Type grocery: Type designer and type vendor. Short presentations and panel discussion: The type designer in direct contact with their buyers
As I’m a graphic designer as well as a type designer and font grocer, often my relationships with clients entail much more than just a quick sale.
Graphic designer, typographer and type designer, born 1942. Studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Freelance since 1972. Board Member of Association Typographique lnternationale (ATypl) and member of the Alliance Graphique lnternationale. Part-time professor at the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication of The University of Reading, UK and part-time teacher at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam.
Since 1974 he has been involved in digital type design. Some of his type designs are: Flora (1984), Swift 2.0 (1996), Amerigo (1986), Oranda (1987), Argo (1991), Gulliver (1993), Paradox (1999), Coranto (1999). Of these, both Swift and Gulliver are used internationally in newspapers, magazines and other printed matter.
He has designed the typeface for the new Dutch road signs, commissioned by the anwb and in cooperation with npk industrial design, Leiden. He was awarded the Dutch national
H N Werkmanprize in 1984 for the way he reconciled type design and technological changes, and in 1991 the Maurits Enschede Prize for all his type designs. He has also designed corporate identities, magazine, newspapers and books.
He writes regularly about his profession and has often lectured abroad. In 1997 his book about reading, ‘Terwijl je leest’, was published ( in Dutch). In 1998 he designed, heading a group of six designers, and again in cooperation with npk industrial design, Leiden, the orientation and information system for Rome in 2000 with, at its core, the type design Capitolium. This type design continues the 2000 year old and unique Roman tradition of public lettering.
Gerard Unger