20th Anniversary celebration with typographers and lettering artists Marian Bantjes, Oded Ezer, Jessica Hische, Tobias Frere-Jones, Matthew Carter, and Kris Holmes
Design Matters with Debbie Millman
Design Matters Media
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Design Matters, Debbie Millman shares excerpts from interviews with typographers and lettering artists Marian Bantjes, Oded Ezer, Jessica Hische, Tobias Frere-Jones, Matthew Carter, and Kris Holmes, reflecting on legibility and expression, how letters behave, the discipline of refinement, and how type has evolved from hand-crafted processes to the digital tools we use today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So you want to get into calligraphy, huh? |
| 0:03.5 | I said, oh, yes, Professor Reynolds, I do. |
| 0:05.6 | Who needs two typographers in the family, you know? |
| 0:07.9 | Change this other thing, make this curve longer, make this curve sharper or whatever. |
| 0:13.0 | It'll have some other effect. |
| 0:17.2 | From the TED Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Millman. |
| 0:24.4 | On Design Matters, Debbie talks with some of the most creative people in the world about what they do, |
| 0:29.3 | how they got to be who they are, and what they're thinking about, and working on. |
| 0:33.8 | On this episode, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of design matters we'll hear from some of the |
| 0:39.6 | typographers and lettering artists debby has interviewed over the years it is perfectly legible |
| 0:45.1 | it never interferes with the reading i wanted to create a new creature i love just coming up with |
| 0:51.2 | like really stupid conceptual projects that I can never do for clients. |
| 0:56.9 | There's not a day that goes by when you don't encounter a typeface of one sort or another. |
| 1:03.7 | Most people don't think about it, but someone designed that typeface. |
| 1:08.9 | In fact, there are designers at work on new typefaces all the time, |
| 1:13.6 | and you're about to meet a few of them. You're also going to meet a few of the not-so-distant |
| 1:20.1 | cousins of typeface designers, lettering artists who draw letters and text for their books |
| 1:26.4 | or art or design art. Over the years, I've |
| 1:30.0 | interviewed a number of typeface designers and lettering artists, and I'd like to play you some |
| 1:34.8 | excerpts from some of those conversations. Canadian artist Marion Banshees is celebrated for her |
| 1:42.2 | intricately patterned images and custom lettering. |
| 1:46.4 | I spoke with her in 2010, shortly after the publication of her book, I Wonder. |
... |
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