After more than eight years of working for myself, I’ve just taken a job in the typography group at Microsoft. The focus of the team is on providing fonts for all of Microsoft’s markets around the world, in whatever language or writing system, though I also hope to have some influence on how fonts are used – i.e., typography.
“In any case,” as I said to some friends, “it looks like we’ll be staying in Seattle for the foreseeable future.” Eileen and I had been thinking about moving back to San Francisco, which we also consider home, and I had looked at a couple of possibilities in the Bay Area. “Well, unless President Obama asks me to become Minister of Typography.”
Okay, that may be just a riff, but in reality I think it would be a good thing to have a Secretary of Design, or someone with a similarly high level of government responsibility. (I’m tempted to call this Minister With Portfolio.) As I keep saying: since we live in a designed world, we might as well get good at it.
[Photo: Logos have a life cycle of their own, or at least their physical embodiments do. This broken sign, on the back side of a concrete slab in front of one of the buildings on the corporate campus, appealed to my love of missing, crumbling, or distressed lettering in the environment.]
[...] interesting piece from John D. Berry who suggests a new position in Obama’s government, Minister of Typography. It brought to mind [...]
[...] in his “week in type” for November 11). He was presumably inspired by my off-the-cuff remark a couple of weeks ago about how we ought to have a Minister of Typography. Thanks to Jennifer [...]
[...] interesting piece from John D. Berry who suggests a new position in Obama’s government, Minister of Typography It brought to mind [...]
¡Felicitaciones, John! ¡Cuánto trabajo por delante!
Big congrats to you, John! I am so glad you got a job in the field you love most with the power to influence technology and design in ways that your typography compatriots will truly appreciate.
Now, first thing’s first (after you fix that sign): bring proper OT support to the Office products. (Not that Si wouldn’t have done that already if he could, but you can’t blame me for tryin’.)