“Carefully chosen typefaces can educate, entertain, inform or simply add aesthetic value to design,” explains rockstar type designer and letterer Ken Barber. As a designer at House Industries, Ken creates everything from a typeface based on the Eames aesthetic to quirky t-shirt illustrations. In his spare time, he conducts lettering workshops and teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art, for which he originally created his informative blog, Type and Lettering. Even though Ken didn’t design the typeface for today’s 10 ANSWERS, you can still learn about what he may have done by reading his responses below.
1. How would you describe your work in three words?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Wait, is that three words or two?
2. Who is your creative role model?
Too many to list. But making the top ten would definitely be: Ed Benguiat,
Doyald Young and Andy Cruz.
3. If you had an extra hour each day what would you do with it?
Read. I never seem to be able to find enough time in the day for it.
4. What place in the world most inspires you and why?
Creatively: New York. I lived there for a couple of years after graduating
from college and have been in love with the city ever since. Personally: Vrindavan, India. It’s a colorful and chaotic, yet somehow peaceful, rural village about 150 kilometers south of New Delhi.
5. If you could do a different job for a day what would it be and why?
I love traveling abroad and often thought that it would be fun being a travel writer. Though, I gotta say that I feel very fortunate to be able to make a living doing what I truly enjoy. To quote Michael Diamond, “Do what I do professionally; to tell the truth I am exactly what I want to be.”
6. What is your favorite homemade gift to give?
A card. It’s a good excuse to do some lettering while making someone happy.
7. What is your favorite object in your home?
Whatever the latest flea market find happens to be. Right now I’m diggin’ the Danish wooden kitten sculpture my wife scored at a local auction.
8. What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Richard Cramer, my painting teacher freshman year, once told me, “Not everything you do is going to be a masterpiece.” That helps keep my OCD in check.
9. What websites do you use for inspiration?
I can’t say that I look to any websites for inspiration. Although, there are a number that I visit occasionally: dailytype.ru, swiss-miss.com and grainedit.com, just to name a few. I also try to keep up with my wife’s craft and cooking blog, scissorsandspice.com, if only to preview the new recipe we’ll be testing at dinner.
10. When do you consider a piece of your work complete?
When the deadline arrives. Sometimes I don’t have the luxury of obsessing…too much.
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