Samarskaya for Type Directors Club

As a board member of the AIGA/NY chapter and a frequent participant at TDC events and ATypI conferences, what do you think designers can get from being a part of professional orgs like this?

These organizations do a lot that benefit designers: fostering cross-generational community, setting standards, advocating for the collective, legalese and contract examples, financial surveys, inspiring and educating the next generation. It’s the road-building and structural engineering hub of our industries, what allows us to focus on our jobs instead of building entire foundations anew. They benefit whether you’re a member or not, so by becoming a member you’re able to give back and help play it forward (as well as getting various reward perks along the way).

What catches your eye in a new typeface?

Careful attention to the oft’ overlooked glyphs. A really sexy specimen*. An idea I haven’t considered, or had dismissed because it didn’t seem like it could be done well⁂.

*http://gt-america.com
⁂Minet’s Totentanz, or Gazdowicz’s Robinson in Light

You design type, web sites, and all manner of things. How do the different disciplines affect one another?

Branding leans so heavily on typography. As a designer, you’re constantly either choosing or tweaking existing type to get the right connotations across. I wanted to communicate things I couldn’t find, and dove very deep down that [type design] well to be able to do so.

I take a similar approach to both [type and visual design], where there’s no such a thing as a wrong (and thus, also right) style. It’s all about how the various elements align in order to sing in harmony, and how close they land to the intent.

What do you find fascinating or urgent right now?

Improving and iterating towards a better, more considerate, more diverse society. Globalism and tribalism and the way one lava-lamps into the other. Using all our tools of communication to express the environment we want to exist in. I find design and branding to be an incredibly hopeful exercise in worldbuilding.

Interview conducted in 2016 for the Type Director’s Club. Possibly it’ll be appearing in the Typography 38. Or possibly not! We’ll just have to wait to find out.