Commercial Type | 2015 North American Tour for AIGA DC Design Week | Design is within the fibers.
design, fashion, "art direction", diversity, "Sela Lewis", "New York City", NYC, DC, "graphic designers", "creative directors", animation, environmental, "web development", black, "African American", women, fashion, interactivity, Sela, Lewis
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Commercial Type | 2015 North American Tour for AIGA DC Design Week

18

Oct

Commercial Type | 2015 North American Tour for AIGA DC Design Week

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Before one very rainy night with good friends on the way home, I had never heard of Chris Schwartz. I had worked with his type designs, being a user of FontFont. I had read copies of Vanity Fair while pretending to exercise at the gym. I’d even read guardian.co.uk while I was pretending to work. But I didn’t know at the time I was reading from the work of one of the most skilled, intelligent, and insightful type designers of my generation.

DCDW ’15: Commercial Type. 2015 North American Tour

I say of my generation because you don’t really hear about young artists and designers primarily focusing on typography. Like me, we dabble. We like abstract, highly-stylized concepts, but not many settle full-time into an elegant type that has broad appeal.

 

Which is why it was so important I meet him, and his partner Paul Barnes, a graphic designer who was the art director for Spin magazine which helped form my angsty youth (again, of my generation). I wanted to meet someone who understood type at the granular level, who took careful time to craft lettering, to learn how they worked, and to meet another face I hope to meet again in New York.

This was the last leg of Commercial Type‘s U.S. trip. Paul could not be attendance, as he had family obligations. But for Chris, this was his last U.S. trip before leaving for Singapore.

 

Hosted by LivingSocial, Commercial Type was also kind enough to provide us with type specimen books. Those booklets also contained healthy notes in the margins about the historical context of each type. As Chris puts it, we all standing on the shoulders of giants.

 

It was clear Chris was well-seasoned, as his style of delivery was very relaxed, well-paced, and gave us plenty of time to take in the details of the process. My favorite section was the development of the signature typeface for Vanity Fair. He and his team presented an “Old Hollywood” style he was certain they would love. They did not. When he went back to his team to tell them the bad news, he remind them that you can convince anyone to settle for your idea. But you can’t convince anyone to love your idea. He went on to say that we are tasked with coming up with a tool. And if that tool isn’t useful to them, we have to try again.

DCDW ’15: Commercial Type. 2015 North American Tour

I’m really glad I got this opportunity. I don’t think I’ll be a full-time typographer. But I will continue to learn from Commercial Type’s techniques. Who knows, one day, I may purchase a type family, and animate for Times Square.

Maybe.

Select photography courtesy of Angela Wolak and Anisha Payne.

 

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