by Ever wanted to know what makes a type designer tick? Do you want to get inside the heads of people like Paula Scher, Paul Rand and Gerard Unger? Now, thanks to The Faces Behind Typefaces, you can read detailed conversations with these pioneers of type design and many more.
Specially designed to look like an editorial, The Faces Behind Typefaces was launched to coincide with the 75th anniversary of The Type Directors Club, part of The One Club for Creativity.
The club started with just 20 members in New York and has grown to serve a global audience of typographers, type designers, and lettering artists. It is known for hosting dozens of engaging online events, the annual Type Drives Culture conference, and the most prestigious award competitions in the profession.
With The Type Directors Club recently awarding Monotype Creative Type Director Akira Kobayashi with the prestigious TDC Medal, Readymag decided to create a web space for meaningful dialogue between generations of typographers.
Designed by Tatiana Egoshina, The Faces Behind Typefaces consists of seven chapters. These include Sven Lindhorst-Emme’s talk on Paula Scher’s role in type design, Qian Sun’s reflections on Paul Rand’s legacy, Douglas Davis’ discussion of Ed Benguiat’s impact on creative fields, reminiscences by Akira Kobayashi on Adrian Frutiger and many more.
Alya Datiy, Producer at Readymag, said: “Our passion for typography shines through in everything we do: the Readymag interface, the font library, the typography presets, and the projects and publishers we produce. Naturally, we’ve been eager to collaborate with The Type Directors Club for a while. When the opportunity presented itself, the announcement of this year’s TDC medalists, the concept came naturally.
“The Type Directors Club is all about supporting the typographic community, making connections and building new bridges, and with Faces Behind Typefaces, we wanted to highlight its impact. That’s why we decided to ask current members of the club, accomplished professionals and creatives in the rise, on the influence of typographic pioneers on their careers and vision.
“We were pleasantly surprised by how international and intergenerational ties developed in our interviews and their stories.”
Tatyana Kovalchuk, Editor-in-Chief of Readymag, added: “We wanted to convey how modern perspectives, as well as work ethic, could take root in the legacy of design figureheads and shine a light on exceptional emerging designers. So, first of all , we chose members to speak and then offered to choose the medalists whose works, approaches, and philosophy resonated with them.
“This seems to have led to a plethora of mind-blowing conversations. Luisa Baeta, deeply rooted in her career in typography and an active part of the global women’s network ‘Alphabettes’, met Gerhard Unger when she started her master’s degree classes at the University of Reading and later adopted some of his teaching approaches in his own projects.
“Then there was Fer Cozzi, independent typographic designer, author of award-winning typefaces and professor of the Master’s Degree in Typographic Design at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), who confesses that as a teacher he is personally adherent to Rubén’s study plan and teaching methods. Fountain”.
Beautifully designed with stylish black and white graphics, The Faces Behind Typefaces contains a wealth of information and context to help you broaden your typographic design horizons or dig deeper into a subject area you’re already familiar with.
Containing a plethora of typographic design examples covering everything from illustrations to architectural structures to social spaces, this web project also precedes Akira Kobayashi’s presentation of the TDC Medal as part of The Creative Hall of Fame ceremony. One Club for Creativity, which will take place in New York on October 27, 2022.
