Joint impressions of the first and second day of TYPO Berlin 2013 via Flickr. Everybody is welcome to contribute to the pool and share his shots:

Looking forward to day 3. See you tomorrow!

Henning Skibbe, Foto © Alex Blumhoff

The first thing Henning would like to announce is that all the work he shows is created in team work. Without the team of professionals the outcome would not be the same. According to the number of listeners, he is also a popular speaker: the stage area is packed and we all want to know about his insight into the micro typographic world.

Henning guides us through the re-launch of Süddeutsche Zeitung, art directed by Christian Tönsmann, where his part was to design a new SZ typeface. Today the world of newspaper is a hart business, no one can really afford to loose a single reader. It was essential for the project to design an evolution instead of a revolution.

The newspaper as a flexible but complex document that requires a typographic treatment with an answer to every detail. The font Excelsior, previously used in SZ was not flexible enough to react flexible. The idea to use Miller instead as a calmer typeface with the same roots, but with more typographic detail ended in the test phase: the value of grey (Grauwert), was too different.

By creating a new type face, all required details could be answered like a tailored suit. Henning created the SZ text with less wide majuscules, more open counters. He added a serif headline font to the SZ text font, where more expressive details could be implemented. The numerals in his font he describes as a hybrid of medieval and aligning numerals.

Analysing a page in detail you have 17 different formats of the SZ family on a square of 10×10 cm. Astonishing but they all work together as a team.

To end his talk Henning shows us an alternative solution to create the same flexibility as creating a customised font. For Stern the font Benton Sans was used in the magazine throughout. In Hennings words: “Benton Sans is solid but not really packed with emotional character.” For the re-design Henning combined a set of four typefaces to give each article a different voice and a different face that also communicates a different emotional connotation.

Well done Henning for making such a specialised topic transparent to the audience.

Sandra / GraphicBirdWatching

Grzegorz Laszuk at TYPO Berlin 2013 © G. Kassner

… ARE YOU DEEPLY DEPRESSED OR ARE YOU A GRAPHIC DESIGNER?

Endlich ist mal einer laut! Schon direkt nach dem Beginn seiner Performance ist klar, Grzegorz Laszuk ist kein Mann der leisen Töne, Buchstaben oder wie auch immer. Und HE KILLED THE POLISH SCHOOL OF POSTER…BUT IT WAS AN ACCIDENT. Die Mordwaffe in diesem Tötungsdelikt waren Photographie und Typographie und ein bisschen Beihilfe hat wahrscheinlich auch Berlin geleistet. Darauf eine kleine Hommage ICH LIEBE DICH BERLIN. In einer wilden VideoPunkElectroLivePerformance mit ein bisschen Geschichte, ein bisschen Psychologie, ein bisschen Märchen, Politik und natürlich Punkrock rekonstruiert Laszuk den Tathergang seines Vergehens für ein Publikum, dass nicht weiß wie ihm geschieht. Eine großartige Performance mit viel Selbstironie und Haltung. Schwer zu sagen, ob jetzt alle Freunde werden, wie die Schlusssequenz seiner Performance suggeriert. In jedem Fall sind jetzt aber alle wach und merken sich den Buchstaben T…FOR TYPOGRAPHY.

Ivana Rohr

#typo13 audience yesterday, photo by Gerhard Kassner

Friday May 17th, 2nd day of TYPO Berlin (UTC +2)

BDG Talk © G. Kassner

Christian Büning and Jakob Maser of the BDG teamed up to present us with the true facts about design as business. They refresh us with statistics of the eye opening, just published salary report based on a survey where they ask the relevant questions to 793 employed and 743 self-employed designers. The result of many answers this report reveals is shocking!

Designers seem to be very happy in their field of profession but are not at all paid for the services they provide. The educated and passionate designer rarely gets paid more than 3000 Euro before tax per month. Compared to other professions with a higher level education the designer doesn’t reach some of the privileges that are standardised in e.g. engineering. Designers have to learn to sell themselves much better and to calculate more honestly to also be successful in the business. Pension schemes, tax reductions, risk prevention are part of every profession and have to be cared for, the figures in the report show that this is not the case in the design profession. There is work to be done! Luckily things can actually change if the all designers team up and care about it, which is one reason why the BDG exists in the first place.

Weiterlesen »

Anthony Burrill © G. Kassner

Anthony Burrill is a self googler, almost musician and all in all remarkable and humbling creative, graphic artist, print-maker and designer.

Having created the “work hard and be nice to people” poster that adorns many a design studio, home and pinterest board, it was absolutely terrific to get an insight into his creative journey and process. Via a series of delightful anecdotes, there were tales of his hometown Rye, adventures with letterpress printers around the world, rock and roll, one of the worst hotels in the world, an infamous environmental disaster, and of course how his iconic print came to be.

Growing up, it was the photocopier around the corner from his house that served as the tool in which he could play and spend most of his time. He would assemble found things and words and make little photocopy books with striking, simple and bold type – an aesthetic he still carries in his work even to this day.

An early collaboration with KesselsKramer on the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel project (and apparently one of the worst hotels in the world) is a fine example of his clever wordplay, wicked humour and the beauty and simplicity of typography at its best.

Weiterlesen »

David Demaree © A. Blumhoff

David Demaree’s talk focussed on the physicality of digital media and the spread of information. He began though by taking us back to the early days of moveable type, explaining how physical barriers limited the scope of how far information could be spread. Factors like distance, time & cost of production and the number of copies of documents restricted people’s access to information.

The advent of the Printing Press changed that, a many-to-many communication which rapidly spread ideas throughout the industrialised world. David used the example of the Gutenberg Bible — the first book printed on a mass scale — being portable and bound was innovative at the time. Comparing Lectern and Pulpit bibles, we saw how design decisions were made about the fidelity, detail or richness of information against things like portability and size. Older forms of printed media had to find a balance of ‘richness versus reach’.

Weiterlesen »

Foto © Alex Blumhoff

With the launch of the second volume of typoversity, Andrea and Patrick take the opportunity to open a panel discussion and question Verena Gerlach, Prof. Andrea Tinnes, Jay Reynolds and Christoph Dunst about the future of typography at German universities.

Typoversity is the union of the terms typography and university. It is a plat form that provides the basis for output as well as input, it opens the discussion about typography and all it different tendencies. In typoversity2 Andrea and Marc started a call for entries where students were ask to send their typographic work. All in all they received 450 projects that the jury had to reduce to 45 showcases presented in the book. It was extremely important for the publishers that this book is not a ‘lookbook’. Instead it is content driven and only shows student projects which where the use of typography reflects this.

In the panel discussion it seems that the main enemy of high typographic level in Design is ‘hipster typography’, the phenomena of cool looking typography that doesn’t reflect the content in any way but gets popular only through its fashionable appearance. In the end all designers use the same tools but it is a very important task to teach the students a deeper knowledge of how to use them and to use them responsible.

Andrea Tinnes quotes Paul Rand, which in a way also summarises the discussion today: “Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions, there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.

Today’s panel discussion was driven clearly from the point of view of the teacher in typography, I hope the students in the audience still feel motivated and inspired to take on the challenge.

Sandra / GraphicBirdWatching

© Alex Blumhoff

Daniel’s talk about educational computer games for kids was uplifting and passionate.

In his introduction he guides us through a few case studies but also describes the coolness factor of advertising agencies as we go along. The audience laughed quite a bit which made this talk quite enjoyable.

Being an artist as well as a scientist, Daniel is interested in the part both professions have in common: solving the problem.

In children education you need to raise public awareness. Presenting the ‘Ampelinis’ as three cartoon figures he shows us how they teach the kids interactively and playful, how to be safe in their environment. Have a look on www.ampelini.de. Daniel laughs: It works quite well, up to the point where the kids instruct their mum to ware a helmet for safety.

If you work to develop an educational game for kids first of all you have to start with the parents, they are also the ones paying for the game.

He convinced us to drop the waterfall method and believe in the iterative method with the example of his ‘stickerstars’ project. He explains the method as such: 1. Making a guess, 2. Design an experiment, 3. Test it. Like a scientist you go through the process over and over again to have an outcome people care about. In a metaphor Daniel describes the method: ‘Change the way of gravity, create a flying machine instead’ that at some point will fly!

His final advice for us today was: Be passionate! Use your knowledge! Save the world! Thank you very much Daniel Trattler

Sandra / GraphicBirdWatching 

© Alex Blumhoff

Rude but exquisitely beautiful. That is what Julie and her work is about.

There was a man, he was a jerk and left her with these four everlasting words –
“Tak for lort bitch”. Which roughly translates to “Thanks for all your shit bitch”.

Fuelled with anger and emotion these few harsh words became the thing in which all creative and not so creative energies were channelled into. This reaction out of hurt and retaliation became an incredible process of curiosity, obsession, learning and self discipline and simply just rolling with the punches. Four little words that resonated in her ended up being the best gift ever.

After countless type treatments and explorations of the words, she wanted to push things further. It was Julie Jackson’s Subversive Cross Stitch that inspired her to explore lost craft (and very time consuming) techniques such as crochet, knitting, beading, and various forms of embroidery. There was something very empowering, interesting and wicked about marrying these crafts with such unmannerly content.

The first piece saw her crochet “Tak for lort bitch” (having never crocheted before) in cotton yarn measuring up to almost half a metre in size. The piece would put seasoned pros to shame. And she felt good. Really good. Good about beginning to let things go and good about taking on people’s encouragements to do an exhibition. And so, Be My Valentine, Bitch! was born.

Countless metres of yarn and paper, a few wooden tangrams, 18000 plus beads, 203244 pierced pinholes,17 shredded pairs of jeans, many a blue dust sneeze and a few hiccups later, she had pieces to show. These stats do not capture in the slightest the incredible effort, work and willpower it took to produce the pieces. A self confessed sickly perfectionist, each piece is meticulously handcrafted with the utmost skill, consideration and beauty.

This talk more than showcased Julie’s extraordinary craftsmanship, but was wonderfully personal and insightful. Her’s is a story about what can happen if you turn the negative in life to positive.

When life gives you lemons, ask for salt and tequila., Danke, bitch, you are brilliant.

Maggie Tang