decoration
Spiekerblog
 

22. 01. 07

100 best typefaces, final result.

Jür­gen Siebert of FontShop Ger­many has just announced the result of the search for the 100 best type­faces. The web­site, 100besteschriften, will be online very soon. The brochure in pdf form is already avail­able for down­load at 100besteschriften. So far, there is only a Ger­man ver­sion, but with plenty of pictures.

I can proudly announce that three of my faces made it: ITC Offic­ina at num­ber 8, FF Meta at 18 and FF Info at 53. This occa­sion seemed appro­pri­ate to repub­lish a few remarks about the his­tory behind Offic­ina Dis­play.
officina.gif

 

SpiekermannPartners

16 Responses to “100 best typefaces, final result.”:


 

1

Maith thú!

Conor Nolan
January 23rd, 2007 at 00:04 am

 

2

I hope those Irish words mean some­thing nice. They prob­a­bly sound like the Ger­man word “hatschiii”, which is the sound we make when we sneeze, in German.

erik spiekermann
January 23rd, 2007 at 00:25 am

 

3

ITC Offic­ina is really a won­der­ful type­face. Congratultions!

rdl
January 23rd, 2007 at 03:26 am

 

4

Hi Erik,

The link to the PDF doesnt seem to work for me. Congrats!

Péter

zwoelf
January 23rd, 2007 at 09:53 am

 

5

it means ‘well done’. Go raimh maith agat is the rather long winded ‘thank you’ or Sláinte is cheers

joely hegarty
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 pm

 

6

I had to take it off; it was only sup­posed to be avail­able later on the 24th. That’s why the FontShop link was off as well.

It’ll be active again tomorrow.

erik spiekermann
January 23rd, 2007 at 17:18 pm

 

7

I hoped the Irish would mean some­thing nice.
Thanks, Joely

erik spiekermann
January 23rd, 2007 at 17:20 pm

 

8

hello mr. spiek­er­mann!
my name is david and i have been asked to do a report on you and i am quite excited. If you could tell me a fun story or some ohter info about your­self so that i can get an “a” on my paper. i would greatly appre­ci­ate it! oh and con­grat­u­la­tions on ITC Offic­ina! Thanks!

David
January 24th, 2007 at 17:44 pm

 

9

Sorry, David, but that is the wrong approach. I could tell you hun­dreds of sto­ries, and some may even be funny. You are sup­posed to learn about type and typog­ra­phy by writ­ing that report. So you need to do some proper research, not just copy and paste a few funny sto­ries from me. Apart from the fact that i do not have the time to tell sto­ries to every­body who just asks.

There are quite a few older pieces in the archives on this blog that address ques­tions stu­dents have been ask­ing me over and over. You should read those. And you should read other stuff about me which may be in the books i have writ­ten or in other pub­li­ca­tions. Then, when you have proper and well-considered ques­tions, i’ll be very happy to answer them. Per­haps even in pub­lic on this blog.

erik spiekermann
January 24th, 2007 at 18:41 pm

 

10

Con­grats on mak­ing it into the top 10! Offic­ina is cer­tainly wor­thy of the honor, and in good com­pany (and beat­ing out Univers!).

As I don’t read Ger­man, could any­one who does tell me (if the infor­ma­tion is pro­vided on the site/pdf) who des­gined the brochure? I’m really dig­ging it.

Dan Lurie
January 25th, 2007 at 09:20 am

 

11

The brochure was designed by Moni­teurs:
http://www.moniteurs.de.

erik spiekermann
January 25th, 2007 at 18:48 pm

 

12

thank you Mr. Spiek­er­mann for assum­ing that i am a stu­dent who does noth­ing more than copy sto­ries from this blog to insert into my paper. Also i have done the research on you, have read the pre­vi­ous blog from this site, and i have read of course your books. i merely wanted some­thing a lit­tle more per­sonal for the other stu­dents in my class dur­ing my pre­sen­ta­tion on you so i wouldnt have a nor­mal report on a typog­ra­pher but at any rate thanks for your lack of help!

david
January 29th, 2007 at 06:01 am

 

13

Please under­stand that
a: this is not the place for that sort of con­ver­sa­tion and
b: it is much eas­ier to answer spe­cific ques­tions than telling “spon­ta­neous” sto­ries where i would never know whether they would even be of any inter­est to you, let alone any­body else read­ing this blog.
When peo­ple write to me with a con­cise ques­tion, i always answer, although i get dozens of these enquiries a week and do have a day-job.
It is too much trou­ble find­ing my email address and for­mu­lat­ing some­thing that i can answer directly?

erik spiekermann
January 29th, 2007 at 06:29 am

 

14

Con­grat­u­la­tions! I do think they deserve higher rat­ings, spe­cially Meta.

For Eng­lish 100besteschriften site, I searched “100besteschriften” and clicked the “Trans­late this page” link next to the first result at Google. Now I’m read­ing in English.

Böke Yüzgen
February 22nd, 2007 at 14:13 pm

 

15

@David
Hasn’t it sunk in yet? Surely those who will grade your paper will be more inter­ested in solid research, rather than a bespoke “funny story” from Spiek­er­mann. If you have any real inter­est in type, then the research should be a joy. If you want spe­cific Spiek­er­mann quotes, then search this blog or Google it.

Funny sto­ries and anec­dotes will not set your paper apart; sound research and a pas­sion for type will.

johno
October 4th, 2007 at 08:35 am

 

16

nice one! i just pur­chased ff info dis­play reg­u­lar on fontshop.com after view­ing ‘Hel­vetica’ and hear­ing your views on the all-too-pervasive font. i then log­i­cally hypoth­e­sized that you are the type of per­son who does not offer a con­trary view with­out offer­ing an alter­na­tive. i was not wrong. ff info, ff meta, itc offic­ina. all of these are absolutely won­der­ful replace­ments for that swiss mod­ern ‘thing.’

kris gale
March 2nd, 2008 at 23:39 pm

 






 

Leave a Reply

 

© Erik Spiekermann | Spiekerblog is proudly powered by WordPress.