10 Questions from Designer to Designer
An interview by email;
December 2003.
A remark about
the form of this entry (and many
others):
Most of them have simply
copied out of emails. That results in lower case writing (mostly and not very
consistently), wrong apostrophes, wrong hyphens and wrong quote marks. Too bad,
but inevitable in international correspondence. Pragmatic, not
righteous.
'
≠
’
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≠–
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--
≈
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"≠„
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"≠”
1. What is your
profession?type and typographic
designer2.What
College did you attend (if
any)?Freie Universität
Berlin3. Do you feel
that your schooling played a big part in your decision to become a
designer?nope (is that better
than a plain no?)4.
What is your favorite car, and
why?my NSU Ro80; i've had it
for 1985 (it's a 1977 model); it was the first sedan with a Wankel (ie rotary)
engine and the first car to be designed to a wedge shape (see
photo).
5.
In a short paragraph, describe how you became interested in
design.i was a printer and
typesetter, but my shop burned down in 1977. So i ended up making sketches
(which i had also been doing as a typesetter) and giving them to a photosetter
instead.6. Do you
feel that design is art? Why or why
notof course it isn't. A
designer visualizes a client's issues, problems, brief. An artist his own.
Designers and artists use artistic means to show their concepts and designers
also use intuition. Thus the confusion. But if i wanted to work like an artist,
i would have become an artist and not a designer. I also use science more than
an artist
would. 7.
Where do you see design in the next five
years?questions like this are
silly because even if i had any idea, i wouldn't be stupid enough to predict the
future. Anything can
happen.8. Serif or
sans serif? (and why)Both,
whatever fits the purpose. If i designed more books or newspapers, i'd use more
serifs. As i design a lot of information systems, i use more sans -- less noise
(and i haven't designed a real serif face
yet) 9.
Are there any designers that you look to for inspiration on your own
work?my colleagues in the
office and wherever i meet
them10. If tomorrow
your life depended on the loss of either your eyes or you arms, which would you
prefer to give up?my arms. I
could always use someone else's, but not without my
eyes. Bonus
Question.Were
you really told to “stop stealing sheep,” or is that a watered down
version of what was said for letter-spacing all
caps?frederick goudy said that
"men who would letterspace lower case would shag sheep', as that was (and is)
considered a cardinal sin by typographers. Letterspacing caps, however, is done
and should be done generously.
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Posted: Do - März 11, 2004 at 12:07 vorm.