Find out how type works by Erik Spiekermann | 4th edition
About the Book
After almost three decades as one of the world’s best-selling introductions to designing with type “Find out how type works” (formerly known as Stop Stealing Sheep) continues to educate, entertain, and enlighten design students and type lovers around the globe. In this fourth edition, Erik Spiekermann brings his type classic fully up-to-date with an all-new chapter on variable typefaces, scores of visual examples on how to effectively communicate with type, and a full selection of new typefaces used and referenced throughout the book. If you use type – and these days, almost everyone does – Spiekermann’s engaging, commonsense style will help you understand how to look at type, work with type, choose the best typeface for your message, and express yourself more effectively through design. Compact, yet rich with anecdotes and visual examples, the handbook’s multilayered design not only makes for a fun, fast read, but it also invites exploration, ensuring you learn something new each and every time you open it up.
About the Author
Erik Spiekermann (*1947) is information architect, type designer (FF Meta, FF Meta Serif, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, FF Unit Slab, FF Real, LoType, Berliner Grotesk, et al, and many corporate typefaces for The Economist, Cisco, Bosch, Deutsche Bahn, Heidelberg Printing, Mozilla, etc), and author of numerous books and articles on type & typography.
In 1979 he started MetaDesign, Germany’s largest design studio, and in 1989 FontShop, the first independent distributor of electronic fonts. Erik’s many awards and medals would be too boring to list.
Apart from being on the board of Edenspiekermann, he now runs p98a.berlin, an experimental letterpress workshop in Berlin whose motto is “Hacking Gutenberg”. Spiekermann lives and works in Berlin, London and San Francisco. He owns 15 bicycles and has 290,000 followers on Twitter.
Typefaces
Primary text typefaces are Equity and FF Real.
The pink and black margins are typeset in FF Real Condensed, a new family just released, used here for the first time.
Matthew Butterick not only donated his typeface, Equity, but he also indulged us by making some adjustments for the typesetting of this book.
Additional fonts were supplied by Adobe, FontShop, FontBureau, Emigre, House Industries, Gerard Unger, P22, Commercial Type, Terminal Design, itc International Typeface Corporation, Monotype, Sportsfonts, Google Fonts, and many friends and colleagues.
Sheep drawing courtesy of Chuck Anderson csaimages.com
About the production and materials
Layout and typesetting:
Erik Spiekermann & Ferdinand Ulrich
Type specimens and photographs:
Erik Spiekermann, Ferdinand Ulrich, Norman Posselt, Max Zerrahn, Julie Heumüller, Thomas Nagel
Picture Research:
Susanna Dulkinys, Norman Posselt, Max Zerrahn
Production Management:
Daniel Klotz
FF Real by Erik Spiekermann
Index & fact checking:
Birgit Schmitz
Illustrations by Erik Spiekermann
Paper:
Fedrigoni Arena White Smooth fsc
Printed in Italy
Grafiche Antiga, Crocetta del Montello, Italy
© 2022 Erik Spiekermann, p98a.berlin
ISBN 978-3-949164-03-3
Published by TOC – The other collection