Semi Permanent: Ariane Spanier

At Semi Permanent conference this week I had the pleasure of listening to Berlin designer Ariane Spanier discuss her process. She talked about the influence of her childhood, design school and interning at Sagmeister Inc. Spanier showed us examples of her work, it’s playful, and explorative in style. This act of experimenting was the beating heart of her style. Her typography is rich and expressive. She uses layering, texture and movement to give it a fun conceptual edge. Her work for Fukt, a magazine for contemporary drawing, was particularly stunning. With each issue she starts from scratch, focusing her energies on a single experimental mark-making technique. For one cover the typeface was constructed with pencil lead floating in mid-air. In another design she used motion-capture to create abstract shapes. For the latest cover of Fukt she combines fluid lines and bold blocks to create avant-garde letterforms. It was beautiful.