I should start off this short post by writing that I don’t know Robin Nicholas very well. Robin is the Head of Typography at Monotype Imaging, and is perhaps best known as the designer behind the Arial typeface. While we work in the same department at Monotype Imaging, we are in different locations. He’s at the Monotype UK office in Salfords, England, and I work for Linotype GmbH in Germany—mostly from my residence in Berlin. I have had the pleasure of meeting Robin on a few occasions, and he has always struck me as reserved, interesting, and brilliant. I have long been an admirer of his work, especially his Nimrod typeface, which he created for newspaper printing. Robin has been with Monotype since the 1960s.
Over Twitter a few moments ago, I learned of a new web video interview with Robin that had been posted on the Fonts.com blog. I think that this is just a joy to watch. Robin has me with every word, and I wish that the 2:54 minute video were at least 10 times as long. Maybe it is the English accent?
In the interview, Robin discusses a corporate face Monotype created for SAS—which he calls his proudest achievement, as well as Centaur (his favorite typeface). Robin is asked during the interview about web fonts, which I think is thrilling, because the coming of web fonts means that one of his own designs may now be used less often.
Visit the original post at blog.fonts.com.