| Typography:
How important is typography in your work?
It is a passion. Quite a lot of people know us mainly through our distinctive typefaces. We usually start with the type and try to create an image: An image can reduce a lot of sentences, meanings and feelings in one single form or shape. If needed, we add pictures, but typography is the main thing. We want to stimulate people’s curiosity and get them to make an extra effort and become more open to the message.
Where do you get ideas for new fonts?
The asian typefaces had a strong impact on us, because we can't read them. Once you cannot read a word, the forms that build it become the only thing you can see. So foreign alphabets are full of inspiration. Beside of that we get ideas from almost everything: from techno-design up to something as trivial as a fint taken from a ’70s noodle box.
What do you consider most when designing a font?
First of all, the font has to be fresh, unique and never been seen before. We don't want to do bodytext typefaces like ’Helvetica’ or ’Frutiger’ – there are already enough good ones of them.
How do you approach the importance of reading the typography in texts?
We often try to use text-information in form of an image. An image can reduce a lot of sentences, meanings and feelings in one single form or shape. By doing this we try to make a dense product as much as possible. And we try to keep it interesting. This is how most of our BD fonts were created.
Does typography have to be legible?
Of course it does! Otherwise you are not fulfilling your task, which is to inform.
Are fonts something typically ’Swiss’ in graphic design?
One of the classic themes of Swiss graphic design has always been the importance of typography, usually as sober and accessible as our fonts. So there’s a big heritage we carry on our shoulders;-)
Did you design the font used for the album ’Kid A’ from Radiohead?
Yes, we did. This font is called ’BD Plakatbau’ and can be downloaded for free under www.typedifferent.com.
What is www.typedifferent.com?
This is the online shop where our fonts can be downloaded – some of them for free: Check www.typedifferent.com. This small webshop was created "in house" together with our long time friend Kasper (www.humantools.com).
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