Interviews

Many know Cyrus Highsmith as one of today’s most original type designers. He combines an energetic, illustrative approach with enthusiasm for typographic communication, leading to a diverse library of original designs. He has created exquisite scripts, industrial workhorse sans, and dynamic text serifs — all with equal ease and distinction. Highsmith considers himself a draftsman above all, and his work demonstrates a lifelong passion for drawing. In this video, he invites us into the world of his sketchbooks.

Insightful, witty, and always entertaining – the geniuses of typography,
now on video. A panel discussion with TDC’s Typeface Design Competition judges, Roger Black, Matthew Carter, Paul Shaw and Erik Spiekermann. Moderated by Maxim Zhukov.

David Berlow talks about his working methods, what he learned along the way, and his vision of coming trends in type design. Recorded at the ATypI 2010 conference in Dublin, Ireland for TypeRadio. Tune in here...

It’s rare for Font Bureau to have an intern, but for three weeks we were delighted to have Louise Paradis intern with us in our Boston studio. She hails from Montreal, worked in Los Angeles for a time, and is now a graduate student in art direction at ECAL, Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne (University of Art and Design Lausanne) in Switzerland. I had a chance to talk with her before she left.

MLM: What led you to Font Bureau?
LP: Well, one project for a class of mine was by my professor François Rappo. He required us ...

On its recently redesigned website, the Society for News Design (SND) asked FB co-founder Roger Black to talk about what’s ahead for visual communication in the 2010s. They present his observations in both transcript and video webcast format. Read/watch the interview at snd.org.

“At ATypI in Mexico City Stephen Coles broached the topic of kerning with Dyana Weissman of The Font Bureau, one of the few type designers who claims to actually enjoy the tedious task of assigning thousands of kern pairs to each font. She explains the difference between kerning and spacing, why it should be done by hand, and the mystical concept of flow.”

Watch it here on The FontFeed.

“ATypI ambitiously billed this year’s Typ09 conference as the discussion epicenter for the future of fonts on the Web... The loudest — and often the most inter­esting — of these voices was unarguably David Berlow’s.” Read more by Stephen Coles...

The history of the Times New Roman typeface
By Joel Alas

“The release of Starling in June presented not just a new font, but a challenge to the accepted history of one of the most widely used typefaces in the world. And after a lifetime spent in typography, Parker was well aware of the controversy he was getting involved in: typography may present a genteel exterior, but it’s an art form punctuated by bitter rivalries and rampant plagiarism.” Read more...

Talking Type with Rolf Rehe
A shepherd with no favorite sheep

“The American type designer David Berlow is the creator of ITC Franklin, which we use in this issue of Design Journal. This is another in a series of interviews with type designers, focusing on how they approach their work.”

The Society for News Design’s Quarterly Journal
No. 108 & 109, Fall/Winter 2009

Download PDF of the interview (4MB)

Real Fonts on the Web: An Interview with The Font Bureau’s David Berlow
by Jeffrey Zeldman, David Berlow
April 21, 2009

“Is there life after Georgia? We ask David Berlow, co-founder of The Font Bureau, Inc, and the first TrueType type designer, how type designers and web designers can work together to resolve licensing and technology issues that stand between us and real fonts on the web.”