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Watch Erik Spiekermann’s “Type Is Visible Language” talk

The web is more type than anything. We might as well get it right […]

As I mentioned in the previous post, earlier this year (sorry if this post is way overdue) I’ve help Marc Thiele with his Beyond Tellerand event in Dusseldorf: it was a great opportunity to connect to the local design community in Germany, but also to meet great designers I respect. So, this is the second “fan boy” post about the people I’ve met during the event, this with Erik Spiekermann:

Erik Spiekermann, born 1947, studied History of Art and English in Berlin. He is author, information architect, type designer (FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk and many corporate typefaces) and author of books and articles on type and typography. He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany’s largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. He is responsible for corporate design programs for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing, Bosch and wayfinding projects like Berlin Transit, Düsseldorf Airport and many others.

I remember reading “Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works” back in 1997, and it was a book that inspired me a lot. I’ve watched him online (you will probably remember his controversial comments on the movie Helvetica) before, so I was really looking forward to meeting Erik face to face (and get the book autographed, of course!).

My signed copy of “Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works”, autographed by Erik Spiekermann

In this hilarious talk, Erik says the web is more type than anything. We might as well get it right.

via beyond tellerrand on Vimeo.

By Itamar Medeiros

Originally from Brazil, Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Germany, where he works as VP of Design Strategy at SAP and lecturer of Project Management for UX at the M.Sc. Usability Engineering at the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences .

Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar has helped truly global companies in multiple continents create great user experience through advocating Design and Innovation principles. During his 7 years in China, he promoted the User Experience Design discipline as User Experience Manager at Autodesk and Local Coordinator of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in Shanghai.

Itamar holds a MA in Design Practice from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), for which he received a Distinction Award for his thesis Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments.

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