Tobias Frere-Jones transforms typefaces

Typography needs to be investigated and played with, which certainly works for Tobias Frere-Jones.

Type design often overlaps into different fields – like engineering, literature and even psychology, and Frere-Jones explains how to get from the abstract marks of type to making meaning in this speaker talk.

Type design often involves deconstruction, rearrangement and feedback, says Tobias Frere-Jones.

Finding something that is completely unique in every letter is a challenge Frere-Jones set himself, saying that it is ideal to have questions so that one can go in search of good answers.

Frere-Jones talks about some of his experimental works where he attempts to understand how a typeface goes from being abstract marks to something that denotes meaning. He also talks about creating a typeface for the Wall Street Journal, the Pandemonium Model of Pattern Recognition for typography and interrogating the process.