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Erik Spiekermann

Adrian Pacheco

Advanced Lettering & Typography

Prof. J. Thompson
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Erik Spiekermann, born in 1947, holds a wonderfully vast understanding of type as a tool

for communication at a variety of different scales. He has spent the greater portion of his life

working with type and has witnessed the evolution of the tools people use to publish

information and share it around the world. Spiekermann began his work with type at an early

age, using movable-type printing presses to compose newspapers in his own basement while

he studied Art History at Berlin’s Free University. Before opening his own type-foundry, Erik

Spiekermann trained under Günter Gerhard Lange at the H. Berthold Type Foundry (Kondrup,

2016). Spiekermann understood the exchange between ideas and the materials they are to be

presented by, “…the material shapes your idea”, he says in an interview with author Johannes

Erler. Precise computer technology allowed Spiekermann to create type accurately and share it

efficiently, but he continues to share his love of movable-type print with newer generations of

designers. Spiekermann’s passion for type comes from his determination to create open and

efficient forms of communication.

Type and design across Europe has been influenced greatly by the work of Erik

Spiekermann, he has trained hundreds of type designers in Berlin and London through his work

at various design firms like MetaDesign and Edenspiekermann. Spiekermann founded

MetaDesign in 1979 along with Uli Mayer-Johanssen and Hans Krüger (Torcasso, 2013).

Spiekermann stresses the importance of working in teams when it comes to designing new and

improved forms of communication, information must be presented in a way that is easily

shared and understood by most of the population. Working in teams also stimulates unity

across visual styles, something that was incredibly vital to Spiekermann and his team

throughout their redesign of Berlin’s transit authority signage. Through his work and knowledge
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of type and design, Spiekermann was put in a position to have a resounding influence on the

visual culture of the world around him (Wagner, 2011).

Erik Spiekermann has always sought to make the best use of the evolving technologies

he has seen come and go throughout his life-time. Spiekermann began his work on modular,

movable-type printing presses, but throughout the 80s and 90s, typographic work was being

done mostly on computers. “The constraints put on by letterpress [are] determined by the

materials that you have”, but Spiekermann uses these constraints to his advantage, he takes

advantage of the intimate level of control over the type and the precise use of his own hand

(Kondrup, 2016). When those constraints are lifted, a massive amount of work can be created.

Spiekermann amassed a large amount of original and redesigned digital typefaces, some

notable typefaces including FF Meta, FF Unit, and ITC Officina Sans. Continuing his efforts to

create more open methods of communication, Spiekermann, along with his then-wife, Joan

Spiekermann and Neville Brody, founded a marketplace for digital typefaces in 1991 called

FontShop. Coinciding with the founding of this global marketplace, a physical compendium of

type was compiled called Fontbook, revised versions included thousands of type samples from

90 different foundries across the world.

Spiekermann truly believes in the value of strong, identifiable type-design within public

and private forms of communication. While working with the teams at MetaDesign,

Spiekermann and Uli Mayer-Johanssen pushed the idea of “strategic visual communication”.

“To produce satisfactory work, we must understand how signs transport and convey messages,

so we can create adequate forms and provide unique and concise appearances.”, says Mayer-

Johanssen in her interview with David Torcasso. MetaDesign grew to become one of Germany’s
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largest design firms because of the concise and informative quality of the work they produced

(Torcasso, 2014). From his corporate design work in London, he brought to Germany the idea

that private businesses and public organizations could develop their own individual brand

identities. From 1979 to 2001, MetaDesign oversaw the branding for big names in industry like

Volkswagen as well as public services like Berlin Transit. Another notable redesign in 2001 for

the magazine The Economist focused on improved paragraph structure and typeface legibility.

Spiekermann left his position at MetaDesign in 2001 and founded the United Designers

Network, the company would grow and merge with a Dutch design agency, Eden Design &

Communication, ultimately rebranding themselves under the name Edenspiekermann and

opening offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, Singapore, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The new

company continued Spiekermann’s relationship with The Economist, spearheading another

redesign in 2017 as well as working with other corporate partners like Google, Mozilla and

Redbull.

Eric Spiekermann’s knowledge and expertise for typographic design comes from his

intimate understanding of its tools and techniques as well as his passion for collaborative work

and communication. He has recently returned to more traditional type practices for type-design

at his personal foundry in Berlin, Galerie p98a. Spiekermann combines new and old

technologies to create beautiful work, delicately carving digital typefaces onto woodblock using

CNC (computer numerical control) routers for use in traditional movable-type printing presses

(Erler, 2014). Printing technologies have changed since the times of Gutenberg, but

Spiekermann carries on the knowledge and legacy of movable type because he appreciates the

beauty of the type and the intricacies of the process used to create it.
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Works Cited

Erler, Johannes. (August 28, 2014) Hello, I am Erik: Erik Spiekermann: Typographer, Designer,
Entrepreneur. Gestalten

Kondrup, Gloria. (2016) In conversation with Erik Spiekermann. Association Typographique

Torcasso, David. (June 5, 2013) Uli Mayer-Johanssen. Freunde von Freunden.

Wagner, Ole. (2011) Erik Spiekermann - Putting Back the Face into Typeface. Die Gestalten
Verlag. https://vimeo.com/19429698