Creative Lives: Jonathan Barnbrook, designer and typographer

As something of an icon in the field of graphic design, Jonathan Barnbrook is a British-born designer and typographer. Renowned, among many other things, for his longstanding collaboration with the late David Bowie, he has been the subject of his own exhibition at the Design Museum and seen his typeface, Mason, become one of MOMA’s first digital acquisitions.

Founding his self-titled design studio in 1990 and font company VirusFonts in 1997, Jonathan’s multi-faceted practice has granted him glimpses into several other fields, perhaps most notably in art and music. His work, often politically-charged and meaningfully-driven, has attracted him to like-minded collaborators including anti-corporate collective Adbusters and the Occupy Movement.

Reflecting on his own career challenges, he shares his advice for emerging creatives on everything from finding like-minded collaborators, to putting together a personable portfolio and developing your own philosophy as a designer.

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This episode of Creative Lives was was presented by Marianne Hanoun and the editor was Ivor Manly. Lecture in Progress is made possible with the support of a number of brand patrons – they include ustwo, GF Smith, Squarespace and The Paul Smith Foundation. Check out lectureinprogress.com for more details.