NuForm as a platform for creating work that can last.

Do you envision a project or new typeface you’re working on functioning in a specific way socially, or to be used in a certain way in a designer’s hand, or seen on a billboard for an audience while crafting it?

“This is probably the most exciting part, being able to create something that, once it’s created, it lives in the world outside of your direction. And, yeah, I’m setting a tone for it, but that’s just a personal tone. So it’s almost like motivated, inspiration material for others to want to try and maybe create something with. When it lives in someone else's hands, that’s maybe when I get even more excited about it. It’s honestly nice to be this anonymous person in the world where my work can live beyond me. In all my client work, I make this work for them, and then it lives in the world for 15 seconds and then it’s gone. Having a foundry like NuForm allows the work I make to have a longer life.”

Hunting for Treasure in References

It would be good to hear, even though it may be a self-evident question, why do you collect things? Why do you have stuff?

“Especially during the time when the internet was coming up, we had to dig more for references. There are those moments where you actually find something, and it's like this object of beauty, and you understand that in that moment, you may never see it again. It’s like, ‘I’m in this bookstore in LA, for this five minutes, I’m probably never going to be here again, I have this thing in my hands that’s making me feel something—and I think I need it in my life.’ So then it becomes a part of your existence. And I think that, much like music, I look at the objects and the books that I have related to this. Whereas music, you can be in a situation and you hear it, and then ten years later you hear it again and it reminds you of that moment. I think these objects and pieces that we have also correlate to this timeline that bring you back to these really special moments.

So a lot of the things that I have, and that I keep with me, with a mind that’s kind of all over the place, this is the one place I can map when and where—the light, the people that were there, everything—I think this is how I’ve built my brain.

You never know when you’re going to need something that you can’t find on social media or the internet, but I know exactly where it is in my pile.”

Access Frequency

How often do you return to the value of those things? Are they accessible frequently, and are there things in your archive that you use differently than other things?

“I think it depends on: are they accessible? At the moment, I would say they are 20% accessible. I recently moved out of a studio where I had the space to have everything, and I had to cut what was available to me by like 80%. The things I have today aren’t necessarily the most meaningful, they are what I pulled out of the box right away.”