We just have been interviewed by the team of Sharebrain for the Braintalk section. Braintalk is a serie of interviews with designers, blogers…

Enjoy the interview here.

The link to download the Experimental Jetset interview is now working. Sorry for the inconvinience!

(via Swissmiss)

In a video interview with The Atlantic, Michael Bierut talks about typography, including Stanley Kubrick’s favorite font, the cover design of The Catcher in the Rye, and the link between phototypesetting and Free Love.

The interview accompanies an article about typography by Virginia Postrel in this month’s issue.

(via swissmiss)

Swiss Legacy: Could you please introduce yourself? Where are you from? What is your background?
Hamish Muir: I was born in Scotland but have spent most of my life in England. I ended up as a designer almost by accident. I had wanted to do science, but my maths was terrible. So instead of University I went to Art School to learn photography but was soon more interested in drawing and colour. It was in the days when you were still taught how to draw. As I couldn’t draw, this was very useful! I later studied graphic design at Bath Academy of Art where the course leader was the Swiss artist and designer Benno Zehnder (later director of the Art School in Lucerne). After graduating, I worked in London before spending a year on the Advanced Graphic Design course at what is now known as the Basel School of Design. Zehnder had encouraged me to apply to the school. Whilst there, I was very fortunate to have Armin Hofmann (colour and basic design), Wolfgang Weingart (typography), Kurt Hauert (drawing) and André Gürlter (type design) as my teachers.
On returning to London I worked for four years with an exhibition designer. I think I wanted to avoid graphic design for a while; the ideas, approaches and methodologies I had been exposed to in Basel were kind of difficult to deal with – the experience had certainly changed the way I saw things, but I wasn’t ready to begin applying what I had learned. I think one of the problems with the spread of the ‘Basel Style’ in the 70s and 80s, was the way that students, particularly those from North America, would return to work and start using what were techniques and approaches designed as classroom exercises in live jobs for corporate clients. I didn’t want to do the same. I thought what we had been taught went deeper than that, and for me at least, it needed more time to assimilate

SL: You co-founded 8vo in the 80s, How was graphic design at that time? Are the relationships with clients different now?
HM: In 1984 I met up with Mark Holt and Simon Johnston (another ex Bath Academy of Art / Basel School of Design student). They had already done a couple of freelance jobs together as 8vo whilst working at other companies. Together we launched 8vo as a studio. (This is described in detail in the book ’8vo On the outside’, Lars Müller Publishers, 2005).

In London at the time, design was very ideas oriented – visual jokes, puns, clever copywriting, gimmicky use of printing and finishing techniques. In terms of typography, it was very different to what was happening in Europe – in the UK things generally followed a kind of traditional approach and it seemed type was always there to support the idea or image, it never seemed to be the idea or image itself.
So what we set out to do was to make design where type and typography were central to the idea. Where type would be the image. Our influences were from outside the UK; Europe (Switzerland in particular) and the USA (Holt had spent time working freelance in San Francisco). But we didn’t want to copy what we knew – we wanted to develop our own approach which was relevant to the context in which we were working in terms of clients, jobs, purpose and audience.

Yes the relationship with clients was different then. There was more mutual trust and respect. (I must add here, I am very lucky with my current clients, who are very good to work with!). The designer was seen as a professional who could bring expertise to bear on a communication problem. And maybe it was easier to make a decent living from design for print in those days– there were no free pitches, there was less competition, and one could still augment design fees buying print, typesetting and other services for clients.

I guess what changed everything was desktop publishing. After that, anyone and everyone could be a graphic designer. There was no longer any need for professional expertise (at least in the eyes of most clients). But of course, saving time and money doesn’t make better design.

Octavo 88.5 (3)

SL: For a period of time 8vo worked for Wim Crouwel. How was the relationship with him? How does the creative process work in this kind of situation?
HM: We had already been in touch with Crouwel in 1988 by inviting him to contribute an article to Octavo*. (‘lowercase in the dutch lowlands’, Octavo 88.5). A while after this, he asked us if we would be interested in working for him as a client in his role as Director of the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Of course we said yes! He wanted us to create a ‘face’ for the Museum – not a rigid identity – but an approach (which he had seen in our design of Octavo(*)) which was flexible and could adapt to changing needs of content, subject and budget. Between 1989 and 1993 we designed around 30 posters and 40 catalogues for the Museum.
We had a great working relationship with Crouwel. He was the model client – hands-off most of the time, but when he did intervene or make comment, it was always to the point and very astute. I think we learned a lot from him, especially in how to make our work more direct and less fussy in its detailing. As well, we saw that the ‘whole’ was more important than the individual pieces, this meant we had to modify our sometimes over-intense approach to (over-) working particular designs. And there was neither the time or the budget to employ some of the print techniques we had begun to rely on. It was much more design in the real world, and for real people compared to Octavo or some of the other 8vo work from this period.

SL: How important is typography in your work?
HM: I am a graphic designer who uses type. I am not a typographer. I happen to use type a lot. But to me ‘communication’ is more important. Typography is only a means to aid communication, not and end in itself

Octavo 88.5 (3)

SL: Have you been influenced by the major Swiss graphic designers?
HM: Well yes of course. But I realise that they were working in a very special environment at a different time. I think we can learn more from their approach to visual communication and design problem-solving in general than we can from looking only at the finished work out of context.

SL: Any upcoming projects?
HM: Architecture books for Laurence King in London. A type-design based research project at the London College of Communication (where I teach Information Design on a part-time basis). Tephra – a new font family developed in conjunction with Dalton Maag (more details at www.hamishmuir.com)

SL: Last word?
HM: Thank you

-

(1) – Flux New Music Festival
Poster
1997
60 x 40 inches (152.4 x 101.6 cm)
Silksreen
Design: 8vo

(2) – Hacienda Night Club
7th anniversary poster
1989
60 x 40 inches (152.4 x 101.6 cm)
Silksreen
Design: 8vo

(3) – Octavo 88.5
Front cover and spread
1988
A4
Design: 8vo

(*) – Octavo
‘Octavo, International Journal of Typography’ was edited, designed and published by 8vo in seven print and one interactive screen-based issues between 1985 and 1992.

Discover a very interesting interview of french designer Philippe Apeloig on type radio. here.

Interview with Richard Seabrook of Sweettalk events at The Bubble.

[tags]Richard Seabrooke, Interview, video, candy culture, sweettalk, dublin, event[/tags]

A nice interview with Gary Hustwit, director of Helvetica film, in the new issue of Candy, p154 to p159.

Download here

[tags]Helvetixa Film, Candy Mag, Gary Hustwit, typography, font, interview[/tags]

For the opening of “50-Helvetica” exhibition at Design Museum in London, Mark Blamire co-founder of this event (with Richard Seabrooke, Candy), explain us his relationship with Helvetica and how he made this event happenned.

Swiss Legacy: Could you please introduce yourself?
Mark Blamire: I am Mark Blamire, although I am known to friends and colleagues as Blam, I was born in Carlisle, England in 1969. Having graduated from Newcastle College in 1991, I went on to serve my design apprenticeship at Stylorouge. In late 1995 I flew the nest and started freelancing work within the music industry. Two years later, I went on to form the partnership Groupe which disbanded in early 2000 from here I formed my own design studio, Neue. Shortly afterwards, alongside running my design company, I became one of the co-founders of Simple Records, where I remained as creative director for a further two years. During the second half of 2005, I took a departure from commission based Graphic Design to concentrate all of my passion and energy into a new concept called Blanka. Blanka is both an online gallery and permanent visual archive devoted to celebrating the very best in creative communication and print on an international stage. It is an open and enthusiastic co-operative of people from all creative disciplines expressing themselves through exceptional, innovative and inspiring printed art. I lives and work in Chobham, Surrey with my wife Sharon and son Jack. My passions are family, Graphic Design, posters, print and Carlisle United. I also have an unwavering fondness for Helvetica.

SL: Can you explain us your relationship with helvetica?
MB: I was probably first introduced to Helvetica while reading Dick Brunas Miffy as a child, but who can be sure if this made any impact on my visual taste buds at this early age. My fondness of Helvetica was the inspiration for my name of my design company “Neue“, am I obsessive?, I am a designer so yes, I guess I am. On a personal level I think the reason I became attached to it or the moment when everything clicked into place for me as a designer, was after creating the Trainspotting poster while working at Stylorouge in 1995. I was really proud to have created it and I still am, the doors that it opened for me as a young designer changed my life. I had used the typeface a lot before but from this point it made an indelible impression on me and implanted something into my tastes that I have continued to rely on it since. Although harking back to the poster, I would liked to have spent longer sorting out the kerning and word spacing, which i feel a bit crude today and forgetting to include the Stylorouge design credit on the poster in the rush to send it to print is something I will regret forever, So these are some of the reasons why I work with the typeface a lot and also the reason why I have revisited the film poster for my piece for the exhibition and it also has a very strong visual bond with the typeface so it made sense for it to be my submission for the show. I also have a lot of respect for the design work of Farrow, Build and Experimental Jetset, I admire their aesthetic choices and I think this is not just because they are at the top of their craft but also they have a strong affinity and connection with this typeface.

SL: Did you remenber the first or the last time you used helvetica?
MB: Not the first time no, but I use it all the time, so every job i complete [90% of the time] will be the last time I used it. I know I will be lambasted for saying that as being lazy and not trying hard enough but I disagree. I went to a Vignelli D&AD lecture in 2006 and he said that he only ever uses six type faces in his repertoire now and this is all he needs, I think he could shorten it to just one and for me it would make a lot more sense, I think the practice of working with only one type face frees you up to explore other areas, if you feel you have discovered the perfect type solution which works for you and gives you freedom to develop and push other areas then this cant be a lazy thing as long as you continue to develop and learn and push yourself within your craft.

I got into trouble once when I first started in the industry, at a studio I was working for who had insisted I was being lazy and just using the default Helvetica type face set up in Quark and this was the only reason i had chosen it for the job, which wasn’t the case. The default version that came installed on the mac was really crude and ugly, so I had manually set it up to be the weight I liked to use the most, probably Helvetica Neue 55 Roman at the time [although I now think Helvetica Neue 75 Bold is the one that ticks the right boxes] and I had also set the typographic preferences and kerning tables and fined tuned them to my precise requirements, so if anything I was being meticulous and not lazy, I had set everything up just so, I didn’t really put up much of an argument at the time though as I was new to the job and i seem to remember the the person didn’t who criticised my laziness didn’t know the names of Muller-Brockmann or Wim Crouwel so I have to say I paid little heed to the lesson and I didn’t stick around in the job for much longer either.

SL: How the idea of making “50 – exhibition” came to your mind?
MB: Michael Place sent me an email back in early 2006 saying ‘It’s Helveticas birthday next year’ and I had just launched Blanka and sent him an email back saying ‘lets do something to celebrate it’, then nothing happened as we both went off and did something else. Then later in the year Richard Seabrooke at Candy put together an exhibition in Ireland called 50×50 which he showed me and I really liked it [and also what Richard was doing with Candy] and I offered to put a link up on Blanka to help him promote it. It was a real success all down to Richards hard work and passion for design and over the year we stayed in contact and after a visit to his design Sweettalks in Dublin last year we became good friends and we discussed revisiting it. I was nervous about just repeating the show as it had been, it felt like it lacked ownership and needed a different direction somehow, so we decided to make all the pieces about Helvetica and tie the 50th birthday into the theme of 50×50, then it took us about 2 months to work out a really good brief to set, I didn’t want to follow up the success of blankas first exhibition ‘1 – an exhibition in mono‘ with something half cocked nor did we want to just create 50 pieces of typography either, as it could have been really dull exercise. So we decided to make it about Helveticas experiences in its lifetime or 50 experiences and events it had encountered from 1957 – 2007, we then agreed the only other stipulation was that if the designer or illustrator used a font it had to be Helvetica.

Mark Blamire at Sweettalk 14.

SL: Do you think that Helvetica is THE timeless font?
MB: Personally Yes, its a classic, However as a typeface it does receive some criticism, which to some degree I understand, people say its ugly and they hate it, and they are right it can be ugly left in the wrong hands, It can look bloody awful. But if you fix the few flaws that it has [particularly in the spacing of the numbers as one example], and you apply your designers craft rather than leave it up to sods law or its default setting it transforms it into something truly beautiful, like all designs and all typefaces, you have to put the time and craft into it, its not just all there at the click of a button. I also think if it isn’t a timeless font and people dont have some degree of affection for it then we would have struggled to find 50 people to contribute to our exhibition and from the response we got and from the time people put into perfecting their pieces this definitely wasn’t the case.

SL: Why did you asked Michael C. Place to design the identity of this project?
MB: Because he is the best in the industry, he is an over achiever and proud of it, he has also been a major contributor to Blanka from the very first steps we took as a company to the present day, he has been influential in so many aspects of our success and development I am eternally greatful and indebted to him and Nicky his wife, although his cats do little to help, other than add the obligatory satisfied purr in appreciation of the latest design on screen. So as long as his very busy schedule will allow, he will continue to get the first bite at everything we do, and he is also a true friend and with the success he has achieved he manages to remain a very decent bloke and I value his opinion and I enjoy the process of working with him, he gives 110% to every project he commits to and if you see how beautifully designed and printed the exhibition poster is for this event I dont think anyone could have done a better job.

SL: Do you have a precise touring schedule for the exhibition?
MB: we plan to visit 10 cities globally with a book launch by Victionary in the spring I have been working to getting the London leg at the Design Museum sorted for its launch this wednesday, and it has been quite a mammoth undertaking to just get to this stage Richard at Candy who has been sharing the fun of putting this event on has been doing this specific aspect of the project.

SL: Thank you Mark.
MB: Cheers Sir.

[tags]Mark Blamire, interview, graphic design, Helvetica, Blanka, Neue, Trainspotting[/tags]

Throughout this month, Creative Review has been following the activities of design studio Build. On 28 June, Michael and Nicola Place, who make up Build, travelled to Dublin for a screening of Helvetica, followed by a panel discusssion and talk by Wim Crouwel. The following morning Build caught up with Crouwel to conduct an interview for CR.

Excerpt :

MCP: Looking at your work, I always think it’s so incredible; the form, the typefaces, the layout. It’s very influential and yet we are seeing this out of context from the time it was created. At the time, did it seem shocking or was it accepted by those around as just good design, or were people quite indifferent?
WC: It was an amount of luck, we had the right clients who embraced this sort of thinking – mainly the director [of the Van Abbemuseum, and then of the Stedelijk Museum] who was a great and long term client. We met through my art school in Southern Holland [Groningen] where I was teaching in 1954 (up until then I was painting, i didn’t really know what to do) – the head of the school knew the director – and six months after I had started teaching I got a phone call, which was the beginning of a long relationship with him. He wanted to represent artwork with a more advanced way of thinking that reflected what was happening with Modern Art. We were very interested in the abstract at that time. He was very supportive, as I dealt with him directly, and he dealt with the curators, who always wanted to have a say in the way their shows were promoted or represented. I just dealt with him, and he was very supportive of my ideas, as they fitted with the ideas of abstract paining, so my ideas were really quite accepted.

Read the interview here.

[tags]Graphic design, Wim Crouwel, Michael C. Place, Build, Interview[/tags]