Typeradio Podcast

Armand Mevis is one half of design studio Mevis & Van Deursen. While Linda Van Deursen is the head of the Graphic Design department at the Rietveld Academy, Armand Mevis teaches at the Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem. We talk with Armand about the collaboration, on the commitment towards each other. For them working together is much more a conversation then sketching on the computer. How they hand over work to others and the position of this temporary third partner in their work. As a teacher Armand talks to us about his vision on teaching and his opinion on the level of design education in the Netherlands. Recorded at the Integrated 2009 conference in Antwerp, Belgium.

Hugo Puttaert is a graphic designer, teacher and organiser, based in Brussels. He talked to us about organising the Integrated Conference 2009 in Antwerp. How he chooses the guest speakers from a list of 200 names! Hugo explains the conference history which began 12 years ago under the name C-Type focusing on type and urbanisation, later evolving into a wider field of graphic design. As a graphic designer, teacher and organiser he questions the future role of the graphic designer. You should be severe with your clients but you should first be severe with yourself in order to achieve the best results. Recorded at the Integrated 2009 conference in Antwerp, Belgium.

Graphic design students of the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam discuss design topics. This first edition of the Design Discussions is about European identity, organised and edited by Anja Groten and Maartje Smits. Attending students of the Sandberg Institute: Janneke de Rooij, Lauren Grusenmeyer, Camilla Bustamamte, Michèle Champagne, Mike Oustamanolakis. As background information for the discussion they asked the students to read the lecture of Jozef Mrozek who talks about the identity of Europe. Mrozek tries to define Europe and the Design of Europe by looking at its traditions. Is it a good choice to define Europe through its past/history/heritage? Is there a way of giving it an identity which is focused on the present time and is there necessarily a need to define it anyway?  Recorded February 2nd, 2010 at the Sandberg Institute.

Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley works in various media, but is best known for his slightly bizarre and humourous illustrations. David enjoys his artistic freedom, he considers himself lucky. He talks about humour, how he is perceived, his DJ-ing and taste in music. He sometimes says he’s not really good at it, but drawing does come naturally to him. 30 sheets of paper every day, he tries to put a lot of variety in his drawing. There are lots of people he admires, but he contemplates about the meaning of heroism. He ends talking about the meaning and themes of his work, and his ventures into the medium of animated film. Recorded at the Integrated 2009 conference in Antwerp, Belgium.

Annelys de Vet is head of the design department of the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. She tells us how she became a graphic designer, and why. Spending her time between Brussels and Amsterdam, she talks about the differences and boundaries between art and design, and Belgium and Holland. She thinks design should be service minded and functional. Annelys always tells her students to question their approach, to see design in a bigger context, and the role of design in society. She talks about her Right To Copy project and discusses copying, originality and copyright. Subjective Maps project, the European Union and its effect on the design community. Recorded at the Integrated 2009 conference in Antwerp, Belgium.

Büro Destruct is a graphic artists’ collective based in Bern, Switzerland, comprising of four members. Lopetz and HeiWid share their thoughts about swimming, fonts, heroes, their fascination with Japan, the similarities between Swiss and Japanese design, Amiga and Commodore computers. And finally the answer to what happens to designers after the age of sixty.

Going out to bars and cafés is Bob’s ritual, and this social interest plays a part in his design work. He talks about why he became a graphic designer. The most important lesson he learned is not to take design too seriously, there are many different ways to approach it. His work is changing a lot over the years, but in general he likes different layers, stories within stories. Bob talks about his former The Hague studio NLXL and his life after closing it down, making drawings with his son and father, and his job at Lava in Amsterdam. What are the differences between NLXL and Lava, The Hague and Amsterdam? He reflects on his avid collecting, his design heroes and the start of his career at Dumbar studios. Recorded at Underware, The Hague. Note: Bob van Dijk left Lava and runs his own studio again since December 2009.

Professor David Crow is Head of the Art and Design faculty at the Manchester University. He discusses his motivation for his move from design to teaching, and his eventual move into being an academic manager. He reveals his experiences as a teacher and the importance of encouraging cross-disciplinary education. Crow talks about his initial interest in typography, his later work with semiotics and theory and the specifics of Manchester and British graphic design. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

Sven Ehmann is editor at Die Gestalten publishers in Berlin. He talks about his working process and how he juggles multiple projects. He moves on to discussing the origins of the book Dataflow at Die Gestalten and talks about the field of design publishing and his personal motivations in making books. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

Barbara Hahn and Christine Zimmermann are Von B und C, a design studio in Bern, Switzerland. They start by explaining how they got interested in infographics, visualising data as their graduation project, and how they work together (of coarse their collaboration can be best viewed in their self-designed ‘collaboration visualisation’). Analysis and visualisation is a much more complicated and time consuming process than design. They don’t have a preference for either, form and content go hand in hand. Next Von B und C reflect on the role of women, the ideal typeface in infographic design and their Leadership Alphabet. What kind of information do they like to work with most, what is their dream project and what are their information design heroes. What’s next? Have they cheated to improve visualisation? We end with their personal escapades. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

Jeroen Breen, Rob Stolte and Maarten Dullemeijer are Autobahn, design collective from Utrecht, The Netherlands. They first describe the special project they did for their presentation at 33pt in Dortmund, they tell us how they met and how they got interested in typography. They elaborate on their typographic experiments, and how they collaborate. Do they have specialities? Heroes? We finally hear about their big dream. Recorded at the 33pt conference in Dortmund.

Rob Meek talks about the roots of Fontstruct with his MeekFM typographic synthesizer. He speaks about the genesis of Fontstruct and his thoughts on the success of the platform. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

Martin Majoor discusses the new typeface for the Dutch government (Rijksoverheid Serif and Sans). His differing roles as a book designer and as a type designer. He reflects on the lack of female type designers and in graphic design in general. He speaks about how he names his typefaces as well as his current projects. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

Martin Majoor discusses his first type and lettering books given to him by his grandfather and his first typeface. He recounts his art school days in Arnhem and his current teaching practice and teaching philosophies. He speaks in regards to the influence of history on his work, the difference between working with text typefaces and display typefaces and his hate for Helvetica. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

Type designer Jos Buivenga talks about how he got started in type design, his habits and balancing his time for type design with his art direction work. Buivenga shares his thoughts and ideas on selling fonts online, his type design heroes and discusses his type design philosophy and working process. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.