Nick Shinn: Both. I try to explore as many ways of, and reasons for, designing typefaces as possible. Blame it on Sgt. Pepper. But any particular typeface wouldn't be worth doing if there was only one reason. It's the interplay of criteria that creates the design challenge. Merlin, for instance, was inspired by the word Errazuriz (all caps) on a wine label. I didn't recognize it as a typeface (still don't), so I thought "Hey, I wonder what the rest of the letters could look like." Of course, Errazuriz was only the starting point. The intricately drawn finish was another concept I was thinking about at the time - serifs on serifs on serifs - kind of fractal. And the idea of mixing blackletter spikeyness with humanist letterforms was something else that got mixed into the pot. But in general, yes, I was probably thinking, "Dude, time for a kickass goth monstrosity".

NS: Most of them. Handsome, for instance, was a design solution to the criteria:
* Fully cursive script
* Written directly in Fontographer with the pen tool, using a Wacom tablet
For Eunoia:
* High contrast sans serif
* A family of 3 self sufficient typefaces, with distinct personalities, whose members can be mixed with one another as alternates
* Includes a unicase (I've been teaching a type design course for 4 years at York University, in Toronto, and the student project is to design a unicase typeface, so I thought it was about time I walked the talk.)
My most recent face, Preface, is an attempt to combine trendy letterforms from a variety of hot faces into a single typeface.
So they're not really design solutions for particular uses, more design solutions to sets of formal criteria.
However, Brown, Walburn, and Worldwide were commissioned specifically for newspapers. And Richler as a book face. )

NS: Twenty two.

NS: I have always liked to write and draw, and disliked specializing. I took Fine Art because it gave me the opportunity to do both, and I went into advertising for the same reason. Typography fascinates me because it's at the junction of word and image, at the heart of culture. So type design is an ontological pursuit. The catalyst that pointed me in this direction was probably the school I went to, Bedford, in England. It's a very old public school - those institutions put a strong emphasis on intellectual curiosity.

NS: My early work wasn't very good. I was outside the loop, and had no formal training in graphic design or lettering. My first published face was Gryphon, for Headliners in 1980. Shinn Sans (1985) was the first that wasn't embarrassing, But it was so much work, because I had to piece together photocopies to see how the design set. Being able to generate and test fonts as part of the design process, with Fontographer (I started in 1993) made all the difference in improving the product.

NS: My children have been the biggest influence in recent years. When my son got into drum and bass, and my daughter into hip hop, my first response was, fuck this shit isn't even music, but they turned me on to the good stuff, got me out of the fogey rut. I'm a member of the Type Club of Toronto, and often it feels like the Historical Type Club of Toronto. I am so angry at the present state of typography, dominated by old sans faces, - that gives me the strongest motivation to design new typefaces.
My biggest inspiration is the way the "?" follows the "f" in Charter. I try to design all my characters to fit together that immaculately.

NS: Seeing my typefaces in real applications makes me high.

NS: Never.

NS: No. As long as the license is paid for. As a professional, one does one's job, irrespective of the client or customer's ethics or design skills.

NS: Nicolas Jenson's 1476 typeface.
It's the definitive typeface.

NS: I work all the time, but not much of it is actually type design, maybe 20%. There's time spent on the business side of ShinnType, and I also write, teach, speak, and am involved with a number of type organizations. I also art direct; recently book covers. Outside the studio, apart from the usual vices, I play squash 2 or 3 times a week.

NS: Death to Helvetica!

NS: Helvetica is the #1 selling typeface at MyFonts. It's given away with every operating system. It's the corporate face of the multinationals, be they the Gap or Getty Images. But it's only one of the many old sans fonts that dominate today's typography. What does this say about the present age, when its spirit is best expressed by vintage and traditional sans faces? It speaks of a fascist aesthetic˜banal, conventional, monolithic and utilitarian. In 1923 Paul Renner designed Futura, which he termed "The Typeface of Our Time" The typeface now known as Helvetica is a rip-off of Akzidenz Grotesk (1898), itself derived from faces originally designed in London in the 1830s: it a typeface of the 19th century, not the 21st.

Helvetica must die!

NS: Don't use stock. Support your local photographers, illustrators, and type designers, or do it yourself. If you buy creative from the multinationals, you are digging your own grave.