Spiekermann, live and unplugged
This post was written by Clifford Boobyer on Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Design.
On Wednesday evening this past week I had the immense pleasure of attending a D&AD Congress 06 lecture by the great German designer and typographer Erik Spiekermann. He is a true ‘old school’ practitioner with a very impressive body of work that incorporates the redesign of The Economist, Audi’s corporate look & feel and many other high profile projects. In terms of typography, Erik is the artist behind well known typefaces such as Meta and Officiana; in addition to corporate commissions for the Deutsche Bahn, Nokia and Bosch. Currently he heads up the “United Designers Network” after leaving the well known company Meta Design which he founded in 1979.
Erik has a really pleasant demeanour and it comes across in his speech. Everything from parables about his early and humble beginnings to his quips about “don’t mention zee vor” is delivered with tongue planted firmly in cheek. It would be quite easy for the entire talk to be based on shop, yet Spiekermann interspersed his delivery with some very interesting and quirky design examples.
Take for instance the ‘visually stimulating’ Brazilian / Argentinean football poster skirmish pictured. It’s a fine example of design not taking itself too seriously and is sure to generate a chuckle. Argentina came out first, typographic guns a blazing with a visual metaphor that clearly states “We are intending to penetrate your defence”. I think you’ll find the Brazilian retort needs no explanation. I’m no real fan of football but let’s see some more of this mad poster design and I may just be converted…
erik spiekermann, meta, d&ad, typography, german, argentina vs brazil, congress lecture, the economist