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M Y S T O R Y Cosmotypolitan – that’s what the magazine 'PAGE' called me in their article back in 1997. At that point, I had already lived in Zagreb, San Francisco and Berlin, and had my first "dirty dozen" of typefaces done. In fact, it’s one of the best nicknames I’ve heard so far – well, except maybe for Casanova. But that’s another story ... I've been working at Linotype Library since 1999 as the font technology specialist, in the 'Process and Quality Management' department. Some of my major tasks are: taking care of the font library, writing specifications, holding internal seminars on the subject of typography and font technologies, as well as managing the few customer complaints we get. ;-)
At this printery I also worked on my first typeface. First I drew all upper and lower case letters and numerals on paper with a compass and ruler. Afterwards I used a cutter and cut out each letter from the transparency mask. I then used a camera and filmed each letter at a particular size. Unfortunately, we never used my typeface for anything :-(
I became more and more interested in digital type and type technologies. At the DRUPA 1995, Linotype was handing out CDs, introducing their GX fonts in conjunction with Apple’s GX Extension. I was amazed at the extended type features they offered to typographers. However, I quickly became disappointed in the lack of interest of software developers for this technology. Then Adobe introduced their MultipleMaster technology. Again, I was amazed at the zillions of possibilities these fonts offered. And again I became disappointed, hearing that Adobe would not continue to develop further MM-fonts. Nowadays, OpenType, being developed jointly by Microsoft and Adobe, is knocking at the doors of the type home. We'll see how "open" it's actually gonna get. Basically, most of the features provided by either MM or OT have been implemented already in the GX technology ...
O T H E R S A B O U T M E PAGE - Magazine for digital design and media-production »Kosmotypolit« – Article about my typographic work
invers - Magazine for digital typography, image-editing and computer publishing
Microsoft Typography
Nick Bow
J O B S Linotype GmbH – font manufacturing company, Bad Homburg 15 Grad – digital printing company, Berlin Fritzsch & Mackat – advertisement agency, Berlin Schonert.Partner – communication agency, Berlin Durchdruck – screen printing company, Berlin Beidatz & Co. GmbH – letterpress, offset and gravure printing company, Berlin V. & V. Straža – screen printing company, Zagreb
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My interest in type and typography arose quite naturally after doing some logo designs for small companies in Zagreb. I had started my printing study at the GRAPHICS FACULTY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAGREB and had a part time job at my uncle’s screen printery, printing mostly graphics, posters, aluminium plates, etc. Those were the days when photo typesetting was still the only way to go – at least in Croatia. In order to be even more cost efficient, we’d reuse the films, by cutting out all letters and saving them in shoe boxes. One could say we had our own "film cases". For a new poster, we’d use these letters again for composition. It was a perfect way for learning hand setting – spacing, kerning, leading, etc. – only not the usual way.