A former resident of the beautiful city of San Francisco, Nigel French is currently based in England, from whence he hails and where he works as a freelance graphic designer, trainer, and aspiring artist. His obsession with photographing type, especially mid-century American signage, seems to be getting worse. Lately he has taken to organizing his images into themed books and posters.

Nigel is the author of a book about Photoshop that no one read and InDesign Type: Professional Typography with Adobe InDesign (Adobe Press), as well more than twenty titles in the Lynda.com online training library. He also writes a type-related column for InDesign Magazine.

TYPO Talks: What inspires you?
Nigel French: The music of Nick Cave, the writings of George Orwell, the films of Stanley Kubrick, a beautiful sunrise or sunset, BBC Radio 4, a good veggie taco.

TT:  The theme of this year’s TYPO is Contrast. Can you give us an example of projects in your portfolio that contrast with one another? Or a project that contrasts with itself?
NF: This poster, A walk down Mission Street, attempts to capture the cacophony of contrasting typographic styles on the stretch of Mission between 16th and 25th Streets.

TT:  What other speakers at TYPO San Francisco are you most looking forward to?
NF: All of them. I’m in awe of such esteemed company. I’ve seen Erik Spiekermann before and he was very entertaining, so I’ll be sure to catch him again. Also Armin Vit and Marian Bantjes.

TT: What is your favorite thing to do in San Francisco?
NF: To go to a movie at the Castro Theater and to see/hear the Mighty Wurlitzer in action, to ride a bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, to find to a lucky legal parking spot.

TT: What are currently your favorite interesting/beautiful publications, books, movies and/or links?
NF: I’m a sucker for cat videos and a lover of film noir–so what could be better than Henri Le Chat Noir?

Nigel French

A former resident of the beautiful city of San Francisco, Nigel French is currently based in England, from whence he hails and where he works as a freelance graphic designer, trainer, and aspiring artist. His obsession with photographing type, especially mid-century American signage, seems to be getting worse. Lately he has taken to organizing his images into themed books and posters. Nigel is the author of a book about Photoshop that no one reads and InDesign Type: Professional Typography with Adobe InDesign (Adobe Press), as well more than twenty titles in the Lynda.com online training library. He also writes a type-related column for InDesign Magazine.

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TT: What does “contrast” mean to you?
NF:  Contrast is all about the edges.

Get your ticket to see Nigel and all of our other excellent speakers here.