Some independent type designers publish several font families each year. Your pace is slower: between releases, there are sometimes two years or more. Why is that? I’m focused on the quality; I know that every designer says the same, but I simply think it is impossible to publish a quality font family every month. In my foundry the processes are long, I definitely take my time, usually years. It is the sum of several factors: firstly, for my own creations I have the need to experiment with different solutions, try many possibilities, until I arrive at a new place where I could never have arrived without experimentation. I’m very rational, so I always try to balance this with a bit of experimentation. Secondly, I need to leave every font family to breathe for a time before I make a final decision about its publication. Finally, between my own releases I have to make fonts for clients. The good news is that I have two upcoming font families. The first one is a slab serif that was originally commissioned for an insurance company here in Spain. Now I’m expanding the family to make it suitable for a larger audience. The second one is a square sans, slightly inspired by UK car license plates. The idea came from my first trip to London in 2008 — five years and five trips to London later, I’m very close to finishing it. With this family I’m taking all the time in the world. When you play in an over saturated category, like square fonts, you have to put an extra emphasis on the technical and aesthetic quality with the purpose of differentiating it from the rest and, in the end, to make sense of its existence. Your latest family, Ciutadella, was originally commissioned by the prestigious Barcelona studio of Mario Eskenazi. Is it an advantage for a type designer to receive assignments? Doesn’t it limit your freedom? And does it happen often? Apart from being a client, Mario has become a friend. We meet very often to talk about type and life in general — I can totally identify with his vision of design. Working with great graphic designers is always lucky. You learn a lot from them, and in that sense I try to take advantage of every minute that I spend with them. I like to speak about what is a good typeface and why, or why they prefer one or another. I think that type designers should speak more with graphic designers to have a broader vision of the users of our fonts. A brief doesn’t limit my freedom, the function of it is to show you a path or the parameters you should design the typeface within. I take it as a guide and if I have doubts I speak with the client and sometimes we adjust the brief. I have done several custom fonts, for example for The Sunday Times (UK) newspaper and the ABC (Spain) newspaper. Last year I did a custom font for a Spanish insurance company; a Geogrotesque customization for one of the biggest German airports; and a custom font for use in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil for a very well known sports brand (the three projects will be made public in 2014). In addition, I have done lettering and logotypes under commission. It is a normal situation. I work more comfortably with a brief than without. Even for my own fonts I have an “self brief”: it is essential to have a guide that leads your design. Moreover, as a rule, I reject restrictive briefs, I think clients must trust the professionals they hire. In my case, I have been lucky so far, I have worked with amazing professionals that gave me the space to work with freedom. In October of this year, it was announced that you and your colleague Andreu Balius will be organizing next year’s conference of the world-wide typographic organization ATypI. I think it’s very courageous for independent designers to invest a year of their lives into setting up such a big event. Why did you volunteer? Andreu and I have been sharing the ATypI Spain delegation for a while and we had spoken about doing something to propel ATypI in Spain and to play a more proactive role, and when the opportunity to organize the ATypI congress 2014 appeared, we simply thought it was something that we have to do. It’s a way to contribute to the development of our profession. Yes, we know that is a lot of work, but fortunately there are many people who want to help us to achieve an unforgettable congress. Now, Laura Meseguer is on board too and more people are coming. Andreu and I had already helped in the organization of the AGI Open and AGI Congress in 2011, so we thought that at least we are not absolute beginners. A lot has changed in (typo-)graphic education in the twenty years since you began your studies. What would your advice be to today’s students when they realize they’ve been bitten by the font-and-lettering bug? Unfortunately, there is no cure. The good news is that nowadays there are a lot of places to learn type design, so my advice would be: Take it seriously and go to one of these type design schools in order to learn it in an academic way. It’s faster and you will avoid all my initial mistakes. Be prepared to work hard, study is just the first step: to master type design completely could take your entire life, and learning is a never ending process. Finally, don’t waste your time copying other people’s work. Forget about trendy fonts, a thoroughly designed font family will outlast changing trends. Finding your own way is much more exciting and rewarding. Eduardo, thanks for your wise words!

Ciutadella Manso has collaborated frequently with Mario Eskenazi’s studio, a major Barcelona design company. They originally commissioned the typeface that became Ciutadella, a versatile geometric sans serif in a simplified style reminiscent of DIN. Its “open” personality makes it suitable for a wide range of uses, from identity systems to publications. Although conceived as a display typeface, it performs well in intermediate-length texts, too. Ciutadella includes many Open Type features such as alternate characters, special ligatures and multiple numeral sets. Relato Relato Sans Relato draws on a range of classic typographic sources to create a robust, contemporary text typeface. Its lowercase forms are humanist in their construction, while its capitals owe more to Roman renaissance lettering. The family is composed of three weights with an italic and small caps provided in a separate font. Relato Sans has fewer idiosyncrasies than its companion serif family, but with a fuller complement of weights this humanist sans is a useful if utilitarian workhorse.