How did you become interested in typography?
I discovered typography as an art student in the early 1980s. I had played around with lettering in an amateur way as a teenager, but I had no notion of typography until I was exposed to it in a typography course taught by George Sadek and William Bevington at Cooper Union. I was stunned.
Why the fascination with type?
Typography is the convergence of art and language. This makes it hugely powerful as a tool and a means of expression. As someone who had always been interested in writing yet had identified herself as an “artist,” this was a huge personal discovery.
Where do you find your inspiration?
I am inspired by magazines and newspapers, by movies and television, by reading, by looking at what designers are doing. I’m inspired by my students. I love art and painting.
What would be your biggest piece of advice for aspiring type users/typographers?
Spell check.
What common mistake(s) do you see designers making that could be easily remedied?
Newcomers to design do things like mixing larger capital letters with lowercase, supposedly for emphasis, resulting in ugly mismatched weights. My students avoid printing out their work, to save time and money, but then they are disappointed that it doesn’t look good. I explain to them that everything looks good on the screen, because of the glowing light and the way we are constantly adjusting the scale of the image to suit ourselves. The same layout may die on the printed page.
Do you have favourite type designers and typefaces?
I am a huge fan of Martin Majoor, who created Scala, Seria, and other typefaces. I also love Lucas de Groot, and I have been using his typeface Thesis for many projects. It’s a slab serif that comes in many wonderful weights as well as a sans version—wonderful for book design.
Conducted by I Love Typography
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