Equating Rock Star with someone willing to sit and determine the specifics of glyphs, ligatures, and kerning pairs is a stretch.

One of the most prolific would be User 827.

I've never met him, but I'll bet he's pretty hip.
; )

Isn't it better for you to decide for yourself?

why?

just to disabuse you, i am NOT a rockstar. just a guy lucky enough to make some $$ making type. now Joshua Darden, Christian Schwartz, Ken Barber... there you have some real talent! Oh, and there's one thing i can agree with fontplayer on, Alejandro Paul is a script genius! Other designers that I look up to that frequent these boards (in no particular order): Mark Simonson, Nick Shinn, Hrant Papazian, Stuart Sandler, Randy Jones, Christian Robertson and future rockstar Chris Lozos.
For a fuller listing see Typophile type designers

Swedish Stefan Hattenbach definately rocks!

Is the rumor that Herr Spiekermann himself has, and still does, frequented Typophile true?

Almost everyone, albeit occasionally, frequented typophile. Maybe an exception are Rudy Vanderlans and Zuzana Licko?

About your list, Paul, I think is quite incomplete, although I'm not so actively participating to know who was, who's been and who is here.

By the way, Paul: I saw your Kilkenny typeface. Wouldn't it be possible to have a PDF of it? I see most IHOF faces have it.

I grew a fondness for late 19th and early 20th century faces (which I used to quite dislike) in the last year or so, and I collect material.

I have a Coca Cola tray which reproduces a calendar from 1891, and I always guessed if the face used was a lead type. It's "Kilkenny Swash", so the lead original is probably to pre-date at least of 5 years compared to your 1896 dating.

sweet thanks paul! Too bad their aren't wiki's on a few of them so i can read up on them though.

It's better to decide for yourself because it's better to decide who makes the type you admire most yourself. Then it might mean something. Maybe it's just a semantic difference. If you had asked whose type we admire the most that would be easier to answer. When you write 'rock-star' then it feels kinda creepy.

When you write ‘rock-star’ then it feels kinda creepy.

I agree, that is how I felt originally after reading it. If there is a star here, in my mind it is aggregately all the people who are so helpful. And the Type ID forum pretty much rocks!
; )

Ahh gotcha. I mean who do you admire I suppose. Rock star just seemed like it would attract more people to the thread. And party I also was thinking these people are sort of famouse in the type industry so i used the term "rock star".

Well, famous is another thing. In certain circles Graham Meade of Typotheticals is famous for all his free fonts, and his L'ab work especially. He is getting known for his commercial fonts also.

Gerald Giampa (ex owner of Lanston) was kinda rock star styled and frequented this forums alot until he got to sail the seas.

Héctor

Oh and Jim Rimmer (candian punch cutter) is some kind of underground rock personality.

Héctor

Vince Connare of Comic Sans and Trebuchet fame has to be considered. He rides a motorcyle and runs Alienware too!

Some outstanding American type designers not posting here: Robert Slimbach, Sumner Stone, Matthew Carter, Christian Schwartz, Tobias Frere-Jones.

Some type luminaries posting: David Berlow, Erik Spiekermann, and Jonathan Hoefler--all outstanding type designers and heads of founderies--FontBureau, FontFont, and H & F-J respectively.

The most creepy & useless thread! The Ego season? Just delete it!

Why exactly? I started it out of curiosity...

This is fairly helpful though:
http://typophile.com/node/20643

Utterly pathetic.

Well this thread is redundant to boot since I started a similar thread a few weeks back. Not to grease any egos but more for my own edification, to better understand who was posting.

http://typophile.com/node/19891

Using the word 'rock star' sends off vibes of the whole American 'celebrity' sickness. But to understand who is posting is useful, as Patty says. Someone may give good or bad advice whether they are still a student or have a record of 40 years of accomplishments. Still, I kind of like to know the context, and I think most people do.

I notice that now Identifont.com has pretty good designer profiles; maybe we should have a place on the profile to link to a profile there or elsewhere. That could also be linked on the 'wiki'

I also inadvertently insulted a typophile member's font and would like to be more careful in the future. Another reason to know who's posting.

> Why exactly?

Don't take it (too) personally.

Let's see ... Cyrus Highsmith - rock star? What about Akira Kobayashi? And John Hudson?
And Jean Francois Porchez? And...And....

Spiekermann is probably the most famous "regular" here.
RvL did participate momentarily, and Licko has been here
anonymously (back when that was allowed) as far as I'm
concerned.

BTW William, Christian Schwartz is around.

As for Paul, he's an emerging star, plus he rocks, so that's like 75% there.

--

Patricia, you should definitely not limit your
criticisms to the work of people who are not here. :-/

hhp

Who are the country stars here?

I just want to KNOW who I'm insulting ;-P

I think Yves is the only real rockstar on here. :^p

Then I guess that makes Dezcom and I "golden oldies" (like Bo-Diddly and The Big Bopper) ;-O

In the late 80s I played sheet metal and oil drums in an industrial percussion band called Puke Theatre. But we were about as un-rockstar as you can get.

Oh John, how delightfully wretched. It sounds like a sit-com from BBC.

I think the parallel is really inappropriate and awkward. So few type designers seek fawning attention, and the work is so different and un-spontaneous. There's also the issue of quality that the very term "rock star" ignores.

A favorite, and more appropriate metaphor: Shoes.

> A favorite, and more appropriate metaphor: Shoes.

I wonder who the Imelda Marcos of Type is? ;-P

>So few type designers seek fawning attention, and the work is so different and un-spontaneous.

Yeah, Christian Schwartz announces on his 'Orange Italic' that he's "prepared to be famous"--knowing that no type designer is ever going to be famous.

But to lighten up about the 'rock star' thing:

To be a rock star you have to be under thirty and ridiculously successful at what you do. Hoefler was a rock star, but sorry now he's just a type designer. Hoefler & Frere-Jones could have been a 'boy band', but now they're just working stiffs. That makes today's actual type rock stars: Underware--whoops they just got too old--and the aforementioned Mr. Schwartz, who shortly will be just another overworked type designer.

Get to work Kris Sowersby! :)

Plus rock stars have an awfully high fatality rate, which wouldn't be good for the typography industry.

I have enough trouble shaking off the groupies and paparazzi without being a "rock star" as it is!

That's why I always wear my "Groucho" disguise ;-)

lol. who would have known the term rock star to cause so much trouble :\ well besides hotel managers that is. Makes for an interesting read though!

Me… I am a rock star. I like to rock out.

I am the John Barry of type. Loud, brassy, dramatic.

Who are the country stars here?

ROFL

Check out the type battles... rock stardom there is self evident.

Oh John, how delightfully wretched. It sounds like a sit-com from BBC.

It sort of felt that way at the time. From one of our concerts, a friend's girlfriend had be rushed for emergency dental surgery because the vibration impacted one of her wisdom teeth. At another ill-advised gig our only audience was an old man who had come in for the cheap beer. I have a recording someplace, but it doesn't do any justice to just how bad we were live.

Narrow it down, who has thrown a TV from their hotel room or parked a Roller in a pool?
Tim

William's more narrow definition of a "rock star" is interesting and clever.

In my rock band days we played CBGBs. But try playing aggressive urban rock to an audience waiting for the ska headliners. It was ugly!

William’s more narrow definition of a “rock star” is interesting and clever.

Yeah, but I don't think you need to be under 30. I would still call Matthew Carter a "rock star." Truth be told, when I was asked to describe him by some of my designer buddies, that was the actual term I could used.

Rock Star=1. Larger than life persona
2. High level of notoriety in your field
3. A person that exudes confidence and/or charisma
4. One who performs rock music for a living and is astronomically successful at doing so

The term "rock star" in and of itself isn't bad, its just the context that its used. Its kind of like talking about how great your "lawnboy" is at a landscaping convention.

Notoriety? Carter? Has this terms meaning morphed on me?

Hey Terry, will you be in Boston?

"What does that mean, in-famous?"
"In-famous is when you're MORE than famous. This man, he's not just famous, he's IN-famous. "

I am the only type rock star here. Everyone else is too classy.

Choz Cunningham
!Exclamachine Type Foundry
The Snark

Riiight.

:)

Gig before last was a band logo. My most recent font is dedicated to the DIY libertarian real punk bands of the '70s. My next font is inspired by the work of Korn's Johnathan Davis, as well as a classic book from Innovation comics. So thats rock star type, in a way. Well, more appropriately it is progressive trans-media emulation, but really, isn't rock dead?

Me
!It
Us

Hopefully Brighton 2007 AtypI will be Rockers and Mods so Rockers rule and we all dress in Leather or Macs....

Yves fits Choz's definition.
Perhaps the rest of us are between a rock and a hard place :-)

ChrisL

Yves? Which definition?

Stephen Coles is one.

Hardly a rock star, but I was part of the Kenyan punk scene in my high school days... Two of my tracks were released on our collective EPs and everything.

> Yves? Which definition?

I presume my bald head reflects that much light people mistake it for a star. And I rock. So maybe that’s why? Dunno...

Right On Brother!
:-)

ChrisL

How about the Peter Grants of type?

Could we call people like Thomas Phinney and Sii Daniels the Leo Fenders and Les Pauls of type, since they’re the men behind the technology used by the Rock Stars?

The definition originally intended by the person who started the thread; EG who are the big deal folks in the world of type here on Typophile is getting lost here. Even though I disparaged the idea of talking about that as a subject as being merely an opportunity for losing one’s own sense of what’s important I think that sliding off into talking about who makes fonts & makes tunes & behaves in a rakish maner ( or is somehow like a les Paul ? ) is even sillier and doesn’t help the person who started the thread. But that’s just my opinion. Okay, enough cold water from me! Cheers Yves!

I almost see your point, but there are very real distinctions between the types of type people here.

In the world of musicians, there are those who are rock stars due to popular acclaim. But, even the biggest rock stars have stars, “musician’s musicians” they call them. No matter how big or how good or how famous a rock star gets, there is still always someone that they admire and want to meet.

Same thing for Typophiles.

I’m the O.G. Hip-hop type designa
I’ll battle anyone anywhere
So beware

M to tha @

Folk arts.

Giampa

Happy New Year Gerald!

ChrisL

I feel like there could be too many “rock stars” in the world right now. Everyboy seems to be turned into one by the media, no matter the field… :=(

It’s part of the West’s cult of personality, where everybody is either a hero (just watch “Higglytown Heroes”) or a villain (just watch Fox News). This flies in the face of reality, where almost everybody is in fact just a ho-hum peon.

hhp

It’s part of the West’s cult of personality...

How are personality cults a western phenomenon? Do the gigantic film and music industries of Nigeria, India, China, Hong Kong, and Japan just not count?

You really think you can draw a clear line between East and West?

Travel, travel, travel.

hhp

It’s about time for some press releases of type designers checking into rehab for heroin addiction. And some reality TV shows with hysterical battles over kerning pairs would be good too.

I’ll be at the His n’ Hers Salon on Cienega tomorrow at 2 pm frantically shaving my head. Bring your cameras.

I always relish meeting all the Typophiles (and all the off-Typophile type folk too). But it’s also true that cetain people whose ’eye’ or ideas (or both) matter to you are especially nice to talk to. Not that it will ever come to that - but being treated like a ’rock star’ sounds tiresome & dehumanizing to me.

It’s about time for some press releases of type designers checking into rehab for heroin addiction.

Heroin is so last year. Its cocaine. :) Requires less tools, and quicker in bathrooms. A lot of New York designers are into it. That’s why so many work 12 or more hours a day. I wish I was joking, but I ain’t.

Some really party like rock stars, including the sex and drugs part. Though, “sex, drugs and graphic design” doesn’t have as much of a ring to it. Sex, drugs and type design? Um...you’d have to ditch the first word. :)

The rockist type event of recent years would have to be the TypeCon San Francisco party.

Based on attitude and performance, I nominate Joachim Muller-Lance (drummer in the band), Tony and Caio de Marco and Max Kisman, crazy dancers. And hhp for substance abuse, of course :-)

I was in an elevator with Mathew Carter at last year’s TypeCon. He did not travel with an entourage or band of bodyguards. He talked like a real human being, joked, and seemed like a regular fellow. I am glad to see he was not so smitten with himself to be acting like a rockstar even though he had recently been written up in the New Yorker.

ChrisL

Matthew Carter hasn’t been called the shiznit for nothing. :^D

>not ...acting like a rockstar

I have been involved with two other groups of professionals—academic philosophers and Jewish educators.

I have found type design people to be MUCH more open, kind and helpful to one another. I haven’t figured out why, but I love it. Hats off.

Maybe I shouldn’t write it and ’jinx’ it, so next time I have a terrible experience. But I don’t think so.

Not to mention jacket abuse... You know I had to send a small gift to the
gracious lady who cleaned that mess up, just to numb the guilt a bit. :-)

hhp

Hrant, I’ve heard so many stories about this! Anybody got some embarrassing blackmail pictures to post...please? :)

I maintain that it was a self-cleaning mechanism,
and the subsequent shut-down a conscious decision.

hhp

Ah, so type designers are like smooth jazz musicians. I’ve met the latter many times (although I play a slightly different style), and they are some of the nicest musician that I’ve met—in comparison to other genre in general—being warm, down to earth and naturally interesting to talk to.

Calling them a rockstar would almost be an insult, if you know what I mean ;-)