July 21, 2009
Interview Exclusive Hype For Type Frontman Alex Haigh Part 2
Creating a type foundry/type studio obviously puts a lot of emphasis on the “business of design” for you. I’m seeing a lot of creatives starting to build their brand through application studios, web stores, and other various online entities. Are you guys to striking a balance between the “business” of design while staying fully creative?
Absolutely not.
HypeForType has never been about ‘business’ it’s purely about my obsessive passion for design and typography. Whether it goes well or it doesn’t my main emphasis is on helping designers to evolve. At the end of the day that’s what we all strive for, the ability, persistence, and shear dedication to get to the next level. HFT is here to give designers the opportunity to work with typography and discover it’s incredibly important standing within design.
What was it about type that hooked you and you knew it was something you wanted to be involved in? Besides HFT fonts, got any other fonts that you absolutely love?
That’s a good question. I think it came by chance through my career. My first ever ‘design’ based role was when I was studying and also working at a newspaper setting adverts out. All of these adverts were type based, so after a while you started to notice peoples lack of passion for this job which in a sense was no suprise as creatively it didn’t offer the most rewarding output. However I think if you line up a piece of work with standard text, and a piece of work with the same typography that has been treated, kerned, placed and cared for you can see a massive difference. This detail separates good typography from bad.
In terms of a favourite font, that’s a tough one but I think Neo Deco, that Alex Trochut produced for the foundry has been pretty ground breaking.
Last question. What is your favorite application (mobile, or computer based) that you absolutely NEED to survive in the type game?
Freehand. I will never stop using it, it’s a beautiful program.
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Alex Haigh AKA Thinkdust AKA Hype For Type as interviewed by Jason Schwartz from Bright Bright Great.