The Typeface of Choice for a Professional?

This builds on earlier posts I've made on my PPP blog, I've mentioned that I spoke to Lee Goater at a private viewing of his. Whenever I'm in a situation where there may be the potential to get information from an industry professional I always tell myself I should have some questions ready to ask them, and almost every time I think of the same question: "What's your favourite Typeface?", it often comes across more trivial and conversational than questions others would ask, but it genuinely interests me. So I've decided I'm going to compile a list of professionals, alongside there favourite Typeface. It seems ambitious, but I'm hoping, if I keep it up over the course of 3 years it could be quite a good source of information. Also, if I go about it in a professional way with ingenuity I could design myself some graphic material to accompany it, perhaps a website? Either way I think it's a good idea, and could get interesting. Below are the first 3 I've collected:

Lee Goater (Designer) - Akzidenz Grotesk & Baskerville, also likes Simplon & Suisse BP*

David Craig (Designer) - Helvetica, least favourite is Comic Sans

Brian Tweddle (Sculptor) - Gill Sans

*I've not came across either of these fonts, so a quick look as part of my Type Journal could be useful.

Expo 13 Art & Design Seminar

Today at 2 o'clock I attended an open seminar at Leeds University for the Expo 13 scheme, it's to get students involved with careers in the arts and showcases seminars, careers fairs & workshops. The seminar I went to was simply titled Art & Design; and there were 2 guest speakers, professionals from the Art & Design industry that told us about there experiences. Brian Tweddle, a sculptor, told us about the current types of projects he's been working on. His work was more theatrical than what I expected, he mainly specialises in directing groups of people to work on installations that he's designed, there's a massive interactive quality to what he does. The other professional was David Craig, a designer with his own design consultancy. His work was closer to what I tend to specialise in, but still very different, which opened my eyes to just how massive our creative industry is. David designs spaces, he is experienced in the field of architecture, and brings this as another tool on his workbench. A lot of the visual material he showed up was 3D rendered autoCAD pieces finished off in photoshop.

I'm pleased I went today, I learned some advice from these people that is adaptable to any career in Art & Design: Speak to a lot of people, and try and make lots of contacts. Say yes to a lot of people. 

Someone I Admire

When I was 11, I got my first real taste of what Graphic Design was at Secondary School in 'Design & Technology' lessons. I'd always been arty, drawing from a young age etc. but these lessons seemed more real. Designing for a purpose excited me, I adapted to it really well and excelled above my classmates. There was no doubt to me that Graphic Design was something I wanted to develop further, I knew fairly early on that I would go for a career in this field, and I still know that now. One of the reasons I enjoyed those lessons so much was because of my teacher; he'd been in the industry for years and I can remember being so inspired by his passion for the subject. We used to listen to stories of projects he'd done for companies like Ferrari, and I used to think it was so cool, I knew I wanted to do what he'd done, in a field of work that I knew I really loved.

When I think about it now, what I want more than anything is to see myself in 5 years time sitting in a studio designing for big firms and experiencing the real life aspects to a design led career. And I also think that one day, maybe once I'm satisfied with what I've achieved, I'd like to go full circle and teach what I've learned to a younger generation.

Lee Goater Exhibition

Tonight I attended the private viewing for Lee Goater's new exhibition 'Faces - Anatomy of Autonomy', and I really enjoyed myself. The body of work focuses on simplistic graphic illustrations of peoples faces; it seemed to me as though his intentions were to illustrate human diversity through minimal dots and lines. I really liked that the project had an interactive element to it, above I've shown photographs of a table, where Lee had set up template stamps for people to try their own piece of work in his style. I've also since downloaded an iOS app of his, where you achieve a similar effect by swapping hairstyles, eyes, mouths etc.

I was actually lucky enough to meet and speak with Lee, and I asked him the one thing that was on my mind, which was what the typeface he used that was fluent throughout the body of work was. I'll be honest, I was convinced it was Avenir, but it was in fact Akzidenz Grotesk. One of the very first of the Swiss stlye Sans Serif type. He even explained to me why he preferred it to Helvetica; to put my mind at rest, I've responded with a little piece that questions the comparison between the classic Swiss Sans Serif Akzidenz Grotesk, and the more modern Avenir. Personally, they're both up there in my list of favourites.