Webfonts Week: An Interview with Erik Spiekermann
Still speaking a-mile-a-minute and showing no signs of slowing down, Erik Spiekermann coyly calls himself an “old guy”. It’s true that he’s been around for every incarnation of type — metal, film, and digital — but he’s no fuddy-duddy when it comes to new technology and new methods. Spiekermann embraced the fledgling world of digital type early on when he founded FontShop 20 years ago, and he’s just as forward-thinking now about licensing type in an era of Web-embeddable fonts.
I pulled him aside one morning during the Typ09 conference in Mexico City to talk about the interesting parallels between using web fonts as a service and typesetting the old-fashioned way.
Click here to watch the FontCast or simply push play below.
Header image: Erik Spiekermann at TypeCon2008 in Buffalo, NY. Photo © Eben Sorkin.
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3 Comments:
Right on, Erik! This ‘old gal’ very well remembers browsing type books, tracing headlines–and hand-cutting set type for headline ligatures!
The window for more creative use and experimentation is opened when designers can ‘rent’ the use of a font, rather than making an expensive commitment. There are many fonts I’d use in a heartbeat, but as a solo designer, cannot afford.
This interview is typical Erik. Loud and clear so even partly handicapped (sometims old) people will listen and can hear and understand the arguments! Well done!
Been loving the input from designers the past week. Did I see from the Flickr pool that you had an interview with Veronika Burian and Jose Scaglione from TypeTogether? Posting that anytime soon?
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