1. Chris Papadopoulos

   Interesting interview. I thought this section here gave a lot of insight into how great design works.

   “I have great difficulty designing fonts without a function, a brief. I can’t create new forms, simply for the pleasure of those forms. In fact, it’s more the reverse: the function or brief inspires me to search for new forms”

   Also, that’s a pretty interesting ligature with the S + T in Henderson. I can’t recall ever seeing that combination before.

   ^Feb8²⁰⁰⁸

2. johno (iLT)

   Chris
   Thanks. That ‘historical’ ligature is not so uncommon — just not used as frequently as the standard ligatures, ff, fl, fi, ffi and ffl. For example, Feijoa is one of hundreds that has an ‘st’ ligature (see page 4 of the PDF specimen); there’s even a nicely executed ‘im’ ligature on page 3 of that same specimen.

   See also this Typophile node on the different types of ligature (e.g. discretionary and standard ligatures).

   ^Feb8²⁰⁰⁸

3. Roger Gordon

   @Chris:
   Yes, I also found that interesting. In addition, his comment

   Whether I create my own brief, or it’s supplied by the client, it’s by following it that I can create new things; the more restrictions I have, the more creative I will be.

   gave me some important insight into my own creative process. I’m exactly like that - I find it incredible hard to design something without boundaries. I suppose these boundaries help us to focus on what is important.

   I also found that ligature quite interesting. My favourite one is usually the ‘ff’ symbol, although I’m not too familiar with many others. Are there any resources listing common ligatures? Also, how does one ‘type’ these in software? Will they appear automatically in the correct software?

   I really like Henderson Serif. It strikes me as a very modern and powerful font that is really stylish and classical at the same time. It would look fantastic for an inline quote in a publication.

   Interesting post. Thanks a lot.

   ^Feb8²⁰⁰⁸

4. johno (iLT)

   Roger
   I mentioned using discretionary ligatures in this article (applies to the Abobe Creative suite). I’ll dig out something more comprehensive — unless anyone else can beat me to it. I’m a fan of Henderson Serif too.

   ^Feb8²⁰⁰⁸

5. Aaron Levin

   I have done numerous projects with Jean-François, and I consider him to be the greatest living French typographer today, and also one of the best in the world. I greatly admire him and love his thinking. This interview captures him completely: his vast typographic culture, but also the emphasis he puts on culture in general as a source of knowledge and inspiration; his sense of function and problem solving. As Roger Tallon recently stated in an interview to Magazine magazine (issue 42, APC, 32 bd de Strasbourg, 75010 Paris France, no website), we designers are “problematicians” (problématiciens).

   Vive la typographie! Vive Jean-François!

   ^Feb8²⁰⁰⁸

6. miha

   Oh, I love interviews! It was very interesting, there are numerous interesting aspects of this interview, but I especially like this quote: “Type design, then, is an intellectual rather than a manual job.”

   ^Feb8²⁰⁰⁸

7. Hamish M

   Wonderfully enlightening interview, John. Really enjoyed it.

   Jean François has worked on some really fantastic typefaces, a role model for any typographer, I should imagine.

   Item #356 of things to do when I’m rich and famous; have someone design a typeface just for me. Hehe.

   ^Feb8²⁰⁰⁸

8. Marlyse Comte

   Read this article with interest. The Frutiger has been one of my favorites for many years - of course I am influenced because when I went to art school we had calligraphy under Adrian Frutiger himself. The person and the lessons where character forming and inspiring, even though a torture for me, a “lefty”.

   Reading this article, it also shows J.F. Porchez having a lot of this special ‘quality’ or attitude which can be observed in highly… professional, artists like e.g. A. Frutiger. Fonts like the SABON NEXT are a treasure as they allow reading with ease and aesthetics to the eye.

   ^Feb9²⁰⁰⁸

9. Stephen Coles

   North American readers can get a good look of Parisine Plus in action by checking out HOW magazine, which was redesigned a few months ago and uses the beautiful family throughout.

   Jean François mentioned Xavier Dupré. For those wanting to know more, we covered his typefaces in a newsletter last year.

   ^Feb9²⁰⁰⁸

10. gemma

    nice header — en français!

    ^Feb9²⁰⁰⁸

11. Cody

    That header is absolutely amazing. I actually couldn’t pick the face out because I had never seen the courrier version of Le Monde before! Another one to add to the list.

    I really enjoyed this interview, insightful responses from Jean and it was great showing his fonts throughout the article. Kind of puts a voice to the font samples.

    Great great stuff!

    ^Feb9²⁰⁰⁸

12. inspirationbit

    I don’t know what was about this interview that made it so alive for me - it’s almost like I was listening to Jean’s talk, and hearing his voice. Thanks for this great read, John.

    I think Jean is the first type designer that I read about who draws letter forms right on screen with no prior sketches on paper: “the concept comes to me upon lengthy reflection in my head, rather than from a couple of hastily drawn sketches on paper.”

    That’s how it usually is with my designs.

    ^Feb9²⁰⁰⁸

13. johno (iLT)

    Aaron Levin
    Yes, it must be quite something to work with him.
    Problématiciens — what a wonderful word. I’ll try to get hold of a copy of that issue of Magazine.

    Stephen
    Thanks for the newsletter link; I missed that one first time around.

    gemma
    Bien sûr :)

    Cody
    Yes, I like this header too. In fact Jean François designed 4; it was really difficult trying to choose just one. I think I’ll post links to the other headers. Would be a shame not to use them. What do you think about using that flavour of Le Monde for the default header?

    ^Feb9²⁰⁰⁸

14. gemma

    The face behind the faces! Ambroise

    ^Feb9²⁰⁰⁸

15. johno (iLT)

    Vivien (inspirationbit)
    I somehow missed your comment first time around. I’m fascinated by those who design on screen. I just can’t do it. Almost everything I do (even my writing) starts on paper.

    Cody
    I’ve used one of Jean François’ headers for this French-language article. Will show the others soon.

    gemma
    Another Ambroise fan :) Be sure to print the Ambroise Specimen. It’s a small one, but looks gorgeous in print.

    ^Feb10²⁰⁰⁸

16. Cody

    Johno
    I would love the see the 4 different ones that he whipped up for the article. The French one is nice as well. It’s really interesting to see that the treatment of a French header isn’t so different from an English set one. Although, it’s probably because he is creating it inline of the iLT scheme.

    ^Feb10²⁰⁰⁸

17. RogueJunkie

    Not much left to say. I agree with all here. Great read and very insightful!! I too loved the fact that JF needs a brief to set his way into a great design; although it’s hard to believe that he does not doodle letters like crazy just for the fun of it, like many of us do.

    ^Feb10²⁰⁰⁸

18. Christian (neu)

    Great interview!

    Type design, then, is an intellectual rather than a manual job; and the tools have no direct influence on the forms; it’s more about what your own brain, culture and influences and reading brings to it that really makes the difference.

    I found this very interesting as I was under the impression the form was greatly determined by the tools historically used in type design.

    ^Feb10²⁰⁰⁸

19. leah

    Johno,

    Yes, I pretty much always base writing or drawings or projects of any sort on paper first. I always thought this was because I only had paper for such a long time, as a kid and into my teens, rather than computer technology, but it’s also probably got something to do with just being that sort of person. Or, more likely, the two influence each other in an inseparable way.

    Great interview! I feel like I’ve been away for ages…

    Also, I found the intellectual-rather-than-manual quote interesting because I have felt, so far in my self-induced typographic education, that it is a mix of both. That it is not completely intellectual (as writing academic papers might be), but not completely manual. This is a large part of what attracts me to typography — dealing with words and language but not in a sterile, academic environment.

    (I know, I know, academia doesn’t have to be sterile. But I often felt it was.)

    ^Feb16²⁰⁰⁸

1. mStudiosTALK | Memories of Adrian Frutiger—Feb 9, 2008
2. Face to Face | i love typography, the typography blog—May 1, 2008
3. Refresh Creative Media - Face To Face - What’s New On The Web—May 7, 2008

Reply to “Face to Face”