Erik Spiekermann will be looking at the state of sans serif typefaces - who makes them, who uses them and why there is a never-ending supply of new designs for an old idea.
Erik Spiekermann is information architect, type designer and author. Two of his typefaces, FF Meta and ITC Officina, are considered to be modern classics. He founded MetaDesign (1979) and FontShop (1988). He is behind the design of well-know brands such as Audi, Bosch, VW, German Railways and Heidelberg Printing, among others; information systems for Berlin Transit and Düsseldorf Airport and for publications like The Economist. He designed exclusive typefaces for corporations like Deutsche Bahn, Bosch, ZDF (German TV), Cisco, Mozilla and many others.
Erik is Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen and in 2003 received the Gerrit Noordzij Award from the Royal Academy in The Hague. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorship from Pasadena Art Center. He was made an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA in Britain in 2007 and Ambassador for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation by the European Union for 2009.
In 2011 he received the German National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement and the TDC Medal as well as a Lifetime Award from the German Art Directors Club.
He was managing partner and creative director of Edenspiekermann with offices in Berlin, Amsterdam and San Francisco until June 2014 when he moved from that position to the supervisory board. He now runs an experimental letterpress workshop in Berlin. Erik splits his time between Berlin and San Francisco and London where his son Dylan lives.
In 2013 he and Ralph Du Carrois designed a typeface for Mozilla called Fira which – as a free font – has recently become a favourite substitute for Apple’s system font.
A monograph about his life and work “Hello I am Erik” was published by Gestalten Verlag in 2014.