Feature: Typography
Beyond Latin
As digital tools liberate type design from arcane limitations, more people become free to communicate using their own alphabets and languages. Gerry Leonidas chairs a panel of designers discussing the global state of ‘non-Latin’ type
James Mosley: A life in objects
Through his ideas, collecting and dogged research, the former St Bride librarian has shown that printing history can be both lively and opinionated. The world of typography owes him a great debt
Four seasons
Micha Weidmann’s art direction for a cookbook by London chef Ollie Dabbous, with photographs by Joakim Blockstrom
Moscow by type
For the underground railway of Russia’s capital, wayfinding experts City ID commissioned A2-Type to make the Metro’s first typeface and pictogram system
Writing the city
Signwriter Pete Hardwicke has left his mark on a significant area of London
Reputations: Fred Smeijers
‘My father was a mechanic. Respect – for tools and for the material with which you work – is one thing I got from him. When the chisel is not sharp enough to do a certain job, even if it is just one cut, do not think you can get away with it. Sharpen the chisel properly and only then use it for what you wanted to do.’
Reputations: Mucho
‘We were interested in working internationally, to learn from different cultures and to know how design behaves globally. We had international clients. But you really need people in those places to stay active. So the answer is sharing.’
Reputations: Irma Boom
‘I compare my work to architecture. I don’t build villas, I build social housing. The books are industrially made and they need to be made very well. I am all for industrial production. I hate one-offs. On one book you can do anything, but if you do a print run, that is a challenge. It’s never art. Never, never, never.’
To have and to hold
The challenges of digital publishing have galvanised a new spirit in book design and production. Is it just the decadent flourish of a disappearing format?
Powered flight
For fifteen years, Pegasus, an international biannual corporate magazine designed by Derek Birdsall, led a charmed life.