Erik Spiekermann quotes:

I'm very much a word person, so that's why typography for me is the obvious extension. It just makes my words visible.

Typomania is curable but not fatal. Unfortunately.

You are what you are seen to be.

Inspiration. From real life. I open my eyes and I travel and I look. And I read everything.

Inherent quality is part of absolute quality and without it things will appear shoddy. The users may not know why, but they always sense it.

The materials shape your idea.

Designers like even grayness, which is the worst thing for a reader.

As we say in Berlin, there are many ways to bake a parrot.

I'm obviously a typeomaniac, which is an incurable if not mortal disease. I can't explain it. I just love, I just like looking at type. I just get a total kick out of it: they are my friends. Other people look at bottles of wine or whatever, or, you know, girls' bottoms. I get kicks out of looking at type. It's a little worrying, I admit, but it's a very nerdish thing to do.

These days, information is a commodity being sold. And designers-including the newly defined subset of information designers and information architects-have a responsible role to play. We are interpreters, not merely translators, between sender and receiver. What we say and how we say it makes a difference. If we want to speak to people, we need to know their language. In order to design for understanding, we need to understand design.

The attention someone gives to what he or she makes is reflected in the end result, whether it is obvious or not.

They [letters] are my friends Some people look at bottles of wine, or whatever - girls' bottoms - I get kicks out of looking at type.