All stories related to: Interview
Dribbble Interviews Ian Brignell
Overtime with Ian Brignell
Overtime is Dribbble’s audio companion and our first foray into the world of audio. In this interview, Dan talks with letter, logo, and font designer, Ian Brignell.
Thanks Dan!
EDUCATE YOUR EYE: an Applied Arts Mag article by Ian Brignell
“Balance, rhythm, draftsmanship, composition…” Students interview Ian Brignell
Two graphic design students from Humber College (Toronto) contacted Ian because they wanted to feature him and his work for a project assignment. Part of their project included this interview. Our thanks to Austin Anthony Louis Mateka and Ryan Yake for allowing us to post it here.
What inspired you to get into the field of typography, lettering and design?
It may sound strange, but it all began for me in grade 4 during reading class. I remember being fairly bored with the book I was supposed to read, and my mind wandered until it was struck by an idea. I decided to sharpen my pencil as much as I could, and then I attempted to duplicate, size-as, the 16 point century type that was on the page before me. It seemed like it might be amusing. And it was. I no longer have this early example of my work, but the results were good enough, I guess, to hook me for life. It’s as if letters became living, real entities for me.
Besides this moment, which was specifically about type, I should mention that I was always drawing and painting in my spare time. Art was probably the most significant thing for me as a kid, besides playing sports and watching tv. I’m pretty sure that drawing is the most important skill in what I do now, since it forms a foundation for things like balance, rhythm, draftsmanship and composition.
In grade 10, I was lucky enough to be in Miss Esford’s art class, and she introduced us to calligraphy. I loved it, and soon I was doing the graduation certificates for the school, yearbook artwork and signs for local businesses. I bought books, and I practiced all the time, just because it was so satisfying. If I were to give one piece of advice to someone who wanted to pursue the sort of career I’ve had, it would be to learn calligraphy. Besides being the structural foundation of Roman type, it teaches most of the lessons you need to know, and once you’ve done it for a while, you’ll never wonder which stroke of a capital “A” should be the thick one. (Don’t laugh—it’s a very common mistake)
Where did you study design?
I studied graphic design at Sheridan college in Oakville (Toronto).
Who and what influenced you and your designs?
While I studied at Sheridan, I found a Graphis Magazine annual in the library, which contained some work by Herb Lubalin and the letterers he primarily worked with: Tom Carnese and Tony DiSpigna. I was amazed by the power and grace of the scripts they drew, not to mention the contemporary feel they were able to impart to an old style of lettering. I wanted to do stuff just like that.
I also found myself drawn to much of the packaging work done in the 19th century, because it contained so much energy, exuberance and high level of craft. I have an entire book about cigar box artwork that I bought 25 years ago, and it’s still an endless source of inspiration for me.
How do you go about your creative process?
The brief is my guide on any project, and is the starting point for ideas. One of the first questions I ask a client is “Why do you want to change this logo?” and “What do you think is wrong with it?” I should point out here that virtually all of my clients are design studios or ad agencies, so I’m always dealing with creative directors who are able to explain in visual terms what they’re after. I almost never work directly with the end client, so I depend on the creative director to filter the clients’ needs accurately.
Many clients also send me references of work that they like and think is appropriate for the project we’re working on, as a way of kick-starting the process. If they send me a lot of these references, I like to have a chat with them on the phone to narrow down the range, since sometimes they send examples that ultimately aren’t applicable.
Once I feel that I know exactly what the client wants to express with their logo, I’ll usually sketch some loose ideas with pen or pencil in order to work out the basic structure of the piece, as well as the relationships between the letters. Then I’ll usually do some larger sketches that explore the detail of the letters, and work toward a cohesive style. (Sometimes I’ll only do a few of the trickier letters in sketch form, because it’s faster to draw the simpler letters on the computer.) Once I’m happy with the larger sketches, I’ll scan them and convert them into outlines that I can manipulate in Adobe Illustrator.
Everything I send my clients is in vector format (as Adobe Illustrator files), since they always want to drop my work into a layout or package design, and need to manipulate colour etc.
What skills and applications do you use daily?
My primary skill is drawing, which I use every day. Even if I’m not sketching out ideas, drawing informs the way I assess and adjust letters, determine balance and establish rhythm. Calligraphy comes second in the skills department, because the ability to manipulate a broad pen or a flexible pen can help generate ideas very quickly and fluidly.
Strangely, diplomacy is also a much-used skill on the business side of my work, since sometimes you have to convince a client not to go down a particular creative path, and you have to do it with a gentle touch.
In terms of computer applications, I use Adobe Illustrator to do most of my vector work, and I use it to generate all the final artwork that goes to my clients. I also use Image Capture for scanning, and occasionally I’ll use Photoshop to adjust a scan before outlining it. Fontlab and Fontographer, the font creation programs, are very useful not only for designing the fonts I create, but they’re also very useful for things like cleaning up vector artwork and changing the weight of letters. I often use Fontlab for autotracing as well, since it’s much better and quicker than the Illustrator feature.
What is one of your favourite projects you have worked on?
I really enjoyed working on the Miller High Life beer project, since it had many different elements to consider, and there was a lot of really good archival material from the company to use for inspiration. Not only that, but the creative director is a real type nerd as well as a friend, and we’d have these long conversations about type and lettering as we worked through the process.
And lastly, how do you stay on top of all the current design trends?
To a large extent, I stay on top of trends through my clients. At the beginning of a project, they will often send references of work that they feel might apply to the project at hand, and this is often current work that I might not have seen on my own. It’s a bit like a clipping service, and I will put much of this work into my own digital reference library. It’s very convenient.
To be honest, I don’t collect design annuals and that sort of thing, since my approach is to try to add as much of my knowledge and experience to a piece as I can, as opposed to imitating the work of others. Having said that, I’m pretty observant when it comes to design work, which is all around us all the time in the form of magazines, websites and television. So I guess current design seeps in constantly, all on it’s own.
I hope that this has been helpful to you, Anthony, and best of luck with your studies!
Ian
Note: The image at top is the crest Ian Brignell designed for Bigelow’s
An Interview with Ian, now available in Mandarin!
Ian Brignell 是多伦多的字体设计师。他的客户名单包括汉堡王、雅诗兰黛、潘婷、哈佛大学、莱福、金霸王、摩根船长、Caramilk、泡芙和Secret等知名大牌。

How did you get into lettering and type design as a career? Did you receive formal training?
I started in lettering around grade 9, when my art teacher introduced our class to calligraphy. I bought a few books, including a Speedball Text Book, which had lots of great historical lettering samples with instructions on how to construct them. During high school I did certificates for the graduating classes, as well as sign painting for local businesses.
你是怎么开始职业设计生涯的?你有木有接受过正统训练?
在九年级的时候,我们老师把书法引入课堂,我就开始学字体了。我买了一堆书,包括Speedball课本,它包含许多霸气的历史字体模板和制作指导。高中时我设计了毕业班的毕业证,还为当地企业设计个性图样。
I went to Sheridan college for Graphic Design where we had lots of typography courses, which included the technical side of drawing accurately with ink. We were encouraged to be expressive with type, but we weren’t really tutored on the creation of original forms. So I guess my training was fairly informal.
我去Sheridan学院平面设计时学了排版课程,其中包括技术层面的精致手绘工笔。我们被鼓励做感染力强大的字体,但我们并没有修真正的原创设计。所以我想我的训练是相当非正式的。
How long have you been working? In what ways has your process evolved over time?
I’ve been working as a lettering specialist for 26 years. During that time, my process has changed mostly because of the introduction of the computer to our industry. This has allowed for much more exploration in a tighter format, which is good. One problem when you work in pencil sketches is that the transition from graphite grey into solid black doesn’t always work as you’d hoped. It’s also easier with the computer to test things out in their true setting, on top of photos or whatever. I still do lots of sketches, but the lettering tends to get really developed and fine tuned on the computer.
你工作了多久?你的工作是怎样变化的?
我当字体设计师26年了。那段时间,我的进程已经改变主要是因为电脑融入我们的工作。这提供了更为严格的格式,这是很好的探索。其实,当你在铅笔素描作品,从成纯黑色石墨灰色的过渡并不总是如你所希望的。这也是与计算机更容易测试出真实的设定,是设置在照片上方还是什么地方。我还是画了很多的草图,但在电脑上做进一步的修改之后的字体还是更好一些。
What are your major influences? What inspires you?
I’m influenced by just about everything, but I especially like the work that was done on packages from the 19th and early 20th century. I also enjoy amateur hand-lettered signs, since they often contain very quirky and original details that I would never think of. I have to mention that during college I saw a book with some examples of Herb Lubalin’s lettering work, and this was one of the moments that really made me want to pursue lettering for a living.
你有什么重大影响?是什么激励你?
差不多什么都能影响我,但我特别喜欢从19世纪和20世纪初的作品。我也喜欢业余手工字母标志,因为它们往往含有非常古怪和原始的细节,这些我想都想不到。我要提一提,在大学期间我看到了一个本书,里面有香草Lubalin字体的一些例子,就是那时,我真的想把研究字体作为终身的事业。
How do clients normally approach you? Do they have a specific vision in mind or do they work with you to develop the finished lettering? (Do they ask for a range of options to choose from?)
Almost all of my clients are designers or art directors, and the projects they send me arrive at my door in many different forms. Sometimes the client has a very good idea of what they want, but need me to work out the detailing and final execution. Other times they call me and give me a 2 minute brief on the phone with no visual reference and say “go”.
客户通常怎么跟你恰接?他们自己有具体的想法还是和你一起完成字体设计? (他们要我你设计一堆然后再选择吗?)
我的客户几乎全部是设计师或艺术导演,他们寄给我的项目什么样的都有。有时,客户有不错的想法,但需要我做细节并最终执行。其他时候,他们就给我打个两分钟的电话什么图也没有然后就撇下一句“弄去吧”。
With some projects I get very thorough briefs where the client has specific directions that they want to explore, and they supply samples and supporting reference to guide the work. In almost every case I’ll show the client a number of options, and then we’ll develop the lettering based on their feedback.
对于某些项目,我可以得到很详细的描述,这些客户对自己的想法有具体的方向,而且他们给我样本和各种参考资料。几乎每一次我会给客户很多选择,然后我们在他们的反馈基础上继续设计。
How do you typically take on redesigns when the company has an extensive history (such as with a brand like Bell or Smirnoff)?
I take my cues from the client. Most projects that involve big brands tend to be evolutionary, in which case the history of the mark must be considered carefully. When I worked on the Smirnoff mark, for example, I had to maintain the arched baseline and colour scheme, but the client wanted me to create letters that were a bit softer and more broadly appealing.
如果该公司拥有广泛的历史,你如何重新设计字体(如与像贝尔或斯米尔诺夫品牌)?
我从我的客户上找线索。大多数涉及大品牌的项目往往是渐进的,在这种情况下,必须慎重考虑品牌的历史。比如,当我在斯米尔诺夫标志工作,我不得不保持拱形基线和配色方案,虽然客户要我创建的字母是一个有点柔软和更广泛的吸引力。
Occasionally the brand needs a complete overhaul, and then I have to explore a range of possibilities based on the clients visual concerns and marketing objectives.
有时品牌需要一个完整的革新,然后我要根据客户的想法和产品探索的许多可能性。
You have so many projects under your belt; do you have any favorites, or ones that you felt came together particularly well?
I’m very happy with the Miller High Life redesign, because it had everything; a brand with an impressive design history, decorative caps, formal script as well as various bits of supplementary type. All of these elements contained lots of tasty details which ended up working very well together.
你着手这么多的项目,你有没有什么最爱的,或者是那些你感觉特别好的?
我超喜欢Miller High Life 的重新设计,因为它囊括一切,有令人印象深刻的设计史,装饰,正式脚本以及许多各种延伸的风格。所有这些因素构成精巧的细节,这令作品最终达到一致的完美。
Ask Ian
Today, we are introducing a new feature called “ASK IAN”. Send me an email with your question and I post both the query and Ian Brignell’s response.
I’m pretty sure that the above illustration (by Ian Brignell, of course) is a dove but for this Ask Ian feature, I’m going to squint my eyes, just a little, so that I can think of it as a carrier pigeon. Get it?
Happy Halloween Cocktail Hour!
Cocktail Hour
Welcome to Cocktail Hour, my inaugural interview with Ian Brignell. The primary topic under discussion is the custom font Ian designed for use on this website: Brignell Slab.
Enjoy!
Interview, The Southern Weekly
Ian Brignell’s interview with journalist Lillian Lee from The Southern Weekly, China
Ian Brignell: Type is the foundation of good graphic design. Sensitive choices regarding type styles, weights and sizes can amplify visual message and meaning. Art directors who want to go beyond available type solutions come to me. I am a lettering designer.
Southern Weekly: You designed a lot of brand logos that are very famous in China like Burger King, Estée Lauder, Pantene, Dove, etc. I’m very curious to know: how many logos have you designed?
IB: I have probably designed about 900 logos in my career so far.
SW: Could you give me some examples about how your inspiration came about for some big brands?
IB: My inspiration always comes from the brief. My client tells me the particular qualities of the product or service, how they want a logo to feel and who their customers are.
For example, Pleasures was a new product for Estée Lauder, who normally created products aimed at women in their forties and older. Estée Lauder Pleasures was their first foray into a younger market, by which I mean women aged eighteen to thirty five. They wanted it to have a certain freshness, playfulness and personal appeal while still conveying the quality that Estee Lauder is known for. That’s why I decided on a script that was all lower case and not too perfectly uniform, but still carefully crafted. I guess the angle was right, because for several years after its introduction, Pleasures was the best selling perfume in the world.
SW: Please compare the logos for Pantene and Dove. Both of them belong to commodities, nature also similar, so how do you choose different fonts to reflect two similar products?
IB: The Dove logo was an evolution, which means that it had to be recognizable as Dove, while being more contemporary than the logo it replaced. The idea was to create a cleaner and slightly simpler logo, since Dove was expanding its product line beyond soaps. It was going to produce hair and skin care products, and they felt that a simple, more neutral look would be easier to apply across the product line. This also made sense because many of the products bordered on the health care category.
The Pantene logo was more aspirational, in that the client wanted some drama in the lettering to reflect a positive experience and a positive result. It also had to appear very confident and professional. Pantene spans the continuum between cosmetic and therapeutic products and their motto is “Shine Through”. This motto refers to qualities of hair as well as the personality of the woman using the product
SW: When did you get interested in lettering and logo design? And why?
IB: I love drawing letters. I think it started in grade 4 when I used to copy the 16-point type from my reading books size-as, just for the thrill of it. I don’t know why. As I got older, I found the expressive power within letters to be intoxicating and I wanted to do it. I wanted to interpret letters; their moods, their geometry.
SW: You learned font in the ninth grade, how did you learn? In your country, when did font design become a major at universities? And what did you learn?
IB: I graduated from Sheridan College’s Graphic Design Program in 1982. Lettering was, and remains, a minor part of any graphic design curriculum. During my first year at Sheridan, I was browsing through a design annual and saw for the first time these elaborate scripts – all hand-lettered. I thought they were beautiful. I bought a book by David Gates called Lettering for Reproduction (1969). It gave a short history of lettering but was also a manual about how to do finished lettering. I worked through every page this book. I found books whose references directed me to other books. I was building not just a library, but an education.
Font design, lettering and logo design is not a major course of study in North America. Self-study is the only way to achieve specialization in this field.
I should also mention that I was always interested in drawing, and that drawing is probably the most important skill I have.
SW: In Canada, is font design a popular career? In your past 26 career years, can you recall some historical event when font design became more and more important and popular?
IB: Lettering and logo design is quite popular in Canada, especially since the internet made it easy to view many logos from many sources but it is not a popular career choice.
SW: With regard to your font design in the past 26 years, have you ever met some tort events (any illegal downloads or use your font?) Can you give me some examples? And how did you resolve it?
IB: No.
SW: In Canada, are there any font copyright protection related laws? Could you give me some details of them?
IB: Creator copyright protection is secure in Canada, the United States and many other markets. I would like to point out that, the law aside, I could not have achieved the success I enjoy today without trust in the marketplace. I am lucky to work in and for communities of design that respect Creator rights.
SW: In addition to related laws, does the government or private organizations protect the copyrights of fonts?
IB: Yes.
SW: Is font design a well-paid and highly honored career for you?
IB: My work is well respected and I love what I do. Thank you for asking.
10 questions for Ian Brignell
From an online interview by Helen Neville. This is just a sample. You can read the rest, here
http://floodout.blogspot.ca/2012/01/ten-questions-with-ian-brignell.html
1. You have created some of the most recognizable logotypes in the brand landscape. Which is your proudest feat and why?
I think one of my favorites was the Esteé Lauder Pleasures script, because it was the first truly international mark I created. It was also a brand new fragrance for Esteé Lauder in a market (younger women) that they hadn’t really competed in before. I was thrilled that it sold extremely well for them. I can’t take all the credit, of course, but it made me very happy just the same. I also liked Burger King, because that’s when my kids actually understood what I did for a living!2. Is it old fashioned to call a logo that is made out of letters a logotype?
Nope. People use the term logotype, wordmark, logo, or mark interchangeably. I don’t get too hung up on the…
The Case & Point Interview
Ian was interviewed for The Case & Point. Read it here.
The Case & Point Interview
This online interview with Ian is extremely popular. We are posting it here in its entirety along with a link to The Case & Point website.
Ian Brignell
by Marcela Huerta on Jun 22, 2011 • 08:16
Ian Brignell is a Toronto based lettering designer. His clients have included notable brands such as Burger King, Estée Lauder, Pantene, Harvard, Leffe, Duracell, Captain Morgan, Caramilk, Puffs, and Secret.
How did you get into lettering and type design as a career? Did you receive formal training?
I started in lettering around grade 9, when my art teacher introduced our class to calligraphy. I bought a few books, including a Speedball Text Book, which had lots of great historical lettering samples with instructions on how to construct them. During high school I did certificates for the graduating classes, as well as sign painting for local businesses.
I went to Sheridan college for Graphic Design where we had lots of typography courses, which included the technical side of drawing accurately with ink. We were encouraged to be expressive with type, but we weren’t really tutored on the creation of original forms. So I guess my training was fairly informal.
How long have you been working? In what ways has your process evolved over time?
I’ve been working as a lettering specialist for 26 years. During that time, my process has changed mostly because of the introduction of the computer to our industry. This has allowed for much more exploration in a tighter format, which is good. One problem when you work in pencil sketches is that the transition from graphite grey into solid black doesn’t always work as you’d hoped. It’s also easier with the computer to test things out in their true setting, on top of photos or whatever. I still do lots of sketches, but the lettering tends to get really developed and fine tuned on the computer.
What are your major influences? What inspires you?
I’m influenced by just about everything, but I especially like the work that was done on packages from the 19th and early 20th century. I also enjoy amateur hand-lettered signs, since they often contain very quirky and original details that I would never think of. I have to mention that during college I saw a book with some examples of Herb Lubalin’s lettering work, and this was one of the moments that really made me want to pursue lettering for a living.
How do clients normally approach you? Do they have a specific vision in mind or do they work with you to develop the finished lettering? (Do they ask for a range of options to choose from?)
Almost all of my clients are designers or art directors, and the projects they send me arrive at my door in many different forms. Sometimes the client has a very good idea of what they want, but need me to work out the detailing and final execution. Other times they call me and give me a 2 minute brief on the phone with no visual reference and say “go”.
With some projects I get very thorough briefs where the client has specific directions that they want to explore, and they supply samples and supporting reference to guide the work. In almost every case I’ll show the client a number of options, and then we’ll develop the lettering based on their feedback.
How do you typically take on redesigns when the company has an extensive history (such as with a brand like Bell or Smirnoff)?
I take my cues from the client. Most projects that involve big brands tend to be evolutionary, in which case the history of the mark must be considered carefully. When I worked on the Smirnoff mark, for example, I had to maintain the arched baseline and colour scheme, but the client wanted me to create letters that were a bit softer and more broadly appealing.
Occasionally the brand needs a complete overhaul, and then I have to explore a range of possibilities based on the clients visual concerns and marketing objectives.
You have so many projects under your belt; do you have any favorites, or ones that you felt came together particularly well?
I’m very happy with the Miller High Life redesign, because it had everything; a brand with an impressive design history, decorative caps, formal script as well as various bits of supplementary type. All of these elements contained lots of tasty details which ended up working very well together.