In a fun and fast-paced hour, members of the official FontFont TypeBoard will assess and review entries. It’s a golden opportunity to gain invaluable advice, tips and feedback as to how to develop your typeface further and to hear from some typographic heroes.
So, if you are attending TYPO Berlin or are in Berlin on Friday 17 May and would like your typeface to be judged in front of a live audience, make sure you attend FontFont’s first TypeReview.
How it works
On Friday 17 May at 13.00 in the Nest at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), Erik Spiekermann, Erik van Blokland, Stephen Coles, Andreas Frohloff, Jürgen Siebert and Ivo Gabrowitsch will take to the stage to consider, review and criticize your entry in front of an audience.
How do I enter?
If you would like for your typeface to be publically judged at TYPO Berlin, please come along to the Info Counter on Thursday 16 May with a sample/specimen of your typeface to hand it in. The FontFont TypeReview will then take place the following day, Friday 17 May at 13.00 in the Nest. Due to time constraints, although we’d love to see a full family (if you have one) you can also just enter one weight and style.
FAQs
I’d really like to enter my typeface to FontFont TypeReview but I don’t have a ticket to TYPO, does this matter?
No, you don’t need a TYPO ticket. This session is open to everyone; just make sure you inform the door staff that you are attending FontFont’s TypeReview.
I don’t want to enter a typeface but I’d still like to watch, is that possible?
Yes, you can still watch. As places are limited, please make sure you arrive on time.
This sounds like a great idea but I’d much prefer to submit my typeface to the official TypeBoard, how do I do so?
The official TypeBoard takes place on 15 May. All details as to how to submit your typeface can be found on our Become a FontFont Designer page.
Can I submit my typeface to the official TypeBoard AND TypeReview?
Yes, of course you can, please just inform us clearly that you would also like your submission to be considered at the TypeReview as well as TypeBoard when you send it. Please note, you will need to be able to attend on the day if you wish to enter TypeReview. All details as to how to submit your typeface to the official TypeBoard can be found on our Become a FontFont Designer page.
Art Historian, Information Architect, Type Designer, Author (Berlin, San Francisco, London)
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, San Francisco and Los Angeles until June 2014 when he moved from that position to the supervisory board. He now runs galerie p98a, an experimental letterpress workshop in Berlin. Erik splits his time between Berlin and San Francisco and London, where his son Dylan lives.
A book about his life and work “Hello I am Erik” was published by Gestalten Verlag in 2014.
Photo: Dennis Letbetter
Type Designer, Programmer (The Hague)
Erik van Blokland is Co-Developer of robofab and UFO. He works as Type Designer and programmer and he teaches at Type & Media at the KABK in The Hague.
Writer, Typographer (Oakland, California)
Stephen Coles is an editor and typographer living in Oakland and Berlin. He publishes
Fonts In Use and
Typographica, consults with type foundries on editorial content and with various organizations on typeface selection and licensing.
Stephen is author of the book
The Anatomy of Type (The Geometry of Type in the UK), and serves on the board of the
Letterform Archive. He was formerly a creative director at FontShop and a member of the FontFont TypeBoard.
Designer Liaison at Monotype (Berlin)
Andreas Frohloff, born in Berlin in 1956, manages and develops, in his position “Designer Liaison”, the relationship to external exclusive type designers of the Monotype libraries. A calligrapher and type designer by profession, Frohloff has been hosting calligraphy workshops for many years. The lecturer at several academies was trained as a sign painter and graphic designer, and graduated in combined special studies in typography and educational sciences. (Photo: Max Zerrahn)
Marketing Director / Monotype (Berlin)
Born in 1954, Siebert studied physics in Frankfurt. After receiving his degree in 1985, he worked as a science journalist, wrote his first book and moved from Frankfurt to Hamburg. There he co-founded the graphics magazine PAGE in 1986, and ran it as editor-in-chief until 1991, when he moved to Berlin. In Berlin, Siebert initially worked for two years for FSI FontShop International, where he published the first FontFonts, FUSE and the FontBook. In 1993, he took over marketing for FontShop Deutschland and in 1996, organised the first TYPO design conference; he started the Fontblog in 2004, and then in 2011, Creative Morning Berlin, as well as the TYPO offshoots in London and San Francisco. TYPO Days followed a year later. Since the autumn of 2014, he has been responsible for the German-language marketing for Monotype GmbH and initiated TYPO Labs and Brand Days.
Ivo Gabrowitsch is an eCommerce Marketing Director at Monotype and is responsible for FontShop,
Linotype, and
FontExplorerX.com. He also directed marketing activities for FontFont and FontShop before FontShop International was acquired. After having worked for several years as a media designer on different print and non-print projects, he attended the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, where he was awarded a Graduate Degree in Print and Media Engineering. In 2006, he founded “Typostammtisch”, the regular typography meet-up in Berlin.
Photo: Norman Posselt
