Erik Spiekermann Quotes

The materials shape your idea.

They [letters] are my friends Some people look at bottles of wine, or whatever - girls' bottoms - I get kicks out of looking at type.

As we say in Berlin, there are many ways to bake a parrot.

The attention someone gives to what he or she makes is reflected in the end result, whether it is obvious or not.

Inspiration. From real life. I open my eyes and I travel and I look. And I read everything.

Typomania is curable but not fatal. Unfortunately.

Designers like even grayness, which is the worst thing for a reader.

Inher­ent qual­ity is part of absolute qual­ity and with­out it things will appear shoddy. The users may not know why, but they always sense it.

You are what you are seen to be.

I'm obviously a typeomaniac, which is an incurable if not mortal disease. I can't explain it. I just love, I just like looking at type. I just get a total kick out of it: they are my friends. Other people look at bottles of wine or whatever, or, you know, girls' bottoms. I get kicks out of looking at type. It's a little worrying, I admit, but it's a very nerdish thing to do.

These days, information is a commodity being sold. And designers-including the newly defined subset of information designers and information architects-have a responsible role to play. We are interpreters, not merely translators, between sender and receiver. What we say and how we say it makes a difference. If we want to speak to people, we need to know their language. In order to design for understanding, we need to understand design.

I'm very much a word person, so that's why typography for me is the obvious extension. It just makes my words visible.