Going out to bars and cafés is Bob’s ritual, and this social interest plays a part in his design work. He talks about why he became a graphic designer. The most important lesson he learned is not to take design too seriously, there are many different ways to approach it. His work is changing a lot over the years, but in general he likes different layers, stories within stories. Bob talks about his former The Hague studio NLXL and his life after closing it down, making drawings with his son and father,and his job at Lava in Amsterdam. What are the differences between NLXL and Lava, The Hague and Amsterdam? He reflects on his avid collecting, his design heroes and the start of his career at Dumbar studios. Recorded at Underware, The Hague.

Note: Bob van Dijk left Lava and runs his own studio again since December 2009.

Personal website

Bob van Dijk AGI bio

Lava

Professor David Crow is Head of the Art and Design faculty at the Manchester University. He discusses his motivation for his move from design to teaching, and his eventual move into being an academic manager. He reveals his experiences as a teacher and the importance of encouraging cross-disciplinary education. Crow talks about his initial interest in typography, his later work with semiotics and theory and the specifics of Manchester and British graphic design. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

David Crow MMU

Left to Right book

Visible Signs book

Sven Ehmann is editor at Die Gestalten publishers in Berlin. He talks about his working process and how he juggles multiple projects. He moves on to discussing the origins of the book Dataflow at Die Gestalten and talks about the field of design publishing and his personal motivations in making books. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

Die Gestalten

Etc publications

Barbara Hahn and Christine Zimmermann are Von B und C, a design studio in Bern, Switzerland. They start by explaining how they got interested in infographics, visualising data as their graduation project, and how they work together (of coarse their collaboration can be best viewed in their self-designed ‘collaboration visualisation’). Analysis and visualisation is a much more complicated and time consuming process than design. They don’t have a preference for either, form and content go hand in hand. Next Von B und C reflect on the role of women, the ideal typeface in infographic design and their Leadership Alphabet. What kind of information do they like to work with most, what is their dream project and what are their information design heroes. What’s next? Have they cheated to improve visualisation? We end with their personal escapades. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund.

Von B und C

Leadership Alphabet

Otto Neurath

Jacques Bertin

Jeroen Breen, Rob Stolte and Maarten Dullemeijer are Autobahn, design collective from Utrecht, The Netherlands. They first describe the special project they did for their presentation at 33pt in Dortmund, they tell us how they met and how they got interested in typography. They elaborate on their typographic experiments, and how they collaborate. Do they have specialities? Heroes? We finally hear about their big dream. Recorded at the 33pt conference in Dortmund.

Autobahn