Like the surgeon, the composer slashes open the body of his fellow man, removes his eyes, emptyes his abdomen of organs, hangs him upon a hook holding up to the light all of the body's palpitating treasures, sending a burst of light into it's innermost dephts
One of the things I have struggled with as a type designer is explaining what I do for a living. This was especially true when I was starting out. I might be at a party with my girlfriend, now my wife, and we would be meeting some new people for the first time. At some point, one of these people would ask, “So Cyrus, what is your job?” I lived in particular fear of this question. I knew it would involve a lot of explanation about what a typeface is, how drawing them really is my job, and that it really is all that I do.
However, I am happy to report it is getting easier. In the last couple of years, I have noticed that when I tell someone I am a type designer, it requires less explanation than it used to. People will say, oh you mean like the fonts on my computer. Or I think I read about someone who did that in the New Yorker or something. At least some awareness of typefaces has become common knowledge.
I enjoy talking about type design to people who aren’t designers. At a barbecue in someone’s backyard on a summer night in Providence, I met a mathematician. (I bet he hears a lot of uninformed questions about his job also!) He asked what I did for a living. I replied that I was a type designer, and he was quiet for a moment. His brain was up to something. I prepared myself for the worst. Finally, he said, “Wow, that must require a lot of non-linear thinking.” I nodded enthusiastically and we talked about the kind of systems thinking involved in type design. A typeface is a kit of parts, designed to be combined in any order. The networks of relationships between the parts, and the parts of parts, form the structures that hold the typeface together.
The most common question I get about being a type designer is this: “Aren’t there enough typefaces already?” The best response I have ever heard to this question is, “You know, I heard the same thing about people!” It is quite funny but probably comes across a bit rude, especially to people you have just met. For a long time, the best response I could come up with was a more diplomatic, although less articulate, “Oh well you know ha ha.” And then I would try to change the subject. “Aren’t there enough typefaces already?” isn’t a bad question though. There are a lot of typefaces. Even to a type designer, it can seem like everything has already been done.
(…)
Our audience is diverse and has strong ideas about what it wants. Typefaces can address these identities and needs. This is why there is still a need for new typefaces. And if we respect our audience, there will continue to be a need for new typefaces. So in other words, no, there are not enough typefaces already. I do have an answer to that question finally. I really should try to remember all this for the next time I am at a party and someone asks.
Cyrus Highsmith
Taken from___ The Type Directors Club.
List of his faces for The Font Bureau here.
