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Cosmic 140, the new Web Trend Map

erik — Mon, 24 May 2010 22:22:01 +0000

Oliver Reichenstein just spoke at TypoBerlin. While he was there, his (Information Architects’, that is) latest Web Trend Map went to Final Beta, Cosmic 140. Oliver pointed out that I also made it into the Top 140 of the most influential Twitterers – or is that Twits? You can download a free PDF of this wonderful piece or buy the lavishly printed poster. The names are sorted by #name #handle #category #influence #activity.

From EYE magazine

erik — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:26:19 +0000

Text by Liz Farrelly
Visit Berlin, and it won’t belong before you encounter Erik Spiekermann. His graphic fingerprints are everywhere – in the typefaces for the German Railways, the Berlin Underground, and the myriad organisations that make use of communications designed by his practices over the years.

But there’s a web of connections that reaches far beyond Berlin, where it can seem that every other designer has a link to the ‘Metaman’ – whether they’ve been hired, fired, taught, criticized or championed by him. Many more are linked by human (‘Six degrees of separation’) networks. Spiekermann reigned at the helm of MetaDesign’s international network of studios and affiliates for two decades, and has taught and lectured throughout the world. Wherever you go you can see the fruits of Spiekermann’s ongoing work for international brands that adorn the hoods of automobiles, the fascias of domestic electronics, cultural institutions and books.

Yet his role as a high-ranking mover and shaker, an éminence grise within corporate design culture, is only one string to his bow. No analysis of his work would be complete without noting his role in the evolution of type design. Not only as a designer, but also as an entrepreneur, who established a new model for doing business, which he grew into a separate worldwide network in the shape of FontShopInternational. In that role, he is a prodigious talent-spotter, who has helped to nurture two generations of new typedesigners by providing creative and commercial opportunities for an ever-widening diaspora of collaborators.

Inside this gatefold, our timeline plots a network of designers, typefaces, publications and events linked to Spiekermann (ES) over the past three decades. It is far from complete – we didn’t begin to list the ex-MetaDesign professors, nor the multiple awards – but that’s in the nature of networks. We’ll watch with fascination as his connections continue to expand by degrees.

You can download the timeline here.
The article is online at eyemagazine.

The science of chocolate

erik — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:34:03 +0000

I’ve been involved with TCHO, chocolate makers in San Francisco, as a designer and an investor, for a few years now. Susanna Dulkinys, my wife and business partner, has won several prizes for her work on the TCHO brand and packaging. We have been interviewed about the design aspects, shown the project at conferences and talked to other clients about it. The story of how this amazing chocolate is actually made and why it’s different from other chocolates is told in a feature in WIRED magazine’s UK edition. As it happens, Louis Rossetto, CEO of TCHO, was co-founder of WIRED way back in the early 90s.
For better reading enjoyment, here is a pdf of the article to download:
Wired_022010_Tcho

FAIL

erik — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:14:57 +0000

As this meme has come up a lot recently in connection with the hadopi story about a French governmemt agency using a stolen font for its logo and with Microsoft’s admission of a major security issue, it might be useful to explain where it came from. This video does so.

On the cover of the FAZ

erik — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:24:41 +0000

The FAZ, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, is Germany’s most prestigious newspaper. Conservative in its politics, progressive (or enlightened?) in its coverage of The Arts. For the Federal Republic’s 60th anniversary this weekend they dedicated a complete section to the work of communication designers. They write about the “face of the new Germany” saying that (and I quote loosely) Our true orientation systems are pictures from daily life. Over the Federal Republic’s sixty years designers have done more for the self-image of Germans than all other professions.

Among the illustrations is the system of typefaces that I designed with Christian Schwartz and that was awarded the Federal Design Prize because – as the jury put it – “it represented a major contribution to the country’s visual culture”.

The FAZ’s cover page for 23 May 2009 shows a photograph of a piece of Berlin’s public transit diagramm, “after a design by Erik Spiekermann”. That is true, but only half the story. I lead the team that, in 1990, designed the passenger information system for the BVG (Berlin Transit Authority) in the re-united city. I was responsible for the main parameters, like typefaces, logos, colours, and overall design language. The artwork for the diagramme was done by Brigitte Hartwig, now a professor at Dessau. The up-to-date diagramme (it is not a map!) is downloadable here.

Porcelain on paper

erik — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:22:28 +0000

We made this movie about Hering Berlin’s new brochure and 700-page catalogue:

Porcelain on Paper from erik spiekermann on Vimeo.

Colour of the Year

erik — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 07:20:26 +0000

I have never used many colours, apart from the basic typographic black and red. Twenty years ago, however, Alex Branczyk and myself designed the logo etc for FontShop. We thought light and dark would nicely represent the digital process of one and zero, as well as the process inside the laser printer. Black and white was too plain, so it became black and yellow. That colour scheme has become synonymous with FontShop and its products, like the FontFont library.

Nice to be finally recognized 20 years later by Pantone itself.

WordPress

erik — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:15:52 +0000

As even the occasional visitor to these pages will notice, I have switched to WordPress. We use that programme at SpiekermannPartners, so I could enlist the help of Marcus Scheller who imported most of the old content and built the site. Some of the formatting needs a polish, and all the downloads have disappeared into the ether for now. The ether, in this case, is our server, so it only (!) requires me to find the stuff and re-load it.

As it has taken more than half a year to get this far, don’t hold your breath. I am hoping that the inevitable break at the end of the year will allow me to sort this out and also learn more about WordPress features.

It is still the only blog I know that gets written by one person in two languages. Or is it?

San Francisco walks, 6.

erik — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:12:05 +0000

There are a lot of places in California named after saints. And since the Spanish missionaries were here well before any English-speaking Americans (or the Russians, who came down from Alaska and left their mark on place-names like Russian River), these towns start with San or Santa, depending on the saint’s gender. As in San Jose, Santa Barbara, San Rafael, Santa Clara, and, of course San Francisco. This one I found on a shop sign near Washington Square.

Never heard of that Saint.

Gutenberg, the movie

erik — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:43:32 +0000

The BBC movie by Stephen Fry has finally arrived on YouTube. It was broadcast last week but is only available online in the UK. This is the link to the first part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91smRXrEPRs