- Plain
- Bold
- Drips
Related Gestalten.tv Podcast
[::http://www.gestalten.com/motion/clip?id=123 Pfadfinderei - Boy Scout, Meet Video]
Critzla started off as a sign and poster painter in East Germany and launched his career as an independent designer i
… read moreCritzla started off as a sign and poster painter in East Germany and launched his career as an independent designer in 1994—deep-routed in the Berlin music scene—designing flyers, record sleeves, and posters, not to mention the first 12 issues Flyer, a magazine about Berlin’s club scene.Critzla is a founding member of Pfadfinderei, a graphic and motion design studio that doubles as one of the world’s most popular groups of VJs. Whether providing haunting visuals for Moderat or live VJing at the Louis Vuitton store opening in Paris with Pharell, Pfadfinderei have done for visuals what DJs did to music.
He’s also a type geek and a type designer himself. Critzla designed the typeface Localizer for the book of the same name—Gestalten’s first release—and many other fonts through Gestalten Fonts for which he’s a contributing editor since 2003.
More fonts by Critzla
www.pfadfinderei.com
Jay: I Like to think of myself as a painter, as I don’t … read more
Jay: I Like to think of myself as a painter, as I don’t have the average knowledge and skills of graphic design. I mostly do paintings work for selected clients and friends... The rest of the time, I enjoy outdoor graffiti or painting canvases in my room /studio. Lately I've been exploring the field of music, making and directing videos under the name "OUTLINES", together with my partners Irfane and Jerome.
Critzla: Pfadfinderei is a collective of 7 designers, with complimentary skills and interests working for agencies and the cultural world. We create classical prints, visuals, visual installations, sets and studio designs as well as fonts. Our main objective and goal is to cope with big tasks together. We’re also a VJ collective and have worked internationally for the last 7 years and performed in Japan, China and all over Europe.
How would you characterize your design style?
Jay: I don't really own a style... But my approach before starting any piece is to be very simple, smart, direct and avoid easy repetition. Something close to DADA.
Critzla: Sharp vector graphics and reduced to the max. No filters and no sampling.
Place of work
Jay: Everything begins in Paris and then to anywhere else.
Critzla: Berlin, Europe, Worldwide
Can you give us a short description about the font?
Jay: The font is an authentic Graffiti font called "tag" or "Tagg". It's originally, taken from my “flow” handwriting and tries to capture the irregular street script aesthetic amd natural calligraphy.
Critzla: With Jay, I used my fontlab skills to bring his handwriting into the digital world.
How did you come up with the name of the font?
Jay: It comes from the name of the ink used by writers in the graffiti early days.
Critzla: And I simply agreed to this, because he's the designer and I’m the engineer.
Why did you design this font and what was your inspiration?
Critzla: I watched Jay tagging once to pass some time and I was so impressed by his cool precise lettering that I asked him to digitalize it. He liked the idea and that was the start of our collaboration.
What was this font intended for and what was the main idea behind designing the font?
Jay: To generate a font that represents the true essence of graffiti-style writing.
Critzla: ... and to make it usable in any software, on any computer, for everybody.
What is the ideal usage of your font?
Jay: Title, headlines and quotes.
Critzla: Dito
Do you think that too many fonts exist?
Jay: There's always space for good fonts.
Critzla: Dito
Your future plans?
Jay: Write!
Critzla: Create other new stuff with Jay.