Intervew with designer, illustrator, and typographer Ryan Hughes.

Talking to Rian Hughes was an extraordinary experience. With a
wealth of expertise, and known as a competent, and original ‘British
graphic designer, illustrator, type designer, comics artist and novelist’,
he certainly can deal with any poised project. ‘Hughes has written and
drawn comics for 2000 AD, Vertigo CMYK and Batman: Black and
White, and designed for DC Comics and Marvel. His designs and
illustrations are published widely across the UK and US’. As a young
student, who takes great interests in font and type, it was an honor
speaking to the signature typographer.
Hughes, started his career, with an interest in design spark through
letraset, and then went to further his interest with a degree from the
then, London College of Printing. LCP, which is now known as The
London College of Communication. Learning was a ‘pretty hands off
experience, and his degree was project based’, so there was ‘very little
direct instruction’ he added candidly. As an Author and writer too
within the industry, his experience was documented through early
writing, ‘I wrote about it too, for ‘New Art School Rules’, a poster
exhibition organized by Malcolm Garrett’. In the art piece, he muses
how he wanted to learn differently, and more technically, ‘At art
school, I thought I’d be taught composition, anatomy, perspective,
layout, drawing, painting and type design’. Upon thoughts, and
thinking? Rian Hughes, thought they would teach him how to think, I
thought I’d learn, ‘semiotics, perception, colour theory, storytelling,
structure and language’, how to think he mused through his artwork. ‘I
wanted to apply myself to technical challenges that would have honed
the eye, the hand, and the mind’.
On teaching at LCC today?, the way degrees are conducted, and how
they all compare, taking in mind their consideration, or regard to
typography? ‘I’ve little idea on how degrees are run today. I’d imagine
it’s more computer skills based. I graduated before the MAC was
invented’. Hughes, has striking, bold and modern tastes in design, with
an ingenuity and propensity within his work. I asked Rian Hughes, if he
could pick out a few examples of his work, of particular interest, and
why it is important to him? Self effacingly, Hughes answered, ‘There
are different milestones that represent different periods: Paralucent
was my first attempt at a large family. Blackcurrant was a surprise hit
that captured the zeitgeist. Korolev is my largest family and has
become a best-seller. There have been families that have not found an
audience (for example, I hoped Argent would get more use) and those I
almost didn’t release because I don’t think anyone would want to use
them, but then when I did they became ubiquitous (eg Roadkill). It’s
like releasing a single - you never can tell if it’ll chart or not’. Dazzle
Unicase is modern and extremely stylish at times, I then asked him,
‘How do you feel about your newest addition to Adobe fonts?’. The
stylish, and modern font, is a cult classic for many, Hughes gave me an
honest, and sincere account, ‘It was designed in 2017, so is actually
from a batch of releases from a few years back. There's a bunch of new
designs that recently went live at Adobe: Wilko, Guildhall, Chassis, etc.
These are all available at my own site and MyFonts too. Dazzle Unicase
is a development of Dazzle, an “op art” multi line font I designed in
2005. The character shapes are the same, but for Dazzle Unicase I
added more “unicase” (sometimes called “common case”, ie lower-case
forms in the capitals) letters. It has similarities to Avant Garde and the
other geometric sans of the early 70s in that it’s constructed from
(optically corrected) circles and perpendicular lines. There’s a bit more
background on it in the Device font catalogue, which also has other
essays and background stuff you might find interesting.
Dazzle Unicase is modern and extremely stylish at times, I then
asked him, ‘How do you feel about your newest addition to
Adobe fonts?’. The stylish, and modern font, is a cult classic for
many, Hughes gave me an honest, and sincere account, ‘It was
designed in 2017, so is actually from a batch of releases from a
few years back. There's a bunch of new designs that recently
went live at Adobe: Wilko, Guildhall, Chassis, etc. These are all
available at my own site and MyFonts too. Dazzle Unicase is a
development of Dazzle, an “op art” multi line font I designed in
2005. The character shapes are the same, but for Dazzle Unicase
I added more “unicase” (sometimes called “common case”, ie
lower-case forms in the capitals) letters. It has similarities to
Avant Garde and the other geometric sans of the early 70s in that
it’s constructed from (optically corrected) circles and
perpendicular lines. There’s a bit more background on it in the
Device font catalogue, which also has other essays and
background stuff you might find interesting.
As an Author, he has created work looking at typography with
dynamics and detail. One of his best books, Typodiscography,
which is available on Amazon, has many areas of interest, for
typography enthusiasts. ‘The complete range of type designs
available from Rian Hughes' digital foundry, featuring sample
settings, background information and interviews. Also includes
Hughes' Filmotype revivals and FontFonts’.
Dazzle Unicase is certainly, one of his most successful fonts, with
Korolev. I asked Hughes, if he could describe the font in a few
words? Hughes, an expert typographer, started his answer to my
question, with reference to his myfonts listing: An elegant, stylish
unicase font with alternative lower-case letter-forms designed
to fit the capital’s X-height. The lower-case forms are available
in many of the lower-case keystrokes, with even more available
as “stylistic alternates” or a “stylistic set”, which can be activated
in Adobe apps. Eye-catching, sophisticated and contemporary.
Available in five weights. A more sober companion to the original
op-art version of Dazzle. I asked, if he has any more variations
for Dazzle Unicase – anything else in the pipeline? Hughes, put
the record straight immediately, despite the fonts brilliance,: 'No
more variants for Dazzle. Always new designs in the pipeline!'.
Which, I think meant, no more new versions of Dazzle Unicase.
Let's look towards new fonts, and typology design.
I pressed further, and asked, 'How would you describe your
fonts? Through your work do you want people to engage more
with typography, or just want people to find your contribution to
design to be eye-catching?'. The typographer, answered, 'To a
great extent a font finds its own audience. Sometimes I’ll create
one for a specific need, sometimes it’ll just be a geometric or
aesthetic idea'. With so much expertise, and effort put into his
work, and books, I asked if there was anything specific, from the
genius, and if there was a specific, way he wanted people to use
his signature fonts? He answered, that things would be perfect, if
they were used in 'creative ways, and they should delve into the
alternatives, the OpenType options, etc, to get the full picture'.
The same was true for my next question, which was if, 'Through
your work with fonts do you want people to engage more with
typography, or prefer aesthetic appeal or some kind of reaction
to your work?. His answer was simple, after all the complication,
and details of working with fonts, people's 'creative ways' were
important to Hughes, and I am assuming expression and
communication, were also of importance.