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| 03 |---FONTWORKS-->-->> October 1999. By Brendan Stauton. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From London. An exclusive interview from FontWorks. Flat Earthers would feel really at home in Chicago. The city feels ruler-flat - like it was precision planed into one long level expanse. From the top of the downtown skyscrapers, you can, on a clear day, see across four states. Certainly you never escape the impression that this is a big town. The old brick warehouses and factories of the inner city may resemble those in England, but it never feels like England, because the streets seem to go on forever. Nowadays these old industrial areas are gradually being restored and jazzed up with lots of new bars and boutiques as the older heavy industry makes way for the newer media and design companies. One such is Segura Inc., the highly regarded graphic design company that is also home to the [T-26] type foundry. After I'd rung the bell, the heavy main door swung open to reveal a large labrador looking up at me with its tail wagging and a green tennis ball in its mouth. This was Yuki, the Segura Inc house dog and mascot (and evidently a bit of a poseur). A young guy ushered in and gave me some Chinese-looking slippers to wear in place of my shoes. After this I was introduced to Sun, the charming Korean wife of main man Carlos Segura. She gave me a brief tour round the facility, with Yuki in constant attendance. There was certainly plenty of space. Apart from the actual design studio itself where Carlos and his crew were working, there was also a recording facility, an admin office and this very large, spacey upstairs room where we eventually did the interview. It made quite an inspiring setting with its huge windows, hardwood floors and a sparse, Eastern look to the furnishing. Carlos himself looked very regal leaning back into the sofa opposite and, for a moment, I almost felt like a court reporter having an audience with some important dignitary, but he's too laid back for the impression to last. I noticed he'd cut his hair. "Yeah... I got tired of it. It's great now - I just put on my helmet, get on my bike and go. Then when I get there, I take it off and just do this (pulls hand through hair) and I'm done." The haircut isn't all that's changed. Throughout our conversation, I sensed a restlessness about Mr Segura. Perhaps it's just his personality - and certainly graphic design, like most modern businesses, is largely about change management. But the changes Carlos referred to seemed more fundamental. "I guess I'm trying to get back to appreciating all those small elements that go into something and make it a whole. I'm trying to refind my appreciation of all these things." I asked him if anything in the field excited him at the moment. "Well, I'm very excited about what's happening in product design and package design, 3-d design, multimedia interactive design, web development - even graphic design. It's just that I've been surrounded by it for so long that I sometimes feel a bit burnt out by it." So you're looking to recharge your appetite." "Yeah. We in the creative field are quite unfortunate because we're surrounded by such wonderful things all the time that we almost get numb to it. We don't always appreciate the extreme contributions that we all make to this industry because I guess we just get bored y'know? When you see it every day it's kind of like no big deal and we don't even think about how hard it is to do this stuff any more. It's like with cars - every year we expect the car manufacturers to come out with a better car and, I mean, have you any idea how much work it takes to redesign a car? And then people complain about how the door squeaks when they close it well, y'know - oil the f***ing thing!" This was really funny for me because the people I was staying with had a noise problem with their new SUV - a weird hum that appeared at random. I would have mentioned it but Carlos was on a roll. "We judge a car by whether it has a CD player or not! We don't even think about all the work that went into the creation of the engine and the beauty of the design of the components. So what's the answer? "One of my short-term goals right now is just to stop working. Every weekend I try as hard as I can not to go into my office. It's difficult because obviously we live and work here, but on the weekends all I want to do is ride my motorcycle. And its refreshing because it snaps me out of this tunnel vision where that's all I'm doing is work. I'm getting numb to the creative process not because I don't think I can do it any more but because I'm too close to it and I need to pull back and be objective about it. When I read a book or see a poster I'm not looking at what it says, I'm trying to figure out what fonts it was set in." So you go into a store and all you see is the packaging ... "Yes, exactly. It can become distracting. You start to lose the true vision of what you should actually be looking at. I mean it's part of our job. We go out of our way to see things that nobody else sees on the planet things that are only in annuals things that are only in award books or presentations. Normally you would never get an opportunity to see that stuff unless you bought that kind of a book or you went to a presentation that nobody else gets to see. I mean if I didn't buy any of these books or go to these presentations or surf the web the way I do, I wouldn't know what's going on in other parts of the world. Most people just don't do that kind of stuff. Most people don't dive with their senses into that degree of exposure." So if I mentioned, say Brazil, would you say you have an understanding of what's happening there? "Yes." I asked about the differences Carlos perceived in the international market for type. "The two markets that have always dictated my growth have been London and Japan. They both have a totally different set of sensibilities that I've always admired." "Do you sell different kinds of faces in London compared with over here?" "Oh yeah. More traditional - if you can call anything we have traditional. Certainly not so experimental." I thought this was interesting. Certainly London likes to paint itself as very cutting edge, as the centre for all things radical. "Well, from our perspective, the UK stuff looks more organised and clean and sophisticated - even futuristic." Carlos was being diplomatic, but I sensed that he regards the US font market as more spontaneous. I decided to ask about Japan - was he referring to English characters in Japan or...? "No. Japanese. Japan is unique because the market is unusually unified. They only address Japanese people. It's not like America where you have to deal with Indians, Jews and Koreans. America is a boiling pot of different likes and dislikes and there's a tendency towards a kind of: 'all things to all people' type of communication. Japan is more about the mindset and the overall feeling of what communication does. It isn't even about what it says. I mean you might have an ad for a bank and it shows pictures of flowers. It's very above it all. They can do it because they all understand the same language because they're all Japanese." A monoculture. "Exactly." So what's new at [T-26]? "Well we're always looking for new stuff and we've been pretty fortunate that it usually comes to us instead of us having to go search for it. But I was thinking last night that maybe we should begin a more proactive search for talent." So how would you go about that? "I don't have all the answers yet, but part of the invitation for people to come to us comes from our global exposure - from things like the award shows. More and more it's the concentrated travelling we do when we go speak in different places that helps people understand what we're about. We've got about seven or eight invitations to go round the world over the next 6 or 8 months that will probably pay. Personally though, I'm not so big on going to the AtypeI type things. I don't like to bring the business part of it to the forefront. I prefer to connect with somebody first and then do the business. I don't go to a conference to get business done. I go to a conference to hang out." Just meet people? "Yes, I'm a bigger fan of attracting people because they want to hang out or believe in what I'm doing or want to be a part of something special than I am of being a business manager. And that's what I like about the stuff we carry - it all came to us that way." This open attitude has not always served Carlos well, though. "When we started, we did a lot of deals on a handshake - and we really got screwed." Carlos doesn't like to admit it, but he has to spend a lot more time literally taking care of business. Still, he's hardly your regular businessman and he still appears to take a broader outlook on his life than just moneymaking. "We work on these very large concerts every year for one of our clients where we design the stage, posters, programme books - everything from the tickets to the tee-shirts. Our idea this year was for a series of comic book covers - one for every band. Anyway we just finished that Friday and I guess now we're on a roller coaster ride and it's heading down. But it's good because I try not to take on too much work in the summer. The winter in Chicago really sucks in a bad way and there's maybe only 3 or 4 months in the year when you can get some great sunny weather so it's OK if it's a little slower." You need your time in the sun. "Yeah. I mean there's no doubt that I'm definitely a workaholic. And it isn't because I'm trying to prove anything. I just like it. I don't separate my life from my work. That's how I am and I don't mind it. So I've never been one who needs to go on a vacation to get away from it all. When I do go on vacation I end up going crazy because I miss the work, but I really need to do something else, especially on the weekend." Have you always been based in Chicago? "Yeah. Our design group started in 91, but I've lived in Chicago since 1980." You like Chicago? "I like it a lot." I was surprised by how amenable it is. "Yes, it's very beautiful and in the summer it's just a joy to be here." At this point, Yuki wandered over for some affection. "My little buddy. We do everything together." How old is she? "She's 3 years old. She's so smart." The need for change that Carlos keeps mentioning is also extending to a redesign of the [T-26] catalogue books. "We just finished Supplement 22 which has a real nice flavour to it, so we're going to redo all of our books to look like that - more compact and focussed. We keep having to look at how we promote the typography while maintaining our unique packaging and still keep it affordable. The more we grow, the more fonts we have to show, the more money we have to spend." I checked out Supplement 22 for myself and asked if he wants all his showings to incorporate this same design or just a similar size?" "Right now they're all that size but with different designs. Maybe we'll unify the design too at some point." Apart from Segura Inc and [T-26] Carlos also runs Thickface Records - their own record label. "It's done more for fun than for business. Every release is different. The first one was global ambient. The second one was industrial dance/funk. The one we're working on right now is 1950's Blue Note jazz type release. I don't know if it'll turn into anything but it adds to the overall umbrella of our creativity, outside of typography and kind of underscores what we do. We don't view typography as just a vehicle for doing words. For us it's more of a canvas to paint the feeling of what you're saying about body language rather than text as language. We get a lot of flack for it sometimes. Well not a lot really, just occasional isolated voices..." Carlos and Sun(?) were very amenable hosts. They even presented me with a bag of goodies to take home which was great because the studio at my flat is currently a bit vacant-looking. There wasn't much time before my flight, but I took a quick look around the boutiques and bars. Chicago, they say, is a city that works. If that's the case then it's no wonder Carlos is so happy there. >> return to "articles" section :-) SEGURA INC. 1110 North Milwaukee Avenue. Chicago, Illinois 60622-4017. (t) 773.862.5667 (f) 773.862.1214 (e) info@segura-inc.com |
