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WEDF Talk: Erik Spiekermann

Great to see Erik Spiekermann back in Bristol. We’ve been to lots of his talks over the years and he never disappoints!

Here’s what the WEDF have to say:

This talk will talk type, and WEDF are thrilled to welcome Erik Spiekermann, presenting his career in type, old and new technologies and how he utilises them both in the work he produces today. We’ll also hear from Jonathan Doney, the current Chair of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) who will not only introduce Erik, a board member and former President of ISTD, but also talk about the society and how it has become recognised as the authoritative body for typography worldwide.

Warning: This lecture may contain four-letters words* and a German accent. Erik is presuming the audience will have an advanced knowledge of typographic terms and an interest in words and letters.

Erik will talk about the path from letterpress printer to graphic/type designer and back to letterpress printer. He will tell us stories about the studios he has started along the way notably MetaDesign and Edenspiekermann which are both operational in several countries, and how he invented the digital distribution of fonts with FontShop, designed lots of typefaces and today has ‘progressed’ to making digital typefaces into wood type. He now runs an experimental letterpress workshop in Berlin that designs, prints and publishes. Amongst other things, it uses over 500 cases of wood type from 8 to 60 Cicero, the German equivalent of a ‘line’, aka 1 pica, but about 7% larger. (You were warned about the advanced knowledge of typographic terms!)

Erik always follows the motto, “Don’t work for arseholes, don’t work with arseholes”.

*The Yanks say that Erik has a potty mouth!

Erik and Jonathan return to Bristol 11 years after their first trip here together on their ISTD ‘Kern Up the Volume’ tour when they really wanted a branded tour bus but had to settle for public transport!