JAMES GRIESHABER
TYPECO

James Grieshaber attended the Rochester Institute of Technology, earning a B.F.A. in graphic design. He has been active in the typographic community for several years, most recently on the staff of P22 type foundry, where he helped establish International House of Fonts. He was honored for excellence in type design by the Association Typographique International (ATypI) for Gothic Gothic, and by TypeArt '05 for Operina Cyrillic. Grieshaber has now struck out on his own by starting a type design studio, Typeco, located in Rochester NY. Contact: www.typeco.com

How did you first become interested in type design? I first became interested in "letters" as a kid, when I found an old Speedball instructional lettering book in my grandparents' attic. I studied it and was fascinated by all the different styles and moods letters could invoke. I later became interested in "type" when I was studying graphic design in college. I realized the basic units of graphic communication are letters. And what could be a purer form of graphic design than the design of the type itself?

Who has most influenced your work, in or out of the design field? Neville Brody. He is a British graphic designer, art director and type designer who was extremely influential for me when I was in college. He did his own lettering, rather than using existing fonts, for album covers and magazine layouts. Also the work of Zuzana Licko, a Czech type designer who moved to California in the 1980s and started Emigré with Rudy VanderLans. And, of course, what techno type designer wouldn't mention the work of Wim Crouwel?

What is your favorite typeface that you have designed? It is usually the one I am working on right now. I suppose if I had to choose one of my published designs, it would be Gothic Gothic. In that font, I attempted a hybrid of an extended sanserif and blackletter styles.

What is the best-selling typeface you have designed? P22 Operina. It is based on a 16th-century lettering model of the scribe Ludovico degli Arrighi, from his instructional lettering book. Rather than try to reproduce a perfect, smooth, type-like version of Ludovico's hand, which has been attempted in the past, I opted to leave in some rough edges, and thereby created a look that mimics the endearing artifacts of quill-and-ink lettering on parchment. People seem to like it.

Is there any commonly-used typeface that you wish you could banish? I don't think there are "bad" types per se, but when I see grossly inappropriately used letters, it kind of bugs me. Like Arcadia (Neville Brody, 1990) used small — it just doesn't work; it is too fine and ultra condensed; it was originally designed to be used as really large display type in magazines. Or Brush Script all caps — oy! Most good art directors and designers know which types are good and how to use them, but because everyone has a computer nowadays with fonts installed, it is usually laypeople who do the most horrible typographic abominations.