started studying from the age of 16. 2 years doing a BTEC diploma in Graphic in Luton at Barnfield College (1982–84), 1 year at Croydon College doing a Higher Diploma (1984-85), 3 years doing a BA in Graphic Design at Central/St. Martins (1985–88) and finally 2 years doing an MA in graphics at the Royal College of Art (1988–90), London. Also I received an honorary doctorate in typography from Staffordshire University.

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Why did you go on your own straight from college?

When I was educated it was the middle of the 80s and the designers that the tutors tried to push us towards were really successful such as Fitch and Michael Peters. They were utterly boring to me, the work they did had nothing to do with my life experience. It was all created in the service of marketing, design was a commodity just like anything else. There were no discussions about cultural value or originality. So I felt I had to go on my own because I just couldn’t work that way. It meant that I spent as long a time as possible at college (education was free then). I thought it far better that I should spend time experimenting and then compromise once I left. Of course it turned out differently, people came to me because they wanted to commission the kind of work they saw in my portfolio, its always important for student to remember that clients tend to only commission what they know they want. When I did leave I decided I wouldn’t ask for much from life, just enough money to survive. If I got to do my own work that would be OK so I did that, I didn’t get much work for the first six months but I survived and now I am glad that was the way I did it because I could have got easily distracted by working at a company I didn’t want to work for.

What is the make up of your studio now?

The number varies, there are two permanent members of design staff. We also have working on a freelance basis Marcus Lies Allion a tutor and fantastic font designer who runs his own Undt font foundry. There is now also a business and production person to make sure we are organised and efficient and er.. that’s it. People are often surprised that there are so few of us – they imagine a huge bank of designers all working away, I hope it shows it is possible to influence without having a heavy structure. Influence comes from the difference of intellectual input and doing a job well, not the publicity you put out.

Education

“I could have got easily distracted by working at a company I didn’t want to work for”

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Why is typography important?

It is one of the basic building blocks of design. You can’t be a good graphic designer without a thorough knowledge of typography. So those students reading this who say they find typography boring should look at changing their career.

What makes a good typographer?

Absolutely it is about attention to detail first, that is what separates good typographers and designers from the average ones. It’s how you can aid proper comprehension of information, not how pretty you can make something look. Its very easy to see if someone is a good typographer because when they send you their portfolio they will have cared about how they have set their contact details and crafted the captions. You will be surprised about the amount of students who don’t even know how to use basic punctuation, which is essential if you are a typographer.

Do you hate Helvetica?

When I was younger I had a problem with it, but then I thought I was fighting some kind of battle with Modernism, it seemed such a dull way to interpret the world. Modernism, from being a socialist/utopian-based movement had become the opposite, in with the capitalists. That battle is kind of over now though which is both good and bad. It’s actually very difficult today to be certain about anything. I am surprised that it doesn’t result in more design paralysis when I sit down and work. Wait… actually I do hate Helvetica, I hate design groups who try and make something look ‘cool’ by using Helvetica light, its so boring. I also hate a phrase that a few of my art teachers used to say occasionally which was ‘when in doubt use Helvetica’ it is such a lifeless way of looking at typography. Of course I appreciate its role in design history and the drawing that went into the actual letterforms, but there is so much energy, culture and excitement in other fonts.

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Typography

What is the future of typography?

Well it is difficult to know where to stop when I think of the future, when people ask me this question because it is so open ended. Do people mean ten years? A thousand years?, A million? There is a conflict now between asserting national identity and communicating clearly internationally. As it becomes easier to create typefaces electronically, will cultures that have lost their written language now rediscover them? Will English still be the ‘international language’ or do we need a new international language based on Chinese? In the longer term, will we evolve into a new way of writing that can be sent quickly electronically? Technology has always affected the future of language from ancient wax tablets to the computer screen. Will choosing typefaces become almost superfluous because the same information has to be displayed on so many different technologies? Will another alphabet have the same number of characters in a thousand years time? Will people still use typefaces if they don’t use reading as a primary form of communication? Just to namedrop, I once asked William Burroughs to write a piece of text for a project I was doing at college. He never wrote the text but he was kind enough to invite me to meet him at a private view of his artworks and we had an interesting discussion about the future of typography. I asked him bout his feelings about typography and he said that he wasn’t interested in it because all words and representations of concepts, would be replaced by a system similar to Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that would be understood worldwide. Something which would naturally develop from the system of pictograms in airports or people’s experiencing and interacting international spaces.

How does a student learn to be a good typographer?

It’s a case of first being interested in the subject and wanting to find out about it. The principles of good typography have not changed since the beginning of printing and are universal across languages. They are to do with aiding legibility such correct work count, line length and understanding hierarchy of information. Its not difficult to find the information, then only by actually doing it you will you know what is good and bad. So I would say learn the rules of good basic text setting, then start with the experimental work after you have done this. It sounds silly I know – yes you must have passion and a desire to change things – but you also must have knowledge of the rules to rebel against. Almost as important is a critical awareness, knowledge of where you are placed within your discipline and history. If you learn these three things they will provide at least the parameters with which to understand the complexities of typography and produce work which can be innovative.

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What is the process of producing a typeface?

I usually sketch things roughly in my notebook. These drawings are not very exact; the sketches come from either an idea or concept I have had or some interesting lettering I have seen. I then sit at the computer and refer to the drawing, it is very important that the drawing is ‘out of focus’ to get just the essence right, the computer does the refining. This means the first time I output something it looks terrible, the twentieth time it might look OK and then it sort of builds from there. Of course while you are doing this there all the intellectual process going on. One of the most important is how to subvert the history of typography within the drawing or concept. That may sound pretentious, but there are issues about making a letter look badly drawn, to give it a subversive edge or to reference a moment of typography history. If you don’t have these thoughts – about what exactly the critical position is of your work – then you are going to be fishing around much more trying to come up with something. I am not that interested in historical accuracy which might surprise some people, my fonts are about an emotional feeling you get from a time period or ideology. A synthesis of many different things defined by the time you are working in. Drawing a typeface is a very painful process, not just in the endless refining but also just the sheer amount of time it takes, you are talking many months for a text font, so it can be pretty daunting. My advice, just start with a few useful letters that you will use for a project and don’t get caught up in drawing a whole font unless its really, really necessary as it is not always the best use of your time.

You seem to put a lot of emphasis on the name of a typeface, why is this?

It is very important, in the past a typeface would take years so it was almost a life’s work. Therefore people would often use their surname. There was also the ‘Letraset’ school of naming which was to name after a visual pun to do with the typeface. Technology has changed the time taken and access for producing typefaces so it can be done be individuals on a much quicker timescale. I suppose I see it as a cross between naming a pop song and a painting. The name can be throwaway; last for a moment, but it can also have many different layers. The name ‘Bastard’ for instance I thought about a lot. The typeface is a blackletter (or gothic) font. It has strong associations with Fascism. It would have been silly to ignore this, even though blackletter has a large place in the history of typography, most people would associate it with the Nazis so it was a chance to almost ‘laugh’ at that. But if you bother to look further into the name, you will know that there is a 14–15th Century form of blackletter called ‘Bastarda’ or that putting the ‘wrong font’ in a piece of letterpress setting is called ‘bastard type’. All I am trying to say is that naming a font is incredibly important. There is a tension there, which can be played with.

QuestionsAbout

“Drawing a typeface is very painful process, not just in the endless refining but also just sheer amount of time it takes”

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Typeface Design

How would you recommend that people learn about typography?

Pressurise their tutors to teach it or go to the library and learn about it yourself, I do get quite annoyed with students who expect this kind of thing to be given to them, passive people are not good designers. The best designers will naturally learn everything about a subject because they are interested in it. Your library may have useful books – the important thing is to stick at it – as your work will benefit because of it. If your not really interested you’re not going to explore the subject in any depth.

Will I get rich by designing fonts?

If you are lucky and design a font for a big corporation you will, but if you are interested in doing experimental work it is unlikely. I wouldn’t advise anybody to work in graphics just for the money.

“I am not that interested in historical accuracy which might surprise some people”

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Do you think graphic design or typography has a political role to play in society?

Well my first reaction is surprise, as politics seems to have been almost completely taken out of the equation of what constitutes graphic design. I would like to say this very simply: graphic design is not just about marketing, it is not just an industry, it is a powerful tool of mass-communication, giving you the potential to communicate what you believe in to an huge amount of people. Unfortunately there are plenty of designers who say that everything has to be framed within the market economy, that things are ‘indulgent’ if they do anything else. This is utter, utter rubbish – design does not just serve the market economy – this is an imposed political ideal based on abstract idea called ‘profit’, not human need. If people want to show their own human responses in their work they should do so. I find that the people who often complain most about ‘indulgent’ design are jealous that they don’t get to do that kind of work, or are completely blind to the value of it. These com-plainers today are the ones who are taking a little bit of that extreme design and tweaking their packaging designs to give them a ‘fresh’ look tomorrow. When I teach at colleges the first thing I usually say is forget about the idea of producing a portfolio to get a ‘job’. It is far more important to do the work that you are excited by, not work that you feel you should do. The work you want to do will attract more of the work you want to do. I received an e-mail from a student the other day asking how they should tackle a certain project. I wrote back saying the first thing they should do is talk to the tutor about the fact that the project did not relate in any way to their view of the world or what they wanted from their education.

Political role of design

There are plenty of designers who claim that they are ‘politically correct’ they rant about corporations yet they seem very happy to take the money from them and not modify the way they live outside their design work. Are you one of these people? For in-stance do you do charity work? Do you have a large car? Do you turn down work from companies that you don’t agree with?

I have said many times that I don’t believe your work is separate from your life, it’s part of it, so I regard what I do in design as an extension of my philosophy in the way I live my life rather than the other way around. So in short, although I am not perfect I do try to practice what I preach. We don’t work with companies we don’t agree with, which has cost us a lot of money. I live in a modest flat and get to work by bicycle or subway, I don’t have a car because I don’t want to make the world a worse place with it. We do charity work, but not as often as we would like. We often contact charities that we would like to work with because it doesn’t happen as often as it should. I also try and consume responsibly, which is a pain for the people around me when I can’t just go to Starbucks or drink Coca-Cola when it is offered, but I think its worth the effort as it does make a difference. So what we say is not a pose to get more publicity or anything like that, if anything it creates a lot of problems because many clients do not like de-signers with opinions. Regarding the political correct-ness, there are occasions when it has gone to far, for the most part though people who dismiss it are too lazy to modify or think about others they may offend or harm with what they say. We should be careful and not lump positive attempts to redress imbalance in society in with a term that has become shorthand for dismissing anything that takes a bit of effort.

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AdbustersQuestionsAbout

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Tell us about about Adbusters.

Adbusters is a bi-monthly magazine edited by Kalle Lasn based in Canada, they are an anti-advertising publication and website that seeks to expose the harm that advertising and large corporations do to us. Well actually it’s more than that, the best thing is for people to check the website at www.adbusters.org to see what they do. Adbusters is about a return to humanity.

How often do you work with them?

I wish I had more time to work with them but I am busy with commissioned projects, however usually I use any spare time I have to think about things to do for them. It is one the few things I do which I truly, truly think is worthwhile. I am happy to say though they have a great art director working for them. His name is Pedro Inoue, I know he is great because he used to work in this studio and we had a great partnership together for the political works.

What was the point of signing the First things First Manifesto ?

Adbusters reissued the First things First manifesto in 1999, originally written by Ken Garland it asked designers to question the value of the work they do and who they work for. Of all the things I have done it’s generates the most questions, usually prompted by absolute cynicism about why it was released. I think the most important thing to realise is that a manifesto is a starting point, a statement of intention. Nobody was expecting to change the world with it, what we did want to do though was get people to discuss where graphic design was heading, and to do it in the mainstream design press. I think that it achieved this very successfully, particularly in the USA where this discussion had been completely marginalised when designers became all starry-eyed about working for the new ‘cool’ multinationals.

One aspect that did disappoint me was that the people who signed it didn’t take it any further as a group after. I do think we could have got a lot of momentum going because it was widely discussed. What we could have achieved I don’t know but it was certainly more than just writing a manifesto.

Adbusters

“People who signed it didn’t take it any further”

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Tell us about the experience of working with the artist Damien Hirst

Over all it was a very positive experience. When I was first offered the first book I did with him ‘I want to spend…’ I thought both ‘This is great, because I love his work’ and also ‘God, it’s going to be a nightmare’ and it was in terms of stress caused by the production and schedule but not in terms with the relationship of working closely with someone else, I also had a very fun time.

What was your working relationship?

I think his working process as an artist is very similar to the way a graphic designer works – he doesn’t make the work himself, but comes up with the concepts and commissions the best people to do the work for him – a lot of people get hung up on the romantic idea of craft, because people pay a lot of money for a piece of art then they feel that hard physical work should go into it by the artist. But, be-cause he comes from popular culture like myself he doesn’t have this problem. So we both approached the book in a similar way; to communicate through a piece of mass media exactly what we wanted to say. He was very happy to let me have my role as the designer of the book and he didn’t interfere.

What did you try and do with the design of the book ?

This was a chance to try and reinvent the art book. It always surprised me how conservative artists’ monographs were – you are dealing with an artist’s representation of culture, of uniqueness – so why frame it in conventional design? There is an argument for saying that clean straight layout helps the work. I believe there is a possibility to tell the people more about the work by graphic manipulation because pretending a book is neutral is actually dishonest. It’s a representation of the artists works and as such is a filter and shows only one aspect. One major thing I was worried about was that most people do not read the text in art books despite what many writers would like to believe, so why not break it up so that people can digest it in small doses? Of course this is not appropriate for every art publication, but in the case of ones which are meant for the general public I think this solution is more valid. A lot of people have said they don’t like the pop-ups, these were Damien’s idea, and in the beginning I wasn’t sure about them but I remem-bered that Picasso had said that he spent most of his life trying to paint like a child, and although it is not directly connected. I think the pop-ups give the book a childlike playfulness, they say that art is not just an academic subject, but is also about simple fun. Incidentally it was a technical nightmare doing them, we ended up having to go the printers in Hong Kong to sort out all the technical problems. Normally you either do a pop-up book or a paper book, you don’t usually mix the two as you come up against problems such as making sure all the pages lie absolutely flat, so no other materials could be used such as metal clips. One of my favourite aspects of the book is social context that the artist is put in. There is a section

Damien HirstQuestionsAbout

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Damien Hirst

that shows the social impact that an artist has on mainstream society. There are examples of cartoons that have referred to Damien Hirst’s work or even where he was a clue in a crossword puzzle. It gives the feeling that an artist reacts to society and society reacts to the artist in a very immediate way.

Is there anything you would change about the book?

You do some work at a certain point in time and you go with what happens at the time without regret, it is an ‘event’ as much as anything else. So I don’t think so much about things like that too much but I wish we had made more of an attempt to explain the work directly on the page. I am not sure how much Damien would have liked this though, his work has many layers and part of my desire to be a designer comes from a need to communicate why something was done.

You have been very positive about Damien Hirst so far, be honest and tell us something you don’t like.

I suppose the whole ‘commercial’ thing makes me uncomfortable, that may sound strange coming from a graphic designer. Actually it is not just Damien, but a lot of young artists, you see them in adverts endors-ing products and it is something I always turn down, so there seems to a complete turnabout of what people normally expect. You could say that it is a good thing that artists are more visible but for me it is another example of how corporations are infiltrat-ing into absolutely every area of life. They hope there association with ‘culture’ gives what they do some added kudos. It seems to be all part of the fact that there is nowhere left to look anymore without seeing an advert or a piece of sponsorship. You are not sure anymore where the independent view begins and where the advertising message begins. Please don’t think I have a romantic idea about art being completely separate from commerce, it has been involved with art through the ages. It is just now at these circumstances that we live in, it is part of that bigger infiltration.

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How did you meet David Bowie?

I think it was through Damien Hirst, David Bowie phoned me up out of the blue and asked to pop around to our studio he knew Hirst and liked the work I was doing for him. I actually did a book for his wife Iman before I worked on his album covers. So I had various conversations with him already. I hope I am not gushing too much about him but he went completely beyond the call of duty for making an effort with me, invited me down to his rehearsal studio etc. and is always really respectful of my working process.

What was it like working with him

It was enjoyable and fascinating on many levels. People who love David Bowie’s music will be pleased to know that he is a perfect gentleman. He was very astute as to what was right for him and the audience. Completely unexpected is how self-deprecating and humorous he is. You would imagine with that much adulation in your life it could make you a difficult person to deal with but I think humour is his way of dealing with it. The actual process of working on it with him was relatively uncomplicated; of course I tried my absolute best as you feel that you are adding to music history when you design an album cover for somebody like Bowie. It was just that he treated me as an equal, listened to what I had to say and if he didn’t agree with what I had done he would say why. I wish others clients were that honest and straight with me.

David BowieQuestionsAbout

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David Bowie

And what was the result?

I think ‘Heathen’ is one of the nicest things I have done. it got the atmosphere of the music right and was something that made the world better for its presence. There were the other aspects after which I didn’t realise I would have to deal with, receiving letters from people who think they have lived parallel lives to him and want me to pass on letters to him or his contact details, neither of which I am prepared to do. Finally there was one obsessive who kept phoning the studio to ask if we were sending out messages about her and Bowie together in the design. It was a little scary. The phone calls thankfully ended after a couple of weeks. I am sorry if he has had to deal with that kind of thing all his life.

Has he got a new album coming out?

I think he decided to take it easy after he had some heart problems, although often when we speak, I ask him if he has been working on any new music. Most of the time he says no, but last time he was a bit more, lets say ambiguous about his answer, so who knows! You may hear something this year or next, but then again you may not!

Do you have any plans to work with him again.

We are possibly doing a some other non music-related projects together, one is definite, others are more hazy, so lets see. If they all happen I think bowie fans will be very happy with them, but he has to be comfortable with them first before we announce them.

Can you be contacted about getting Bowie to help with a charity/project/concert/gallery opening?

No. If you would like to contact him about these matters please contact his office, I don’t feel comfortable about asking him such things, there is a difference between working with somebody and hassling them to do other things and I don’t want to get involved with it. I hope I don’t sound a bit too stern but so many people see me as a way to get to him and really I don’t know him in that way.

“There is a difference with working with somebody and hassling them to do other things”

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Commercial workQuestionsAbout

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Do you have commercial clients as well as doing political works?

Of course! otherwise there would be no way to survive, however we do tend to work with certain clients and not others, and if a client comes to us and acts in a way we don’t like then we won’t work with them. This has meant turning down some very lucra-tive jobs from Coca-Cola, McDonalds, various sports manufacturers. We do a lot of work for museum and galleries, because we still believe that these institu-tions make life better because of their existence. Our main web site has a good summary of the commer-cial clients we work with.

We do get a lot of work from Japan, some of them quite big projects, most famous is Roppongi Hills and Mori Art Museum, we also did the complete rebranding for Daichi Wo Mamoru Kai, Finally our fonts are commercial projects, although they are usually designed for us first and then released for commercial use.

How did you come to do the Roppongi Hills logo?

For people who don’t know, Roppongi Hills is the largest post-war development in Tokyo and Barn-brook did the corporate identity for it after winning a competition of 5 well known design groups. Corpo-rate identity was not something that really interested me up until that point; I had always thought it was quite a dull area. However we decided if we were going to doå a job on this scale it would be on our terms and do a logo that was relatively new in the world of corporate design. Our solution which won the competition was not one but a series of logos, all based on the same structure, but all looking different. We were making a comment about identity – it doesn’t have to be a rigid reinforcement all the time of the same thing – you can say things quietly but they will still be heard. It was also looking at the idea of a corporation at the beginning of the twenty-first century. We didn’t want it to appear like a huge monolithic organisation, it should represent the idea ‘fragmentation’ that has affected all areas of society. It was actually the largest job I had worked on and a real learning experience, at one point I was becoming involved in the naming of the streets, it was a com-pletely different kind of permanence to typography. What I did learn is that it is relatively simple for a small company to do large projects like this if you set up a good system for others to follow.

Commercial work

“If a client comes to us and acts in a way we don’t like we won’t work with them”

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Inspiredyet?

Inspiredyet?

QuestionsAbout

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What are your major influences?

My major influences are not from design or other designers, that I think would make my work tedious. My main influence is politics and philosophy and literature, through reading or just being engaged in what is going on in the world. I think its incredibly important to read, so I constantly have a number of books that I am reading. A few favourite authors would be Hermann Hesse, JG Ballard and Samuel Beckett. I am also a big fan of comedy, the way a serious situation can be commented on with humour can be better than any long political critique. I hope that people can see some humour in my work also. If you mean what other designers do I admire – well I would say none of them work for large design groups. That kind of place seems to create job contentment or client compromises which means you are always accountable to the people supposedly above and tend to play safe. For me graphic design has the possibility to change people’s perceptions of the world, so the work that affects me touches me either intellectually or spiritually. I think the type designer I most rate is Eric Gill. He worked in several disciplines and produced unique work in each area. I don’t think I am in any way as good as him but I hope that when you look at one of my typefaces it looks like my ‘handwriting’, that it could only be done by me. I think the same about Eric Gill, his lettering is a product of his mind with a singular vision which is simply beautiful.

Where do you get your inspiration?

My inspiration comes from lots of different sources. The type designer Bradbury Thompson said that to be a good typographer you must be interested in all aspects of life. I agree with this completely, typography is about cultural exchange between people, the transference of meaning between two beings and to do this you must be interested in culture, in life and be positive about it. Most good designers do not have trouble finding inspiration. As for specific areas of interests, 20th Century history and contemporary politics are a source of endless inspiration. This just comes from learning that history that we are taught at school and hear about from news etc. is in fact a very opinionated view. These interpretations and understanding of them have made me very sceptical about the idea of the truth or what is right no matter what source they come from – from politicians to advertising agencies – I think this is one of the reasons I became a typographer, it was a chance to tell the truth through printed words or at least to interject between them and the viewer. When you are graphic designer you are at the centre of putting out propaganda for somebody and it seems impossible not to question this.

Inspiration/influences

“Inspiration comes from lots of different sources”

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