Typeradio Podcast

In this interview Ravi Deshpande explains the characteristics of Indian advertising which have drastically changed since the nineties. Design in India expanded its possibilities, but also became a lot more synthetic than it used to be. Designing on a computer is a lot faster and easier, and even though digital design has a lot of positive qualities, Ravi thinks that putting paint on a canvas is irreplacable. Does he think that it is possible to keep this craftsmanship. And apply it to this century? Listen to this interview recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

Elsie Nanji is creative director at design and branding agency Red Lion in Mumbai. She has made many memorable advertisements, but really unforgettable was the one she got arrested for. It was a shoe campaign that featured two nude Indian athletes, wearing nothing but the shoes. The public took offense and brought her to court. “Everybody has a right of expression. We see Bollywood movies with people soaking wet in white sari’s which is much more vulgar than what I did,” she explains. If you are ahead of your time in your own country you have to be aware of the inhabitants’ sensibilities. She always tries to push the boundaries to the extent that she can. Recorded at DesignYatra 2011 in Goa, India. (NB. We apologize for the static noise in the recording).

Malaysian designer Kay Khoo starts talking about the ins and outs of organizing a conference in India and the bureaucracy involved. He explains that Indian culture is very submissive, and that the government looks a lot like that of China. Perhaps India will be even more like China in fifteen years. Khoo also designed the whole interface for Design Yatra. He finds the digital space very interesting. India is just beginning to develop its own digital design. Khoo talks about why he chose design as his profession and the future plans for Design Yatra. There are a lot of stones to be moved in India, since many designers don’t yet know how to promote themselves. Recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

In this second part of the interview Irma Boom talks to us about the books she designed, her teaching job at Yale, losing her innocence, the content of books and what design she is most proud of. Recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

Dutch designer Irma Boom started out making books and gained a lot of recognition for her design work. Now clients mostly ask her to design books since that is what she is known for. Occasionally she gets to do different kind of projects, like designing a curtain for the UN building in New York. We are wondering, does she treat these projects just like her book projects? Right now Irma Boom is working on 15 projects at a time. She is constantly busy. Listen and find out how she manages to not get lost in all of her work. Recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

In this part 2 Rajesh Dahiya talks about how his studio Codesign started out and several projects they worked on. Employees were literally sleeping in the studio at night. Sometimes there were difficulties with projects, for example when Rajesh got challenged to design a Hindi typeface for a television channel. When a client doesn’t like the design you have to negotiate and change it. Finally the television channel agreed. The ‘trick’ is to pull it out in a language that both the client and designer understand. Recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

Coming from a small town Rajesh Dahiya didn’t know there was any profession affiliated with design. He wasn’t good at following the structure of most Indian schools where you are considered a good child when you have ambitions to study to be a doctor or engineer. Rajesh wasn’t very good at math either. Finally he discovered design and chose to go to the prestigious art institute in New Delhi. He felt like being dropped into an ocean, a friendly ocean. People were very well read and the atmosphere was open minded. Rajesh also tells us about his life after his studies and why he went to Italy. Recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

Kurnal Rawat finished his design studies in 1997 at one of the oldest art schools in India. At that time there was a shift taking place between handmade design and computer generated design. He started design studio Grandmother India after working at his friend’s grandmother’s apartment during his last year of college. In this episode Rawat talks about the design scene in India, the unique challenges that they face, and what sets Grandmother apart from all other design studios in India. He also provides insight into the complexity of Indian culture and politics and talks about other Indian designers who have inspired him. Recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

In this second part of the interview Adrian Shaughnessy talks about cover art, musicians, designers, branding and record labels. He tells us the influence internet had on the music industry. And talks about finances, from his own experiences with his studios. ‘When setting up your own studio, include a business person because you do need that!’ And finally he talks about the future and role of the designer. What does he think the new role of the designer is? And how would Shaughnessy like to be remembered? Recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

Typeradio talked to British writer Simon Garfield at Bijzondere Collecties, Amsterdam in front of a live audience (a first time for us). The occasion was the presentation of the Dutch edition of his book ‘Just My Type’ (in Dutch ‘Precies Mijn Type’). We asked Simon about his first typographic memories, and his ‘type awareness’ due to writing such a book. Just My Type made it to the NY Times best seller list and received both praise and criticism. Simon explains how he dealt with that. Recorded at Bijzondere Collecties (Special Collections department of the University of Amsterdam).

Adrian Shaughnessy treats himself as a internet addicted humanist. He is a self educated designer, learning design by seeing. In this episode Adrian is telling us that his mother is the better graphic designer and how it actually happened that he became a graphic designer in the first place. And who is on his top 10 list of favourite designers today? And how to be a graphic designer without losing your soul? Recorded at Design Yatra 2011 in Goa, India.

Mika Mischler and Nik Thoenen both attended the Schule für Gestaltung in Biel, where they studied Graphic Design. In 2007, they founded the independent font platform Binnenland.ch. Mika currently lives and works as an independent designer in Bern, Switzerland and Nik in Vienna, Austria. Mika and Nik tell us how they met and started Binnenland. We also hear why they’ve chosen this name for the foundry. Next to that they give us an insight on how they work together on their projects. Since they work so well together, we wonder if they could imagine to design without each other. We also talk about plans for the future and hear the story behind the Korpus font. We end the interview by asking if they sometimes have totally different views on the design and wonder what happens when they really don’t agree on something… Recorded at the 20plusX 2011 Symposium in München, Germany.

Born in Paris, Ruedi Baur spent his childhood in France. in 1979 he received a degree in graphic design at the Schule für Gestaltung in Zürich. He founded his two studios, Intégral Ruedi Baur et Associés in 1989 in Paris and in 2002 Integral Ruedi Baur Zürich. Ruedi Baur has two nationalities, Swiss and French. We talk about what sort of advantages or disadvantages this brings and we wonder whether he also has two mentalities? Ruedi explains how he’s always the foreigner but likes to be in this position; to have some distance and look at the two countries as a foreigner. We also talk about the philosophy and structure behind integral studios. How did this idea start in the first place and how do you get five studios on one thinking level? We end the interview with the question of how he would like to be remembered. Recorded at the 20plusX 2011 Symposium in München, Germany.

In this second part of the interview with Yanone we talk about his decision to attend the master in typeface design at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Because Yanone is in the middle of his studies at Type]Media, we’re curious about the ideas he has for his final project there. We end the interview with the musical side of Yanone; the sort of music he likes and his activities as a sound system operator and DJ. Recorded at the 20plusX 2011 Symposium in München, Germany.

Yanone is a German based graphic/type designer, multimedia artist, disc jockey and sound system operator.  Born in Dresden, Germany, Yanone grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We’re wondering why he moved to Ethiopia and if that has influenced his work and perspective on design in a certain way? And if it was strange to move back to Germany after all this time? He explains how this culture shock, took him quite some time to get accustomed to. Yanone started to design type in his first university years at the Bauhaus-University in Weimar and we hear all about his first typeface release; Kaffeesatz. We also talk about his internships at FontShop International in Berlin and at SYNTAX in Amman, Jordan and how his Arabic/Latin typeface Amman, for the rebranding of Jordan’s capital, came about. Recorded at the 20plusX 2011 Symposium in München, Germany.