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Erik Spiekermann is information architect, type designer (FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, Nokia Sans, Bosch Sans et al) and author of books and articles on type and typography.
He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany's largest design firm which has offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco.
In 1988 he started FontShop.
In July 2000, Erik withdrew from the management of MetaDesign Berlin. He now lives and works in Berlin,
London and San Francisco, designing publications (like The Economist magazine), complex design systems
(like Corporate Design for Bosch and DB, German Railways) and more typefaces. His new design firm is called UDN United Designers Network.
http://www.spiekermann.com/iblog/index.html |
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What did you have in mind when creating your T-1 T-shirt design?
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All sports have rules and measurements. design also has rules,both technically and esthetically .The illustration shows the grid of the football fieald,the layout of the football page, the system behind it. That is like designing a book, a page in a magazine: there is always a system, but it is usually invisible behind the content. As a German designer, I know that people expect my work to be precise, follow the rules and have intelligible criteria like measurements. German football is very disciplined, so that also fits the prejudice. There are a lot of illustrations for football out there showing dynamic images of men kicking, jumping and celebrating goals. I wanted to merge one of the other aspects of the sport with one of the aspects of design. The headline is written in German (Das Fussballfeld means The Football Field, of course) with that funny double-s character only our language uses. This is like Vorsprung durch Technik, the slogan used by Audi Epeople may not know what is means exactly, but they get the German connotation. I am not sure whether people will understand the irony of this design, but even if the don't, the illustration offers some useful facts.
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What sort of places or situations will best fit your T-shirt design, do you think?
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(No answer)
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Has your final T-shirt design turned out the same as you initially imagined it would?
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I tried lots of different ideas Emost of them involving illustrations of football pitches with names of players on them, just names of players arranged in the typical 4-4-3 or 4-3-4 positions, but they were all a little too abstract and intellectual for a T-shirt. Once I had the idea with the pitch, it only took a few minutes to get it right.
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When you were designing your T-1 T-shirt, how did the process compare with your normal work?
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Yes.I did not involve anybody in my office. Normally I do not work on my own.
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Please give your T-shirt a name.
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Das Fussballfeld
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Please give us a message to all the people who visit the website, to spark their interest in your T-shirt.
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Play fair, play by the rules, but don't let that spoil the fun. If you have any music that would best fit your design T-shirt, please let us know! ??? Is there any strikingly memorable T-shirt or impressive T-shirt that you remember? (eg./ The T-shirt which the actress wore in the film...etc.) There have been many with clever slogans on them.
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If there is any music that would best fit your T-shirt design, please let us know.
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??
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Is there any strikingly memorable or impressive T-shirt that you remember?
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There have been many with clever slogans on them.
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What is your favorite food?
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German cheesecake and Marzipan.
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Are there any countries that you'd like to travel, if you had the chance and time?
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Come back to Japan for at least 4 weeks and travel the whole country.
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Are there any people, things, happenings, that have especially influenced you?
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At my age that would be too many to mention.
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What do you want most? Anything? |
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Time.
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Is there anything that you recommend us to check out? Any items, events, etc?
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Come to Germany for the World Cup. Summer here is nice, especially in Berlin.
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Who would make you most pleased if they were to wear your T-shirt?
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All the intellectuals who love football but are afraid to admit it.
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If you have any news or information about your recent or upcoming activities, please let us know.
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I just received an honorary doctorate from Art Center in Pasadena, California. And this summer, our Berlin office will move to a new location to have room for our expansion.
Check the websites:
http://www.spiekermann.com
http://www.uniteddesigners.com
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