An interview with a typographer
Richard de Ruijter

Richard de Ruijter doesn't see himself as a typographer. He's really "just a guy that loves graphic design." Typographer or not, de Ruijter is one talented guy. His new font, TIKAL, inspired by ancient South American civilizations, just debuted on Myfonts.com and HypeforType.

Inspired by the Dutch designer's terrific typeface and prima portfolio, we wanted to find out what it takes to make a typeface.

MTQ: What got you in to type design?

RdR: I think I have always been drawn to fonts, I remember back before I started going to art school, that I was spending way too much time on sites like dafont.com. Trying to figure out which font was used where, and it came to a point where I was walking through the city with friends, pointing at big advertising posters saying "Hey, I think they used akzidenz grotesk there!" 

I was (and still am) a total nerd when it comes to graphic design. 

I do believe type is one of the most important factors in good design; there are thousand of fonts out there, but with each specific project there are only few that will make the perfect combination. This fact intrigues me most about type, and about design in general.

I don't really see myself as a font designer or typographer though. I am just a guy that loves graphic design. I have broad interests and a great motivation to try and learn new things - whether it be apparel, prints, logos or type. 

I feel that if you really are a designer you should be able to do it all. Look at guys like Leonardo Da Vinci, he was an architect, painter, writer and scientist (amongst many other things). Reading about him makes me wonder about what I am really capable of if I set my mind to something.

MTQ: Do you have favorite font designers or foundries? Where do you get your inspiration?

RdR: I am inspired by all kinds of things, from bad action/sci-fi movies to ancient archeology (I wanted to be an archeologist when I was a kid) to myths, legends and lore, comic books, and action heroes with super powers. 

My favorite font designers are Erik Spiekerman, Albert Jan Pool (I am thankful to him for making FF DIN Pro, my favorite font) Alex Trochut and Alejandro Paul from Sudtipos type foundry. I respect those guys a lot because they do such great things and do them in totally unique ways. I am especially impressed by the people from Sudtipos because I think making a script font is the hardest thing ever, and they do a great job at it. 

Next to those "big" names there are a few other designers that are really raising the bar with type design and calligraphy. Those guys are Sergey Shapiro, Simon Älander and Marcelo Schultz. I can drool over their type all day long; they are on the same level as the forementioned guys...  I just don't know if the public knows them yet.

MTQ: What do you find the most difficult and what do you find the most rewarding about type design?

RdR: Three things: legibitility, originality and flow.

Legibility: Keeping a creative typeface legible is the hardest thing to do. On one hand you have the freedom to go as crazy as you want. On the other hand, you want to keep your fonts legible because if you don't have that -- it's not a typeface but an artwork. I see a great deal of artistic people out there drawing type that's hardly readable, and I don't like it. Simply because if you ever use creative type like that for a client, you can be sure they will shoot it down. They want to communicate a message, not give the audience a puzzle. So the phrase "form follows function" definitely applies here.

Originality: You have ideas but how can you be sure that they are all original? Sometimes someone else did something very similar to your process. Maybe you picked up on it by accident, maybe your subconsciousness registered it, but you didn't actively notice. Next to that I think it's important to have a nice, memorable name for the font. Like for example, I think the reason so many people like Helvetica (next to its aesthetics) is that they can easily remember the name; it's iconic and suits it well.

Flow: The hardest thing about a designing font is the continuity and flow of a font; things have to feel right for your eyes when you read them. They should feel unforced and should be legible at both larger and smaller sizes.

Most rewarding: The most rewarding thing for me is to see people use my type in beautiful ways that I had not imagined it being used in. Some of the people that got TIKAL from me used it for student work, personal work, tattoos, and more. One of them even won a design contest at their art-school with the font. I think there is no greater reward than knowing that your type added value to someone's project.

MTQ: What tools do you use? What does the process looks like?

RdR: I start all my projects on paper. Most of the time I have a pretty good idea of what I want do in my head so the sketching process is usually short. I started out this font with a few characters that I scribbled down on a little piece of paper, and from there on it was a great challenge to find the right thickness [for each letter]. I still feel like some characters could still be improved. I'm excited about the entire project, but the "V" and "W" are still not "done" for me.

MTQ: What are your thoughts about the graphic design and font industry?

RdR: I think the Internet is still bringing great opportunities to all of us, especially with websites like HypeforType and Myfonts. They offer any smaller foundry a great public, their service is superb and their use is easy. I recommend them to any starting foundry that wants to appeal to a bigger public. I will be using those channels for my fonts too.

However, the Internet also brings a lot of threats. I have a love/hate relationship with inspiration websites. I used to love them, but eventually I realized that everyone just keeps sharing everyone else's work, making it a machine of production and re-production. People that have little inspiration start copying others, and that's what I think is dangerous about it. I have also seen people with great potential get beat down looking at work from people they deem to be "better than" themselves. I believe anyone is capable of creating original beautiful content, you just have to be willing to give it all. For my TIKAL project I sacrificed almost two weeks straight of hard work and little sleep. 

MTQ: What projects do you have planned for the future?

I am currently working on expanding the TIKAL family with alternative, bold, wide, and italic brothers and sisters and converting it to a TTF. It's quite a challange because I recently shifted to working for myself full-time. Typography isn't my main job, but i love it nonetheless. Next to TIKAL, I'm also working on another typeface influenced by an alien-like shapes and am working on a very modern, minimal sleek font which will definitely appeal to a different public. 

I'm also focusing on building my company, attracting more clients and doing more amazing projects. 

I've been given the amazing opportunity to design a customized American powerboat -- everything from the striping to vinyl stickers to the logos that will be embroided into the seat of the chairs. I'm also doing a huge campaign for the Dutch police force, and thankfully my clients trust my judgement enough to give me all the creative freedom I need. I hope to continue on this path and create a lot more cool things, whether it be fonts or illustrations, logos or apparel prints.