Reverie Projects, in association with the Villa Alba Museum, is devoted to establishing a dialogue between the historic house in Melbourne’s Kew and contemporary art practitioners. This dialogue takes the form of a series of exhibitions in which the house acts as subject and muse.
Artist Profile no. 11: Niko Spelbrink
Artist statement
Texture of Type//Framing Fonts
More craft than art.
Readability, the quality of being read with pleasure and interest, is the responsibility of any author.
However, legibility (which is the quality of being read clearly and quickly) is the result of typography.
Creating legible text takes a good deal of attention, analysis and time but ultimately helps readers save time.
Design does have a function and this focus on practical solutions can create natural beauty.
Biography
Niko Spelbrink studied at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.
He got an introduction to slow typography as a letterpress compositor.
Co-founding BRS Design in Amsterdam coincided with the lasting technology driven transformation which has occurred in creative industries like publishing, designing objects, buildings and environments.
BRS grew into a leading exponent of the remarkable design scene in the Netherlands.
Throughout his professional practice Niko served as a lecturer in typographic design, the last decades at Monash and RMIT Universities.
In Melbourne he co-founded the Ography Design consultancy.
During the eighties he acted as a boardmember of icograda, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations, and served as its president in 1989-1991 term.
