GC Aesthetics BBC interview
GC Aesthetics CEO Ayse Kocak talks about her views on women in business. Ayse is the first woman in the world to head up a breast implant manufacturing business and is passionate about supporting women across the globe to make more informed decisions about what breast implants they choose.
GC Aesthetics CEO Ayse Kocak talks about her views on women in business. Ayse is the first woman in the world to head up a breast implant manufacturing business and is passionate about supporting women across the globe to make more informed decisions about what breast implants they choose.
The Death of Typography?
As a creative director I get to cast my eye over my fair share of portfolios from fellow creatives and I am often asked for my opinion on the contents. Lately I have found myself increasingly at a loss for words as I attempt to sugarcoat my response. The reality is; I am often left deeply saddened by the amount of students and young designers that simply neglect typography and don’t actually know an ampersand from their elbow.
As a creative director I get to cast my eye over my fair share of portfolios from fellow creatives and I am often asked for my opinion on the contents. Lately I have found myself increasingly at a loss for words as I attempt to sugarcoat my response. The reality is; I am often left deeply saddened by the amount of students and young designers that simply neglect typography and don’t actually know an ampersand from their elbow.
As a Typographer and Type Designer myself, I am always naturally drawn to the intricacies and nuances of the way designers set type and the reasons for their choice of typeface. I believe this detail speaks volumes about the way a person approaches their work and problem solving in general. Interestingly, it isn’t the lack of detail that concerns me – these are skills you learn over time with experience – it is the lack of the basic knowledge of typography and its rules that are most alarming. Many students fail to understand basic terminology such as leading, kerning, ascenders, widows, orphans and counters. And one didn’t even know what an ampersand was!
I’m not saying everyone should know what colour tie Max Miedinger was wearing when he designed Haas-Grotesk forEduard Hoffmann at the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei in 1957. But the basic anatomy of our alphabet and its application surely isn’t too much to ask from any human being, let alone a design graduate.
As a young designer, I was always led to believe that if you want to be a rule breaker and rock the boat, you first need to learn the rules and understand them. The difference between incompetent and incredible is knowledge.
My greatest fear is that the traditional rules and typographic techniques that were drilled into me as a young graduate are being lost forever. Students today are either not being educated correctly or for some reason are not interested in this essential design skill. I know that the years I spent hand drawing letterforms and pestering experienced typographers for tips and advice were not wasted. I know this because they have made my life as a communicator a simpler one.
Of all the design crafts, typography has to be the most important. As a designer it is the most powerful tool at your disposal and one you will use every day of your life. The ability to set type and control the connotations of the message is to control the minds of the reader. An appropriately chosen typeface can make copy appear sad, happy, aggressive, exciting, modern or traditional. In fact, when used effectively, it is without doubt THE most powerful communication tool available to a graphic designer. That is why in my humble opinion; the most influential designers in history were also typographers, typesetters or type designers.
A long time ago, I was taught to choose a typeface based on how it made you feel – not because you have seen it somewhere else. A lot of students no longer want to create and discover techniques for themselves; they would rather replicate ideas found on one of the many design compilation blogs. These ‘hipster’ blogs have become a short cut to thinking for many students – they don’t want to go out on a limb and experiment anymore. Instead, they create disposable design and judge its success based upon appearance on a blog. They should be creating real long lasting solutions to real problems for real clients. That is successful design.
If these skills are not passed on correctly, the future will be bleak. It will consist of generations of designers who believe that it is ok to set an email in Comic Sans!
Written by Darren Scott
Creative Director
Truth Founder, Darren Scott Interview.
This is a copy of a recent interview with Truth Creative Director – Darren Scott by The Salford Type Foundry.
Darren’s typographic journey began, as detailed below, when, as a student, his first typeface Berlin(er), was chosen by Neville Brody to be included in the seminal publication Fuse (15).
This is a copy of a recent interview with Truth Creative Director – Darren Scott by The Salford Type Foundry.
As STF is dedicated to championing fledgling type designers, education is clearly at its core. With this in mind, our Features section offers a series of interviews with leading typographic practitioners in order to obtain a greater insight into their working procedures. This is the first in that series. STF was fortunate enough to secure an interview with Darren Scott of Darren Scott Typographics at the agency where he is Creative Director, Truth in Manchester.
Darren’s typographic journey began, as detailed below, when, as a student, his first typeface Berlin(er), was chosen by Neville Brody to be included in the seminal publication Fuse (15). From here his compulsion, dedication and desire to produce typefaces saw him submit type designs all over the world, including T-26,FontFont and more recently MyFonts and Hype for Type. His commercially driven output has seen him be commissioned to design typefaces for Fanta and The People’s History Museum.
In this article Darren discusses, amongst other aspects, his type heroes, methodologies and tips for success, whilst demonstrating his vigor and continued delight in all things typographic.
Can you discuss your typographic heroes, in terms of the work that inspires you, both historically and contemporarily and the inspiration this has on your own practice?
Firstly I think it is really important to have heroes, someone that inspires you to achieve more and want to be better. My heroes were always typographers and type designers, from the age of 15, when I first saw Neville Brody’s work for Face Magazine. It made me realise that type could be illustrative and decorative and communicate a whole lot more than what the words were actually saying, and also that typography was about controlling how messages were read and controlling the emotion behind the narrative. Brody’s work was always so decorative and impactful, it pushed the layout to it’s limit. This then led me to the work ofJan Tschichold, then Constructivism, Dada and the Bauhaus.
I obsessed about the rules, the grid, white space and the importance of craft. Then David Carson came along and tore up the rules and stuck them all back together again with a PrittStick and called it ‘Grunge’. This changed everything, the rules went out the window and suddenly everyone was a designer as craft didn’t matter anymore.
I quickly became bored of this lack of structure and sought influence in the work of Erik Spiekermann at Meta Design, the Germanic obsession with the grid and precision typography really inspired me. It was around 1995 by this point and Neville Brody became probably the biggest influence on my future career path when he chose my Berlin[er] typeface for inclusion of FUSE 15 – the experimental digital typography collaboration. (I decided to put the brackets on the er of Berlin[er] as the name Berliner was already taken by an older Erik Spiekerman typeface).
This opportunity coupled with the invaluable guidance of David Crow (another massive influence) really inspired me to draw my own typefaces and not settle for what was available to hand at the time, which at the time as a student was system fonts, and a purchased copy of FF Meta which a fellow student had carelessly left on a shared Mac in the Salford University Mac suite. Meta is such a beautifully crafted font and a real icon of 1990s typography for me.
On graduation I sent a few crude fonts I had been working on toCarlos Segura in Chicago, I remember it well as his email was the first email I ever received as an employee of McCann-Erickson. He offered to take my shoddily cobbled together ramblings of typefaces and market them via his new type foundry T-26. He offered to sell all 6 once I had finished off the basic character set of 256 glyphs. Looking back at them now they are very badly produced and the character shapes are full of basic errors. But I quickly learnt from that and continued to learn, develop and release fonts.
During this period I was introduced to the late Phil Grimshaw, who was a legendary type designer and master calligrapher. Phil took me under his wing and we attended the ATypi Conference together in Reading where Phil introduced me to some of the most influential typographers and type designers of our times. People like Erik Spiekermann, Lucas DeGroot, Matthew Carter, Timothy Donaldson and Alan Kitching to name a few. I also remember watching Adrian Frutiger talk about his Univers typeface at ATypi in Lyons France. That was a real seminal moment for me as he is beyond a legend, he is a God, and the audience hung on every word he said as if it was his last. The one hero that I wish I could have worked with is Herb Lubalin, he defined American typography, his work was so ground-breakingly beautiful and reminiscent of that period of glorious American advertising.
In recent times I have been lucky enough to have some of my heroes produce numbers for our birthday posters, with Milton Glaser designing a 4 and Wim Crouwel designed a 5. Also Si Scott who does some amazing work with hand-drawn type produced a 2 and Supermundane produced my favourite so far which is a wonderfully illustrative 3, which is a real thing of beauty.
What gives you the greatest pleasure in type design?
The greatest pleasure I take from designing fonts is firstly the achievement of working out what is essentially solving a great big puzzle, but then seeing how people interpret it and the context in which they use it. Only by drawing type yourself do you really understand the skill and craft required to create a perfect character shape, like the New Baskerville 2 or the Gill Sans lowercase g, things of such beauty, an impossible dream. I once spent a day redrawing the Pistilli ampersand just to walk in his shoes and understand the process and level of craftsmanship that went into producing such a seductive character. I remember I blogged about the whole experience and a young American Designer contacted me to ask if I would send her the artwork to have tattooed on her back. I did, and she did!
Why is type design still relevant?
Of all the design crafts typography has to be the most important. As a designer, it is the most powerful tool at your disposal and one you will use every day of your life. The ability to set type and control the connotations of the message is to control the minds of the reader. An appropriately chosen typeface can make copy appear sad, happy, aggressive, exciting, modern or traditional – it has that power. When used effectively it is without doubt the most powerful communication tool available to a designer. That is why in my opinion the most influential designers in history were also typographers or type designers.
Any key tips for budding type designers?
The one thing that progressed the quality of my type design was trying to master the drawing tools and in particular Bezier curves. These are a very important thing to invest time in mastering. Simply knowing where to place points, and how many, really improved the quality of my character shapes when designing, helping to speed up my glyph production.
Can you explain your processes of making, by which I mean how do you begin to design a typeface, where does the inspiration come from for the original characters, and how do you produce them?
Typically font design for me was always about getting things out of my system. Not being able to find the font that had the exact emotion I wanted, so I drew it. This led to further internal conflicts with myself as the process of designing any font is a long intimate one that involves many hours of spacing, kerning pairs and adjusting side bearings. You spend a lot of time doing the technical aspects and you soon disconnect yourself from the emotional and visual qualities of the character shapes. You spend a lot of time focusing on the space between the letters rather than the actual letters themselves.
This means you start to look at your own finished typefaces as pairs of letters and as character shapes and it becomes hard to disconnect from this and see the emotion again. This means using your own fonts can become slightly uncomfortable and frustrating. This meant that once I finished and tested a font, I didn’t really use them within my own design work.
However, it does give you a heightened respect for the truly great fonts like Gill Sans, New Baskerville, Frutiger, Franklin Gothic, Univers to name a few classics, and the truly great designers like Erik Spiekermann, Jonathon Hoefler and Matthew Carter who continue to produce ‘Classics’. You take more pleasure from using other peoples fonts once you really understand the amount of skill and effort that goes into producing them.
I soon realised what really gave me the most pleasure was seeing how other people interpreted my fonts and the contexts in which they used them. Once your fonts start popping up everywhere you quickly start to realise whether you achieved what you wanted or that you have created something completely different to what you intended.
Corporate fonts are very different as you are typically responding to a brief. It is a problem solving process rather than a personal piece of expression.
Usually with a headline font the client will have a basic idea of what they want and may even provide basic sketches or even a set of crude digital characters. It tends to involve a lot of back and forth with clients (who tend to be creative agencies) and with their clients too (Corporations or brands). I tend to use a paper and pencil very little to draw fonts, not because I think this is wrong, it just isn’t the way I work. I used to draw a lot of the characters in Adobe illustrator first then import them into Fontographer in the early days. I see character shapes as exactly that, geometric shapes based on basic shapes like a circle and a square, these can be manipulated more effectively digitally. I was always inspired by the simplicity of Futura, it is an alphabet of circles and squares, it is über efficient.
I don’t come from a calligraphic background and I don’t really have those skills, I wish that I did, but I really don’t have the patience for it. The thought of designing a script scares the hell out of me, and I guess that is why you don’t really see great script fonts anymore, it is a dying craft. Once I started working in FontLab it became so much easier to draw directly into FontLab and go from there.
Why is client servicing so integral to agencies?
There’s no denying the importance of the your customer has. So as an agency that creates brands and the experience of them, our own customer know-how is paramount to any level of success.
Many agencies often miss the importance of client servicing, but to enable a high level of client retention, it must be an integrated aspect of any agency offer.
There’s no denying the importance of the your customer has. So as an agency that creates brands and the experience of them, our own customer know-how is paramount to any level of success.
Many agencies often miss the importance of client servicing, but to enable a high level of client retention, it must be an integrated aspect of any agency offer.
There are a number of key elements that help create a positive client experience with an agency, here’s a run down of my top five…
1. Relationship, Relationship, Relationship.
This doesn’t mean you need to invite a client to your wedding reception, but it does mean that you should nurture a client relationship. Take the time to make a call on Friday afternoon and wish them a good weekend, give empathy about their excessive workload and make genuine offers of how you can help them. Over time you’ll find common ground and turn the relationship into a lasting one.
2. Making Life Easier.
A good account handler will strive to make their client’s job easier. It’s how we add value, and it’s how a client can start to trust your capabilities over time. Never assume a client thinks you’re great without proving it. At higher client level this might be a great piece of insight, or thought provoking competitor activity. It might just be helping out with pulling information together or reporting on levels of activity. It should be relevant and timely, and ultimately make your client’s life that little bit easier.
3. Managing Expectation.
Valuing a client is critical to their perception of you and your agency. If you commit to a deadline then stick to it. Remember that if you’ve promised a client they will have something, they may well have promised it to someone else; so if you can’t deliver it on time (and it must be a good reason) then manage the expectation and give the client plenty of notice. More often than not, clients will accept the delay if they are presented with a contingency at the same time. It shows that you and your agency have done everything possible to get the job done and this shows commitment to the relationship.
4. Show Genuine Interest.
Marketing professionals can be incredibly time-starved and as a result, they often don’t have time to stop and reflect at achievement. If you know they’ve got a board meeting to present results, then make a note and follow it up by asking how it went. Give genuine enthusiasm when things go well and your client took the time to tell you about it. Similarly, show support for when things don’t go as planned and how you can help to improve it next time.
5. Be The Epitome of Calm.
Agencies are stressful. They are fuelled by last minute demands and last minute changes without any movement on the deadline. Great client servicing is about communicating the challenges of short deadlines but that you will do everything you can to deliver it (making life easier again). Regardless of how busy you are, never show a client you’re stressed. It makes them nervous that you’re incapable of delivery. Mumble all you like in the office, but before you answer the phone, breathe and smile. They won’t even notice, but they will think you’re an agency in control.
Reputation Management.
In summary, client servicing should be about protecting your agency reputation and your personal one. As the face of the agency, client-servicing teams are the first and last point of contact, integral to the success of the client’s brand experience.
Jo Scott
Managing Partner, Truth Design.