Four Famous Typefaces Interview an ‘Un-Famous Designer’ - via ChatGPT

HELVÉTICA> Listen up, fellas! We've got ourselves a real doozy of an interview coming up with the designer and animation director Tiago Marcondes. We need to be on top of our game and come up with some real head-scratchers.

BODONI> (grumbling) Bah! Che disastro! What reason doth compel me to be present here? I could be occupying my time with more meaningful pursuits.

COMIC SANS> (excitedly) Aw, man, this is gonna be rad! I can't wait! I hope we get to ask some wacky stuff too!

FUTURA> (smiling) You betcha, Mädeln! This is a swell opportunity for us. Gotta keep it classy but also let loose and have a good time, y'know?

BODONI> (uttered in a sarcastic tone) Oh, joyous day! What else exudes professionalism like a collection of fonts gathering in one place?

FUTURA> (eye rollin') Say, Bodoni, don't be such a square! We're all in cahoots, ya know?

COMIC SANS> Dude, we are pretty fly! Dream team!

HELVETICA> Now, listen here, all of you! We need to concentrate and make sure we impress with our thoughtful inquiries. We can't afford to squander this chance.

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HELVETICA> Pray, kindly elucidate your present occupation and your design specialisations. We are keen to gain insight into your work and would like to know more about it.

TIAGO> I'm a director of animated films and TV spots. Design is the ability to translate human emotions into colours and shapes; I use design every day in my life, even if my role is not straight design related.

BODONI> My apologies, but I must inquire: what led you to the design profession in the first place? Do tell us more about your path.

TIAGO> For a Brazilian in the ‘90s, illustration and animation weren't options on the table. I was looking for a space in the competitive advertising industry, so I started with design as a way to use my graphic skills and make my way into the market. Later on, I really did get into advertising but my heart was already with design.

First I did a lot of magazine layout, then web design during the 2000 dot-com boom, branding and packaging design for the food market, design for luxury/fashion brands, some digital interfaces, then some point of sales for global brands. It was only as a 30-something that I found the animation market. Design fundamentals were always there to support me along the way.

COMIC SANS> What aspects of design tickle your fancy? Like, what do you get all nerdy about?

TIAGO> It’s creeping for me to see something I consider wrongly designed. I've stopped meetings to adjust spacing. I've already gotten up from bed at night to adjust kerning. I'm a hierarchy nerd. 

I started my career with paper magazines and ads, where a mistake cannot be corrected after printing. Branding and logos were built to last forever. Today, everything is fluid. If you do a startup brand ID correctly, it will last two years until it is successfully sold to a bigger company. Everything is more disposable, but still: spacing, kerning, and visual hierarchy are rules written in stone for me. 

FUTURA> Wie gehts! As a fellow design enthusiast, I'm curious to know which tool you find most useful in your craft. In this age of abundance, I'm sure you have quite a few at your disposal, so which one do you prefer to use the most? And most importantly, why do you think it's the best?

TIAGIO> Artificial intelligence is omnipresent right now. I'm testing these tools for all kinds of stuff: characters and style frames for animation obviously, but also user interface, branding, and other more technical deliveries. I've also included prompts as part of the basic brand ID delivery. 

I've completely abandoned paper. It was a painful intended transformation towards a faster and environmentally friendly work frame. I was glad to learn to draw and paint with the Procreate app, which rekindled the joy of using paper for me. I use it on a daily basis to make paint-overs and give feedback to the artists and designers I'm working with.

HELVETICA> How do you perceive the concept of ‘Design Thinking’?

TIAGO> It is a lifesaver. In a time of so many uncertainties, I cling to it for some structure. I'm not too nerdy about it; I take it more as a general notion than following some kind of strict methodology. I understand it as a translation of the scientific method to the creative process. Creativity is fluid. Design thinking is just the container to pour into the right places.

FUTURA> As a lover of design, I'm always fascinated by the challenges and controversies that arise in our field. Which ones do you find particularly tricky to navigate or ponder on most frequently? I'm sure there are plenty, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. 

TIAGO> The biggest misconception for me is the basic concept of what is ‘design’. 

From the generalist perspective, design is not the act of creating shapes and colours; that's the end of it, where it lands. Design is for the broader sense, when all the vectors involved are the problem, and from there the designer prioritises, aligns, regroups, and connects. It could be people seeking comfort from a chair; it could be brands trying to reach people through a logo; it could be an audience connecting to a story through a character; it could even be a CEO creating their digital product through venture design. Design is a mindset. 

COMIC SANS> Yo dude, what's the hardest part of makin' stuff that everyone can use, ya know, accessible design? And how do you do it right in your kind of design work?

TIAGO> Accessibility will take a huge leap with AI. It's easy to imagine how technology such as text-to-image, voice-to-text, image-to-voice, etc. could make it easier to include everyone in the message. The role of the designer is to understand and use those tools to work toward a more inclusive solution. The current search from studios for more diverse background artists and designers also plays an important role in accessibility.

FUTURA> I'm curious about the values and characteristics that you want to convey through your personal brand and designs. What are some of the key traits that you strive to communicate to your audience? Dankeschön!

TIAGO> My everyday struggle is to prioritise. What are the real issues in a given design challenge? To design a character you have the agency asking for things, you have the client looking into other aspects, you have the story itself demanding some solutions, and you have to level those desires and translate them into a character design, a specific stylisation, or an environment design. What should play a major role? What visual solutions could answer more of those questions? 

HELVETICA> How do you reckon with the ethical considerations in design? 

TIAGO> Ethics should be central to design decisions but in real life, it isn’t. I feel that we’re in such a rush to meet deadlines in an ever-changing business landscape that we frequently leave ethics for later. I’ve never had so little time to discuss the real impact of proposed solutions or to think of more environmentally friendly proposals. When it is central to the solution, we do think about those questions. But if it is not, nobody has time for that. That’s a shame.

BODONI> Good sir, I am curious to know about your favourite examples of creative design solutions that inspire you. Share your inspirations with us.

TIAGO> For me, great designs are the invisible ones. A ubiquitous paper clip with a shape that hasn’t changed; the big white gloves in Mickey’s design; to make a design more readable is replicated in millions of characters. Helvetica and the ultimate solution for Arabic characters. Designs that are not even open to discussion because everyone agrees with them. Those inspire me. 

COMIC SANS> Yo dude, so like, what kind of work have you done that you think is totally rad? Like, which projects have you worked on that made you feel stoked and totally satisfied? And why were they so dope?

TIAGO> I like my TV spots for Globo a lot in terms of design. We established a colour palette and some basic shapes that take us seamlessly through different animation techniques. This is design at its core.

In more of a traditional design approach, my recent work with the XPERIENCE startup made me very happy. It is not super edgy and has so many different applications, like insights from teachers and students, that had been included in the design system. It’s the technical issues solved with simple shape choices and some business dilemmas that were solved with the design that makes me smile.

COMIC SANS> So, what do you think the future holds for your design thing? Like, are there any new and funky possibilities on the horizon that you're excited about? We're all about staying ahead of the game, so can you give us your predictions for what's gonna be cool in the future?

TIAGO> Certainly AI and all the changes it brings with it. Everyone can be a designer now. What will we, old designers, make with it? You can create great logos in seconds and illustrate and generate characters in a blink of an eye. How can we use our criteria in this process? How can a brand take advantage of these tools? 

HELVETICA> Who do you consider your design heroes, and what qualities do they possess that inspire you? I'm interested in learning about your role models.

TIAGO> I used to love the visceral feel of David Carson, but he once cancelled a talk that my younger self was waiting on for months, so he lost his place in my heart. Stephan Sagmeister has this very personal approach to design and I kind of love that. I once heard HORT, a lesser-known German designer, open my mind to these very personal relations with the process - to emotionally get involved with the creation, to embrace mistakes, and other rules - that I take with me everywhere I go. Their approach to the design process made me the designer I am today. 

BODONI> Prithee, what counsel wouldst thou give to those at the outset of their profession, regarding the ever-shifting landscape of design?

TIAGO> Think of design as a mindset: a way of life, a set of processes and skills that can translate and communicate with humans. Never worry about changing the business landscape. One day you will be using typography as a tool for that, but the next day it could be the anatomy of character, and the next, it could be prompted. It doesn’t matter - design is king.