Spiekermann Goes Postal

description

I produced: sixteen unique stamps, each of which serves as a tribute to Spiekermann's design principles; a souvenir sheet featuring the principles of ascender, baseline, italic & justification; and a specially designed protective envelope. I began the process by looking at the visual language of Spiekermann himself as represented by companies he has started. I studied the work of FontShop, EdenSpiekermann, FontBook, Meta Design, and the larger typographic commissions he has completed throughout his career. Among all of the things I could choose from, I chose to concentrate on several iconic features: the colours pink and yellow; rules; and his iconic typefaces FF Meta and ITC Officina. 

I began by thinking about the stamps that I know already to exist. I made simple drawings to show where images, numbers, and the fine details of type would go. 

Finding myself without any drivers for my project as my pen scratched paper, I was soon led to scour the internet where I found and read Spiekermann's The Typographer's Glossary. In this publication, Spiekermann takes the reader on an alphabetic walk through the architectural attributes of letterforms. I realized there was a potential to transform Spiekermann's principles into one sheet of stamps. Each of my sixteen stamps could represent two letters of the alphabet and two rules from Spiekermann's Glossary. It seemed natural to set the letters in FF Meta, the legendary typeface Spiekermann created for the German Postal Service. I chose to use colours from his industry-leading Edenspiekermann, Meta Design, and FontShop swatches. All of these principles would be interconnected, like an internet, at the universal symbol of the infinite, upon which the structure of all letterforms is based.