Louise Wilson

As London gears up for ‘London Fashion Week’, 200% brings you an interview with Professor Louise Wilson OBE, Central Saint Martins Master of Fashion Course Director. Wilson is known for her deconstruct-then-reconstruct teaching style, and clear and outspoken views. Here she explains why “preparing” students for business is not the primary role of CSM; why she longs for “fashion to be unfashionable”, and whether there are any benefits for her to give interviews.

200%: Each year you review many portfolios from young, aspiring, fashion designers who apply for Central Saint Martins. How do you spot if someone has talent; for what qualities are you searching?


Louise Wilson: My job description is not to spot talent; my job description is 
Course Director. If I was a talent spotter, I would be called a ‘talent spotter’. I’m an educator: thus I’m looking for people that are interested in their subject, some of whom may become talented, but the premis of Central Saint Martins MA course is to educate people. Thus, whilst not being spotted as talented, with an education, you can still contribute to the design world. Saint Martins is tagged with this ‘star-talent-spotting’ label: but, when you’re here in the building, that’s not what we’re about – that’s other peoples’ projections.



200%: For what do you look when you review a portfolio?


Louise Wilson: I look for different skills: some people have cutting skills, some design or colour skills, some research skills, and some have it all. Whilst some people have only one or two skills, you take them in the hope you can drag the other skills out of them.

200%: Do you also teach your students the business side of the job?


Louise Wilson: No, because we’re too busy teaching them the creative aspect of the job, and we can not and should not be expected to do everything.

200%: Somehow, though, you teach your students the business side of the job as they all go on to have quite successful businesses.

Louise Wilson: I don’t think we do anything in particular, as we don’t give any lectures specific to business as it’s in-built! In-built in the briefs; in-built when we speak to them; in-built into dialogues, and with people that they meet and whom we suggest they meet. Whilst this is how we “prepare” them for business, this is not our primary role. We’re an Art college, and I never say we “prepare” them for business. Many art colleges have tried to tackle business and it has not been a success.

200%: It appears that some fashion journalists make your name synonymous with the words of ‘fearsome’, ‘opinionated’, or ‘abrasive’ when they refer to your teaching style. Does it bother you how you’re portrayed in the press?


Louise Wilson: Yes, it can be quite irritating and stupid. It bothers me in the respect that, if a 
multinational company was considering employing me as a consultant they may be put off, which is complete bullshit as I have previously worked as a consultant for Donna [Karan] and others. The rest of the time I don’t really give it much thought. Luckily I have another life, so I couldn’t care less. I also realize that a lot of people don’t even read most of the interviews, but it’s guaranteed that when it’s truly nasty it’s in the most well-read publications.

200%: Is there any benefit for you to give interviews?

Louise Wilson: The interviews don’t bring anything compared with, for instance, that it does for a film actor. If you’re an actor like 
Brad Pitt, you’re selling a 
film and when you do those press interviews you’re getting paid technically. That’s been negotiated, it’s in your contract. If I give time to do press interviews I’m taking time out from teaching that I have to make up at another time. I’m not getting paid and there is no benefit. Whereas every other sector when you read interviews there is a knock-on effect, there’s a product to buy or they benefit somehow in kind, like the actor promoting a film. With education there is 
nothing to buy. What happens in education is you give more and more
 of yourself and then you realize you get less and less back. My mother is upset by some of the articles. There is little or no benefit and I have thought 
like that for years.

Central Saint Martins has a good reputation; the MA has a good reputation. It’s a reputation defined by it’s work, its moniker, not by me or how many interviews I do as the work stands for itself. This is why I’m sort of 
ambivalent about interviews on me because it [Central Saint
 Martins] will continue long after I’ve
 gone, as the college is bigger
 than any one person.

200%: Thus, does it concern you that the public’s perception of the MA Fashion course is that it is ‘Louise Wilson’?

Louise Wilson: Yes a concern is that you have a group of
 students that think they’re coming to be taught by me, which is wrong 
as they’re coming to be taught by a great course team. It shouldn’t matter whether I’m there or not. They’re coming here to do 
their own work. It’s only when they do their own work that I can even give them a critique.

I was just recently talking with a student who was asking for an 
address for something and I knew he was looking at me as if to say “why don’t you
 have it in a rolodex”, which is stupid as the rolodex would have to be as 
big as this desk. If you’re just handing over numbers 
and information that would be useless. A student has to start at the 
beginning. It’s the whole process of them making a phone call, them sending an e-mail, try this and that. It’s not just giving them a contact 
because they miss the whole journey of what they might find on the way.
 I like being with young people and seeing them get better. That’s very rewarding.


200%: Do you have an explanation as to why there is always this pressure
on fashion to deliver more?

Louise Wilson: In the 1990s, fashion produced Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen, amongst others; in the 1980s fashion produced John Galliano and Rei Kawakubo. They all created things that had never happened before that have stood the test of time. Thus, with such success, there is always this pressure on fashion to deliver more.

200%: The incubation period of fashion is not as long as, for instance, product design, as people expect fashion to be constantly associated with ‘new’ things.

Louise Wilson: Fashion is very fashionable. I’m longing for it 
to be become unfashionable. Maybe they could do architecture and 
product design in reality shows and find ‘The Next Top Kettle’. Those
 subjects are allowed much more time to incubate. People revere Marc Newson and people like him. They have much longer incubation periods and there is maybe less pressure on them. But fashion is quite naff 
because fashion is fashionable. It’s debatable what is fashionable 
because Nokia phones are fashionable, but they are not classified as fashion even now fashion people may well be designing them and coming up with 
colours for them. But it’s not related as fashion, because fashion is 
only allowed to be clothes on models, but fashion is a much wider
 spectrum than that.

Written by Thierry Somers and Marie Drysdale.

Picture: Greg Kessler (http://www.gobackstage.blogspot.com)

Richard Phillips (Part 1)

For the second time, 200% meets the artist Richard Phillips and interviewed him on his latest White Cube exhibition ‘Most Wanted’ – a series of ten paintings of "ten of America's most instantly recognizable celebrities".

We spoke with Phillips what triggered him to come up with the idea of ‘Most Wanted’; the rehearsed, red-carpet expressions of powerful stars; the competing interests that corporate luxury and entertainment systems have in shaping and deciding what constitutes contemporary art; and his view on MoMA’s status as a place of great popular interest, “not unlike a Planet Hollywood or a Hard Rock Café”.

200%: Was there a specific cultural experience, observation or fascination that triggered you to come up with the idea of 'Most Wanted'?

Richard Phillips: The initial inspirations for my ‘Most Wanted’ series came from a combination of experiences involving art, politics, media, luxury, and celebrity endorsement. During a visit to the Venice biennial I visited the Doges Palace and within it the large Hall of Doges. Ringing the room were portraits of the Doges, who ruled the city-state over the years. These portraits, all in similar scale and painted by Tintoretto and his son, served a political purpose beyond their record of legacy, which was to communicate an image of stability, intimidation and authority to any visiting dignitary who entered the chamber. Here, painting is used as an articulation of secular power and wealth.

Later, I attended a fundraiser for ‘The Kitchen’, the avant-garde performance space in New York. At the entrance was a step-and-repeat logo backdrop intended to create endorsement opportunities for visiting celebrities who were attending the event, to lend popular legitimacy to The Kitchen’s program and to create a context of exceptional importance for the attendees.

200%: What do you mean by “popular legitimacy”?

Richard Phillips: By having celebrities pose in front of the brand logo of ‘The Kitchen’, the institution and its members are granted a photographically verifiable status of being celebrity worthy. The proximity of a celebrity to The Kitchen’s fundraising apparatus lends a sense of legitimacy within popular culture at large. Without this celebrity endorsement, the institution would be left outside of, or seen as illegitimate within, the context of the dominant popular culture that associatively determines its worthiness of attendance.

200%: Were there any further experiences that contributed to the idea of 'Most Wanted'?

Richard Phillips: Yes. Within this time frame I was asked to license two of my painting images for the CW television network's production of the hit show ‘Gossip Girl’. When visiting the show’s new set where my paintings were installed, the way in which the producers, directors, actors and crew worked so responsively together to synthesize a first production of pop culture using real time cultural information from all sectors had a lasting impression on me. The painting facsimiles served as a visual backdrop for this dramatic synthesis and appeared a form of cultural collateral that now had a chance to reach large audiences around the world.

Following the ‘Gossip Girl’ collaboration, I was approached by MAC Cosmetics regarding a commission, painting for their artist series. As I was in the middle of a deadline for an exhibition, I was unable to make a dedicated painting for them. Thus, I proposed hiring the best-known photo retoucher, Pascal Dangin, to digitally retouch one of my paintings to create the appearance that MAC products had been applied within the image of that painting. The completed digital painting was used as point-of-sale advertisement in over 1,200 store locations around the world. The integration of a commercial brand product in an existing painting, to be sold as the “Richard Phillips” line of cosmetics, deepened the connections between that which had been previously segregated – art’s need to remain distinct in its relation to commercial objectives.  Now, the sanctity of both art and, in this case, fashion could co-promote their exceptional roles in consumer culture.

One last influential experience occurred in the MoMA lobby during the opening night of the Tim Burton exhibition. I was standing next to a trustee, and we observed the large crowd gathered near the entrance and the crush of photographers lined up in front of the step-and-repeat backdrop emblazoned with MoMA and luxury brand logos. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp walked in; the crowd screamed and the photo flashes blasted off at a blinding rate. The trustee turned to me and said that this was an important moment for the museum. I agreed and said that the power of celebrity had finally merged completely with the institution of modern art, where all of the work in the museum would be put firmly into context with the power of the global entertainment system, not just as conferrer of celebrity legitimacy by proximity but as content and product. The presence of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp within the Museum of Modern Art not only meant that by going to MoMA one may be entering a celebrity approved environment and engaging in celebrity approved activities, but in the case of this specific show, the content and products within the exhibition and therefore institution were solely focused on the promotion of celebrities themselves. The art within the rest of the museum could now be seen within the context of official celebrity production that in turn raises MoMA’s status as a place of great popular interest, not unlike a Planet Hollywood or a Hard Rock Café.  The exhibition went on to set all attendance records and inaugurated MoMA into the present.

The combination of these experiences led me to make the decision to dedicate this body of work to the irreducible logic of art’s total subordination to luxury brands and celebrity endorsement.

200%: What was your selection criteria to select these as “ten of America's most instantly recognizable celebrities...", as people would suggest that there are others more 'instantly recognizable' than Taylor Momsen... as opposed to, say, Scarlett Johansson.

Richard Phillips: My selection criteria evolved from an initial conversation with Stephan Gan and Dominic Sidhu of VMAN magazine for a proposed layout of the top ten male celebrities working today. Due to deadlines, the original proposal of ten men was reduced to five, and the medium was changed from paint to pastels. The first group proposed comprised more established actors such as Brad Pitt, Viggo Mortensen and George Clooney. I urged that we consider younger actors who were involved in various disciplines of television, cinema and music. My relation to 'Gossip Girl' had a roll in the inclusion of Chase Crawford, and from there it was a matter of discussion regarding which stars hold the highest degree of influence and popularity in the various mediums and represent the biggest brands in entertainment such as Disney. Their roles as tween and teen idols were also factored in. Held over from the original list was Leonardo DiCaprio, who casts a long shadow having arisen from preteen television stardom to teen heartthrob and then to respected Oscar-winning actor. He literally serves as the template for the kind of success to which any of the other young actors could aspire. The young women followed the selection of the men using similar criteria, with the additional stipulation that they be born after 1990. I felt it important to connect to a younger generation and to create a distinction between the thresholds of pop acumen. Chase Crawford, Taylor Momsen and Zac Efron may be unknown to you, but only if you're too old!

200%: From where did you select the poses of the celebrities?

Richard Phillips: The poses were selected from an aggregation of red carpet images drawn from celebrity blogs. The exact poses are the ones each of the stars creates when standing on the red carpet in front of step-and-repeats. Their expressions are rehearsed and coached so that they can print a stable presentation that functions for any endorsement opportunity. To start the process, my studio managers and I individually gathered images on our computers, which we narrowed down to our own top three shots for each star. We then got together and selected the winning pose from the final nine. This last image served as the basis to create a working composite image.

200%: Is there a particular point with this body of work about which you would like the public to ponder?

Richard Phillips: The point I would like people to pause and consider is their relationship to the competing interests that corporate luxury and entertainment systems have in shaping and deciding what constitutes contemporary art, as they exert financial pressure and determine legitimacy by proximity to their products and celebrity brands. The convention of large scale figurative portraiture that negates the instant assimilation of the photo serves to present the contraction of physical human presence when considering the irrational desires initiated by the image of celebrity and fashion brands. The logo-covered front and back walls of the step-and-repeat emphasize the omnipresence of the almost celestial, and certainly inescapable, influence of these brands on all cultural praxis.

200%: On the press release of 'Most Wanted' it is stated that you "selected ten of America’s most instantly recognizable celebrities to create distilled portraits of powerful stars exhibiting their rehearsed, red-carpet expressions” – do you know if celebrities actually rehearse red-carpet expressions with a coach beforehand for the cameras?

Richard Phillips: As I mentioned above, many of the celebrities do rehearse their expressions with the aid of coaches, just as they might work with acting or stunt coaches on the set of or in preparation for a film. When building a celebrity brand it is essential that the projected image of a star remain consistent for endorsement purposes.

200%: How did the paparazzi pictures and 'external' information (from the tabloids or other mediums) influence your depiction of these stars in your paintings?

Richard Phillips: The source photos that inspired the paintings influenced the images in a couple of ways. The distance of the subject to the lens and the relative clarity of the images were important because they establish the feeling of hard or soft focus in relation to the step-and-repeat. The universal use of the strobe flash suppressed the illusion of volume in the portraits. Because of the scale of the paintings, being nearly 2.5 meters tall, these factors are greatly exaggerated when standing in front of the works.

200%: Did the external information about these people, i.e. gossip in magazines, sound-bites on entertainment shows, public image etc, influence your depiction of them on the canvas?

Richard Phillips: The depictions of the celebrities were influenced by the external information about these people in so far as the choice of the best red carpet expression needed to match the overall projection of the popular image of the star that is constantly promoted in the magazines and entertainment shows.

200%: Did you paint these celebrities against 'step and repeat' backdrops to illustrate that these celebrities are used as pawns to sell products?

Richard Phillips: No. They are by no means pawns. The presence of a celebrity at an event is the result of a carefully orchestrated deal, where a brand’s celebrity relations representative has reached out to the star’s manager as well as their publicist and set the conditions for a compensatory agreement. There is an implicit understanding that celebrities must perform in these endorsement situations not only for financial gain but for maintenance of a level of influence.

TO BE CONTINUED

In the second part of our interview with Richard Phillips he shares his thoughts on: why society is obsessed with celebrity culture; Kim Kadarshian’s talent; how his painting method has changed over the past year; and why Warhol's ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ no longer has relevance.

Interview written and conducted by Thierry Somers, with contribution by Marie Drysdale.

Painting: Richard Phillips, Taylor Momsen, 2010, Oil on Linen, 95 x 78 in. (241.3 x 198.1 cm) 

© the artist Courtesy White Cube 

Richard Phillips, 'Most Wanted', 28 January - 5 March 2011, White Cube, Hoxton Square

More Richard Phillips in the first issue of 200%: 

www.200-percent.com

Pop meets the Classics

Alex Ross’s recommendations of great examples where Pop meets the Classics (December 2010 post), triggered the editors of 200% to search for more pop songs that cross the border into Classical Music.

Here’s 200%’s playlist – 15 pop songs, in alphabetic order.

1. ABC - All of My Heart - Orchestration by Anne Dudley

Dudley composed all the string arrangements of ABC’s album ‘The Lexicon of Love’. Her string arrangements for ‘All of My Heart’ are Dudley’s finest hour on the album. For two minutes, at the end of the song, the strings command full attention as you hear epic, flowing, grandiose, romantic music reminiscent of Powell & Pressburger and Douglas Sirk movies, ending in an Hallmark moment that slowly flickers like a night candle.

As one of the founding members of Art of Noise Dudley composed a few instrumental tracks, for example, ‘Debut’ and ‘Promenade I & II’, which focus entirely on the strings and demonstrate her melodic sensibility.

2. Björk - Joga - Orchestrated by Eumir Deodato

Taken from the 1997 ‘Homogenic’ album and led by a string arrangement that carries you into a tune that builds up until it reaches an emotional, and experimental, explosion. The album is a seamless fusion of ‘chilly’ strings (courtesy of the Icelandic String Octet), stuttering, abstract beats, and unique touches that include accordion and glass harmonica: ‘Homogenic’ alternates between dark, uncompromising songs. ‘Joga’ contains a nostalgic string theme arranged by Björk and orchestrated by Deodato (of – amongst others – Kool & the Gang fame) that matches the nostalgia for Björk’s home country expressed in this tune.

3. David Bowie - Space Oddity - Arranged by Paul Buckmaster

A year after the release of Stanley Kubrick’s film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, the single was released – produced by Gus Dudgeon, who later became renowned as the producer of several Elton John albums, with arrangements done by Paul Buckmaster, who trained as a cellist. The song, about the launch of ‘Major Tom’, a fictional astronaut, coincided with the Apollo 11 moon landing, which was played at the BBC’s coverage of the landing, and became Bowie’s first hit in the UK.

Buckmaster’s arrangements contribute to the narrative of the song: first, the orchestra accentuates the tension of the launch moment; then, later similar to The Beatles ‘A Day in the Life’, the orchestra is used as a medium to convey chaos, which is used in ‘Space Oddity’ to express the space disaster that is happening to Bowie’s astronaut. At the end of the song the orchestra slowly fades away illustrating the image of a space ship vanishing anonymously in the universe.

4. John Cale - Paris 1919 - Arranged by John Cale

The title track to John Cale's 1973 album, ‘Paris 1919’, is a four minute masterpiece carried by a dynamic piano and strings  arrangement – a wondrous backdrop for the lyrics that combine the best of Cale's own eccentricity and introspection with lines such as “She'd open up the door and vaguely carry us away” combining perfectly with the playful “You're a ghost” chorus. Musically, it is a step away from his Velvets past as this is an album on which all songs are written and arranged by Cale, performed by the U.C.L.A. Orchestra with J. Druckman as the Orchestral manager.

‘Pitchfork Media’ notes on the bonus tracks of the album: “The album's title track appears in two additional versions – a ‘string mix’ that features only Cale and a small chamber ensemble, and a ‘piano mix’ that includes a beautiful, overtly Brian Wilson-inspired vocal bridge.”

5. Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - Rattlesnakes - String arrangements by Anne Dudley

The strings on the entire album are ‘sort of’ out of tune. ‘Rattlesnakes’ is a college rock masterpiece of smart, ironic lyrics and sympathetic folk-rock-based melodies. Who needs strings on records like these? The trick, though, is that it works, and adds meaning to the lyrics, especially where the strings accentuate them. Listen to the arrangement from 1:27 minutes onward. The words “She reads …” are sung on layers of sentimental orchestration. The title track, for example, is based on a key image from Joan Didion's stark Hollywood novel ‘Play It as It Lays’, and its chorus compares the song's heroine to Eva Marie Saint's character in the film ‘On the Waterfront’.

6. Bryan Ferry - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - Strings arranged by Ann Odell

The original version of ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ was a show tune of the 1933 operetta ‘Roberta’, written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach. Mr Ferry’s cover of the song appeared on his solo album ‘Another Time, Another Place’, a title that can be taken as reference to the period for which he has a penchant; the highly stylish Hollywood glamour of the 1930s.

Mr Ferry’s version of ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ is a sophisticated and nostalgic ode to the period where the strings bring back melancholic memories of a sweet and romantic affair of the past.

Odell also composed the placid string arrangements of Japan’s ‘The Other Side of Life’.

7. Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine - String section of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gordon Staples

Norman Whitfield produced four versions of the song, including versions by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Gladys Knight & the Pips. The drama of the lyrics, which are about a man who hears through gossip that his relationship is beginning to break up, is expressed in Gaye’s version to the best effect by the strings that are moody and soulful, but also reminiscent of Bernard Hermann’s Hitchcock film scores with unnerving, unpredictable suspense and doom. The lament in Gaye’s voice – Whitfield challenged the singer to sing the lyrics in a higher key than that to which he was used to do – made this version of the song the biggest Motown hit single at the time. Starting from 1963, the string section of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the concert master Gordon Staples, provided the strings for the all Motown records throughout the 1960s.

8. Elton John - Madman Across the Water - Arranged and conducted by Paul Buckmaster

Paul Buckmaster is also renowned for the orchestral arrangements of several Elton John albums. The original version of the song (included on ‘Tumbleweed Connection’) with Mick Ronson on guitar didn’t feature any strings. In Buckmaster’s version, after 2.30 minutes, the strings erupt with spiky, aggressive and determined movements, reminiscent of the rage that can be found in some of Beethoven’s symphonies. In 1986, a dramatic, and compelling, live-version of the song was recorded with The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

9. The Knife - Tomorrow, In A Year - Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson

'Tomorrow, In A Year' is the title track off a concept album about Charles Darwin and evolution. The Knife led the project but collaborated with a variety of musicians on the compositions. The dense and complex record divided critics' opinion; it received a rare 10/10 review in ‘Drowned In Sound’ and was hailed as one of their top releases of 2010, while the more commercial ‘Q’ Magazine gave it a 4/10, labelling it unlistenable. This track, built on a tribal drum pattern, blends haunting operatic vocals with electronica, creating rich and multi-layered hypnotic rhythms.

10. Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy - Arranged and conducted by Wil Malone

Malone’s string arrangements created a lot of subcutaneous tensions in the song. Throughout the song, there is an ominous feeling where it creeps under the skin, but there is also a Mahleresque melancholy. The strings gradually become higher and higher in tone, building up to the climax akin to Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’ – a piece that had a formative impact on Malone when he first heard it as an eleven year old.

11. Radiohead - Pyramid Song - Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood

Radiohead have the enviable knack of being able to tread the fine line between creating high art whilst still sounding melodic and accessible, which is aptly demonstrated by this piano-and-strings led track with its unusual timing. Amidst sparse piano chords, and swelling string arrangements, Thom Yorke muses over being accompanied by black eyed angels in rivers – referencing Dante's imaginary journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. The strings rise gently and then sway to and fro, and are then joined by trippy melodies played by Jonny Greenwood on an Ondes Martenot – an unusual Theremin-like device. The resulting effect produces a dreamy, yet gently hypnotic journey, drawing the listener into one of Radiohead’s finest moments.

12. The Rolling Stones - She's a Rainbow - John Paul Jones



'She's a Rainbow', featured on The Rolling Stones's ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ from 1967, is a bold statement of confidence: it captures The Stones parading their musical swagger at the crest of the scene of the period. Never before, or since, did The Stones take so many chances in the studio, possibly following the psychedelic lead of The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Peppers' released earlier in the same year. John Paul Jones (a session musician before joining Led Zeppelin) arranges the strings in a skittish and playful way that boldly complements Nicky Hopkins impeccable music-box arpeggios piano playing. The composition reverberates with joy, and captures the sentiment of the forthcoming, and ultimately doomed, “Summer of Love” perfectly.

13. The Temptations - Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - Norman Whitfield

‘Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone' was composed by Norman Whitfield, with lyrics by Barrett Strong – a formidable team responsible for an array of Motown hits. Eight versions of the track were released, lasting between 3 minutes 45 seconds to over 15 minutes. The lavish orchestration borrows from Ravel and Tchaikovsky and sits perfectly on the most unrelenting of bass lines. The tune is a pillar of cultural significance in African-American and pop music culture.

14. The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony - Arranged and conducted by Wil Malone

The simple and memorable string riff possesses anthem-like glory. The strings have a pulsating effect in the video, which is an homage to the video ‘Unfinished Sympathy'.

15 Scott Walker - It's Raining Today - Accompaniment directed by Wally Stott

The album contains ten originals by the artist and three covers. The album is criticized because it's too difficult to penetrate Walker’s insights through Wally Stott’s string-drenched production. It shrouds the lyrics in a fog that's often too syrupy (according to critics). The song opens with a sparse string arrangement, or is it a hissing noise accompanying a guitar stroke, that builds up dramatically towards the second part, where the glacial grace explodes and becomes a romantic reverie of descent. It’s a majestic opener to a melodramatic album that closes with Jacques Brel’s ‘Ne me quitte pas’.

This Playlist has been compiled by Marcel Harlaar, Louis Warner and Thierry Somers.

Picture: ABC 'All of My Heart' (single)

If you have a suggestion for a song to add to our Playlist “Pop meets the Classics”, including the reason why, please let us know.

Upcoming post: interviews with the string arrangers Wil Malone (Massive Attack “Unfinished Sympathy”, The Verve “Bittersweet Symphony”) and Anne Dudley (ABC “All of My Heart, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions “Rattlesnakes”) who will explain how the string arrangements of these songs originated.

Simon Garfield

The sentence you’re reading now is set in the typeface ‘Georgia’ (Bold Italic) – a typeface that was especially designed to be readable at small sizes on a computer screen. The sentence you’re reading now is set in ‘Verdana’ (Bold Italic), which was also designed to be readable at small sizes on a computer screen.

In his book ‘Just My Type’ the author Simon Garfield has written a light-hearted, educational (but page turning), engaging book on typefaces that is filled with amusing and, in some instances, bizarre anecdotes about the people who designed these, or the purpose as to why they were designed.

In the Q&A with ‘200%’, Garfield discusses the ‘playful’ typography used within his book, the ‘disease’ Typomania and the top 10 modern typefaces that are currently his ’type’…

200%: Was there a particular experience that triggered you to write a book about typefaces or was it purely on the basis of Duncan Clark’s original idea?

Simon Garfield: I’ve been interested in type since I pored over album covers in my excitable youth – Bowie, T Rex, The Faces. They were as important as the image of the artist, clearly saying something about what lay inside. And after that, as most writers would attest, there’s great fascination in how using a different font can change the emotion and intensity of what you’re writing. So when Duncan Clark had the idea, and my editor Mark Ellingham mentioned it to me, it took me about three seconds to realize what a good idea it was.

200%: In the chapter “What is it about the Swiss” you write about the New Yorker Cyrus Highsmith who tried to “spend a day without Helvetica”. This was quite challenging as the typeface is ubiquitously present in our lives. Whenever Highsmith saw something spelled out in Helvetica he averted his eyes. He wouldn’t take any Helvetica-signed Transport or buy any Helvetica branded products.

After you had written this book, when you walk in the street, do you look at signs of shop windows and try to identify the typeface?

Simon Garfield: Sadly, yes. It’s a disease called Typomania – wherever I go, I see lettering and signs and advertising in a new way, looking behind the message, at the clothing of what’s being said. I might not enjoy a film so much if I can’t recognise the font of the opening credits. So I loved “The Social Network”: Futura – that was easy.

200%: Your background is not design journalism or critiquing, which may be the reason that your book on typefaces and fonts is very light-hearted, amusing and engaging, whereas most books on typefaces are very serious, even earnest. Do you consider it turned out to be advantageous that you don’t have such a background and could approach the subject more as an outsider?

Simon Garfield: Definitely. The world of type designs and typography, like any important and creative world, is full of little debates and spats and wars, sometimes based on elitism, most often based on heartfelt passion. So it helped that I came to it all afresh. This also enabled me to pick out what I thought would be the most interesting stories for the general reader – freed up rather than hampered by what had gone before. 

200%: The typography of your book is quite playful. The text is set in a variety of typeface, including Sabon, Univers. When a typeface is mentioned it is printed in the actual typeface, i.e. when you discuss Helvetica it is printed in Helvetica. Could you tell me how the ideas of the typography of your book came about?

Simon Garfield: There was always this question from the beginning: how do we present the book in the most appealing way? One initial thought was to have a different typeface for every chapter, connected with the main face under discussion, but obviously display faces like Albertus and Cooper Black would be almost illegible at text sizes. So the designer James Alexander played around with a few options, and we settled on Sabon as the main text, Univers for the diversions about particular designers, and then we had a one-off use for all the type names we were describing. Not a cheap or easy exercise – we used more than 200 – but I think it works.   

200%: You have interviewed a lot of typeface designers and written about their work. Having heard the anecdotes, the purpose of the typeface design, and the creative process, what do you consider is the most remarkable achievement produced by a type designer?

Simon Garfield: That would be the achievement of producing anything original at all, and having the patience and inspiration to do so. How can one possibly create a new M or A that hasn’t been made in the proceeding 560 years?

200%: What do you think is one of the funniest anecdotes about a typeface you have heard?

Simon Garfield: It’s more poignant than funny, but I do love the story in the book about Doves, and the desire to drown it in the Thames so that no one else could use or abuse it. The type is still in there somewhere, if you’re feeling adventurous.

And I do like the story, not in the hardback, but certainly destined for the paperback, in which the all-round family entertainer Michael Ball introduced a listener’s email request on his Radio 2 show by saying, ‘And this one’s from Helvetica Bold – what a lovely name!’

200%: Our choice of typeface can send a signal about a person’s character. According to the Pentagram online questionnaire called “What type are you?” your type, is a typeface called Archer Hairline.

Your name on the cover of your book 'Just My Type' is set in the typeface Gill Sans, which is said to convey Britishness, scarcity, proper, reservedly proud, no fuss and practical. What typeface do you think portrays your character: Archer Hairline, Gill Sans or one of the typefaces of your other books Bookman, Sabon, Akzidenz Grotesk, Bembo?

Simon Garfield: Ah, that would depend on my mood at the time. I think we chose Gill Sans as a sane contrast to the other mad choices on the jacket. If my head is full of music, then I’ll go for something dramatic and flowery; if I’m being sincere I’ll have Helvetica. I think the fonts on my other books have fairly well represented what lies inside. On my gravestone I’d settle for Albertus.

200%: On the inside of the book jacket you say you have a current soft spot for the typefaces Mrs Eaves and HT Gelateria. Could you give a top 10 of your favourite typefaces, and the reasons for their selection?

Simon Garfield: Oh well, here goes. I need to tell you that these are my current modern fonts (i.e. it’s pointless putting them up against Baskerville etc) and that the list tends to change every hour or so:

1. Vitesse

This is a modern slab serif, with prominent feet grounding it to the page. It’s quite a traditional look, but the design company Hoefler & Frere-Jones have given it some nice quirks, not least on the upper-case K and G. I especially like the wafer thin version.

2. Progress Two

This reminds me of shapes one might make from pastry cutters. Just as you think you know what’s coming, an irregular cut-off stops you short. The upper-case B is a D with an elbow in its stomach. Slightly queasy, never boring.

3. HT Gelateria

The name says it all, a typeface that sells you ice cream. A thick, gooey script font – I wish I had handwriting like that.

4. Candy Script

Just outrageously beautiful and painterly. The o and w are my favourites. Put this on a bag of homemade cookies and you’ve got a sale.

5. Albertus

The oldest type in this list, and always a reliable standby. Designed by Berthold Wolpe in the 1930s, it features on Faber book jackets and street names in the City of London. I love it for its human carved qualities, and because it decorates the signs on Hampstead Heath, my local walking spot.

6. Jimbo

Made by the great Jim Parkinson, who also designed the current Rolling Stone magazine logo/masthead. It’s a modern fat face poking fun and bursting with energy.

7. Lavigne Display

Ultra-fashionable and decadent, this serif is inspired by calligraphy and the flapper age, a high-contrast style with surprising thick and thin strokes. The brilliantine lick of the ear of the g is straight from Gosford Park.

8. Ogaki

Almost easier to draw than describe, this is a heavy display face with traces of Matisse. Distinguished by its fine dissecting lines, it’s one of the boldest new faces of the century.

9. Blur

Neville Brody’s vision of type in the beerlight, or type viewed through glass. Or perhaps it’s a typewriter ribbon that should have been changed a fortnight ago. A modern classic.

10. Dionisio

Only one way to describe this, and it’s the font fan’s favourite word: elegant. Not quite Bodoni, but an indulgent contemporary equivalent. The a looks noble, the F like a train shunt. The only choice for today’s discerning wedding invitations.

Interview written and conducted by Thierry Somers, with contribution by Marie Drysdale.

Picture (above): Jonathan Barnbrook's limited-edition print to celebrate the launch of 'Just My Type'.

The second issue of 200% features an interview with the designers of Gotham, Retina and Hoefler Text, Tobias Frere-Jones and Jonathan Hoefler, “Everything you always wanted to know about typefaces, but were afraid to ask”. 

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