Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.03.2016, Qupperneq 55

Jonathan Barnbrook is a veteran
London-based designer, creating nu-
merous iconic typefaces such as Pri-
ori and Mason. Over his long career,
he’s worked with everyone from the
Occupy group to the Sydney Bien-
nale and David Bowie. We caught up
with him ahead of his appearance at
DesignTalks.
Your design seems to inhibit a world
of its own, with a distinctive aes-
thetic that has evolved throughout
the years, but carries an unbroken
visual thread. Is this willful on your
part? Are you aiming for a consis-
tency?
I have had no actual plan but there
are certain interests which reoccur
in my work. I am astounded at the
beauty of some typography, how it
seems to both be an expression of the
human spirit, and to directly express
political or social ideologies. I have
also had a ‘failure’ to keep my mouth
shut—I‘m sure I could be a much rich-
er designer if I had simply produced
nice work and then got some big cor-
porate jobs and taken the money. But
I could always see the implications
of doing a job for a company I didn’t
agree with. A lot of designers conve-
niently ignore these implications in
favour of large projects, but that was
never the path for me.
As a person who has sold typefaces
for over two decades, do you see
some ebbs and flows of fashion in vi-
sual language?
I honestly don’t follow visual trends
that much, but I have noticed that
when I first started in the late 1980s
there was a love of "vernacular" and
"naïve" fonts. Vernacular in that the
fonts were made of people’s imme-
diate visual environment. Naïve in
that young designers were suddenly
allowed access to the previously
"professional" area of design. Later
there was a move towards typefaces
that would work for everything, i.e.
would have all of the weights, char-
acters you would need for multina-
tional work. Now there seems to be
a trend for a bit of naïve simplicity in
the drawings. I find that fonts have
similar cycles to fashion—what’s hap-
pening is often a direct subversion of
what went before, and that trend will
come around again a few years later.
What’s popular from your catalog now?
My most popular font by far is Bour-
geois. It outsells everything else by a
considerable margin. I never expect-
ed that, but I’m happy about it be-
cause it wasn’t an easy font to create.
Your type work is unquestionably on
the “expressive” side of things. Do
you see your typefaces viscerally,
that is, do they carry a strong mean-
ing, and do you ever feel
that they’re being used
“wrong”?
I see the whole of cul-
ture, civilisation and hu-
man history when I look
at a piece of historical or contempo-
rary lettering. I understand the pa-
rameters that made the lettering look
like it does. How language was at the
time, and how that can be used in re-
lation to now.
You’re coming to Iceland to talk,
what’s the thesis?
I hope to motivate a few Icelandic
designers by saying that they don’t
have to just take the corporate route
to making a living. I’m also sure that
people will be curious about what it
was like working so closely with Da-
vid Bowie, so I’ll talk about that too.
What was working with Bowie like?
What type of input did he have?
What amazed me was how respect-
ful and funny he was. He always
had time for me. I remember going
to New York, saying if we needed to
meet then we could. I said I was with
my mother, and so when we turned
up at the hotel there were flowers
for her, and a present from Iman. He
also invited me to his rehearsals, and
asked what songs
I would like him
to play for me. I
think he was like
that with a lot of
people he knew.
He didn’t need to
do all that. I miss
his presence in
my life.
You can read a longer version of this interview at:
gpv.is/barnbrook
Jonathan
barnbrook
By Sveinbjörn Pálsson
Tom Loosemore was responsible for the gov.uk project—a very large-scale dig-
ital transformation of something very stale. This government website changes
the interaction that people have with information—and they can get in touch
with real people, behind the system. It’s design that radically changes thet way
in which government and power structures communicate with the public and
with individuals, which is innovative in spirit.
Maria Giudice works on experience
design at Facebook. Before that, she
had her own startup experience de-
sign company in Silicon Valley, so she
has experience from both cultures.
She posits theories on “leadership by
design,” saying that design is perhaps
forming a new generation of leaders.
She called this generation DEOs—
Design Executive Officers. She says
these are people who are creative,
but analytical—they get shit done.
Jonathan Barnbrook is interesting
because of his collaboration with Da-
vid Bowie, of course, but he’s also an
example of someone designers can
relate to—he’s a graphic designer
working with and for different types
of highly creative people. He has a
clear voice—but he’s also worked
with groups like Occupy. There’s
something very interesting in that, as
a profile. To ask: “How do you nur-
ture your creative spirit across these
different areas?”
Finally, Marco Steinberg will also be here—he’s an architect but he’s focussed
on helping leaders and government innovate. He’s from Finland and he’ll be
moderating the day with me, then hosting an expert session on design and
government, with some of the others. We also have some local voices in ac-
claimed illustrator and product designer Katrín Ólína, and Dr. Þorvaldur In-
gvarsson from the Össur prosthetic limbs company.
To find out more, and buy tickets, visit designtalks.honnunarmars.is.