Great question Sebilar! I am always anxious to know what people are listening to, in general. Personally, I love to listen to music while I work and design (and admittedly, I have never designed a full out typeface although I have lots of designs in progress). When I have to do grunt/production work, I tend to listen to Rock music - something with a heavy beat. It seems to help me concentrate on the tasks at hand and puts me into a regimented, structured frame of mind. When I am creating and sketching and ideating, I tend to listen to lighter music: anything from classical to jazz to pop music.

Speaking of music, this question reminds me of something I read in Heller’s book: The Education of a Typographer. It had to do with music and keeping an open mind and I think it was written by Terry Irwin. “Josef Müeller-Brockmann said he believed that, as we get older, our scope of acceptability narrows — it is simply human nature. But, he maintained, as designers, we must resist this at all costs, lest it handicap us as professional communicators. He described how each day, he would take some time to put on his Walkman and listen to rap music because he absolutely hated it. He wanted to keep looking at what was new and fresh out in the world and remain willing to step out of his comfort zone.”

I listen to music as much as possible during the day. It definitely helps my work flow smoothly. The choice of music is based solely on my mood at the time. Sometimes I feel like some Wu-tang or MF Doom, other times it is Erik Satie or Mozart. I do find that I have to choose the right music for my mood or my attention span and concentration suffers.

There is no greater music lover than I am (mostly opera but also R&B and Jazz) but It is too distracting when I work. I even named a type family I started last year Leporello after the character in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” but I did not listen while I worked.

ChrisL

I’m with Chris - if I listen to music at all while I design it has to have no words. However when I paint I listen to music all the time, or talk radio.

Check this site out: http://www.last.fm/group/Typophiles you’ll find listening habits in detail of some of our users!

This is, for me, the ultimate background for design:
http://karmamoffett.com/golden_bowls.html
pbc

i like to put on the streaming audio from iTunes. my favaorite is a hip-hop stream called Beat Basement.

i think the streaming audio is good for staying in the background when you don’t feel like fiddling around anything but your work.

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nc

I won’t put on music when I start work, but sometimes I’ll get a feeling in the midst of working that there should be some music. I don’t think there is a connection between the music I choose and the work I am doing: usually it is just whatever music I feel like listening to or, quite often, a recent CD purchase that I’m ’learning’. In rotation at the moment are two recordings by Ensemble Organum of early Roman liturgical chant.

”...early Roman liturgical chant”

That is exactly what I envisioned you listening to :-)

ChrisL

Love liturgical chants. Basically, my criterion is sacred music, from Bach to singing bowls to Whirling Dervish to the muezzin calling to prayer. It calms and focuses me…