Interview with Paul Robb

I finished University when there was the transformation from paste-up to digital, I think it's that making beautiful typography that pushes me on.

I chose, much to my father's disbelief, so I had to put myself through University, by working and supporting myself.

I'm a brand designer, type designer, and art director. I would love the time to concentrate 100% on my type design.

Push yourself, be humble, learn to accept your mistakes, work with great people, and never-give-up.

That magically extra mile they go to gain the perfection in the form and the emotion it stimulates.

For me, it's about the narrative, how the design envelopes a clarity of vision and excellence in execution.

Good design value is immense and helps deliver both cultural and economic returns.

it would have to be to concentrate 100% on my type design.

It would have to be a full mega font family with serif, sanserif, and display fonts. What a dream to develop a structure so complex and unifying at the same time.

For me, it would have to be the passion of the realization of an idea and having fun doing it.

Design legends that made the most impression would have to include, Josef Muller-Brockmann, Otl Aicher, Wolfgang Weingart, Jan Tschichold to name a few.

I love great work, that makes me think... I wish I would have thought of that solution.

Probably the one I am currently working on is my favorite and the greatest feeling is when the client is on board and the market response is positive.

Lots of research, lots of reading around the subject and lots of long hours.

Creating a system.

My biggest supporter has to have been my business partner and wife who has supported me through University and the last 30 years.

The enjoyment of analyzing and realizing projects.

Hard work and dedication have to be the accepted principle and this work is not 9-5!

Work should be presented from initial concept sketches, through to the final execution, clearly and concisely.

I have new Typefaces in production and a rebranding system with a mega-type family that I am designing

To collaborate with the best design agencies and businesses around the world developing personalized type solutions.

Original ideas and systems that communicate immediately.

All design helps create solutions to better understand our world.

A mega-type family that I am designing. It is such a challenge to make the system work together.

I enjoy what I do and that is the most important thing because it creates design magic.

Creating sustainable systems that last!

It has to be sustainable in all its forms. More research with systems that are perfect and lasting.

It could be a week or as we guide clients for decades to grow and change.

Research and reading around the problem.

Always listen to the market, the client, and the team.

Great research and experimentation!

It is always there throughout the process. But technology doesn't have the design solution only the means to realize and execute it!

Fortunately, I started on the Mac in the early 90's and haven't looked back! If someone hands me a PC I have no idea how it works!!!

All design is about the human factor and everything about it is to design an emotive response. It is critical in communicating a space, an object, or a concept, so for me, it is a fundamental consideration.

Where can I get the typeface!!

I wish i came up with that solution!

We work in teams and I believe in experimentation. I love to see designers experimenting to see how far that can push themselves and the project.

I was lucky to work with some great designers in my formative years after university in London, so their experience and energy pushed me in the direction and vision I have now.

Conceptual subjects, sociology, and human-centered design subjects.

Lots of time and energy! Young designers must understand this is not a 9-5 environment!

Eric Gill, I would love to have seen how he drew his letterforms.

Awards for me are about pier recognition, and having the fortitude to continue.

My favorite part of the year has to be late June and early July, with the light and heat of my Italian summer. It recharges my batteries!

I once lost my diary and turned up a week late for a job interview, apologized about my situation, and got the job! As it turned out it was the position that created my career. So my advice is never to give up and believe in your abilities.

Personal projects in the early morning and late evening when the studio is quiet!

I would always draw, and when I was 7 won a completion designing a poster for an ice cream brand, of which the prize was free ice cream for the summer. Now after that who wouldn't want to continue on a creative path that pays in ice cream!!!

Let's hope society can save this place we all call home!

Thank you very much!

Opened in 2000, we are an independent graphic design and type design studio specializing in bespoke solutions for our international and nationally based clients.

For me, it's about creating systems.

Branding and type design, for me is the most stimulating. Helping to develop design business structures and seeing the results.

Probably the graphic works of Franco Grignani and his simple black and white flowing designs, he was the designer for the Woolmark.

The first thing I designed was during my final year of University when I was asked to do some lable, it was a terrible job, but I gained so much experience.

I prefer creating typographic systems and designing typefaces which, in the end, become the main part of the visual identity.

First thing in the morning or last thing in the evening when the studio is at its quietest.

It would have to be typography, I like the idea that letters have the power to become identities.

I love complex systems, creating something fresh and exciting, and enjoying the project as it reveals itself.

It's bittersweet for me because I see areas where I would have loved to have developed further, but I have to be realistic and un with it.

A complex idea made simple, but it has to be well communicated and understood by both the designer and client

I have to ask myself is it groundbreaking, and contagious?

To help change the attitudes of clients and raise awareness, especially today where plastics can be replaced with intelligent design solutions.

I believe it's becoming more about individual intelligent solutions.

We participate in various design exhibitions linked to design competitions.

I think inspiration comes from experience and emotions, sometimes it seems to take forever, other times its an immediate gut feeling and sensation.

I was heavily influenced by the new wave of typography from the mid-1980,s and early '90s postmodernism, where typography became an integral part of communications and have always pushed that ethos in my work.

I live in a small city in Italy, having moved from the hustle of London. I believe it does affect my work as I make the time to enjoy the process of working in the tranquility of our studio, helping to plan through the process. Today I don't think it matters where you are, it's about developing the experience and emotion.

We work directly with the top management and owners of companies transforming their input and passion into our designs. That could be remote or onsite, whatever the situation.

There has to be a feeling between client and designer, a resect that both parties can work and breathe independently. Listening works both ways and I believe that the relationship has to be genuine and authentic for the project to succeed.

My design process is about finding the simple solution through the noise and confusion of the problem. That could mean working it through with various designs and solutions or using a design system when the team is working remotely from the client.

My Eames chair, my shower, my car, my juicer, my kettle

7.00 am breakfast with the family, 7.30 am studio (where I'm the only one, I can design or go through my email ) 9.00 studio opens, coffee and team meeting to plan our day, 10.00 am - 13.00 designing/meetings online. 14.30 - 19.00 designing/meetings online/shooting in our studio. 19.00 - 20.00 my personal time in the studio where I will be experimenting or creating some personal work.

Meet great people, experience as much as possible. Look to work with only people that inspire you and can stimulate your work. Believe in yourself and never give up, remember that it's only when you push yourself that great results are obtained.

Helping to create new brands and refreshing old ones is a challenge, but the buzz that I feel when it is talked about by consumers is such a positive! A negative one is about respect, and how that can change during a long relationship.

Never give up perfecting a design, until the presentation!

This might sound strange, but the number of young designers that can not draw is a big problem. The ability to explain your ideas articulately and visually is a must to help a client become involved in the process. Sometimes a simple sketch in a meeting helps every one to get on board and helps everyone to understand the project quickly.

I have a large library that I continually refer to, with old design books on wood type and obscure design papers that stimulate my process. As for programs, we use all the normal for a design company to help realize the project, but for me, it's about creativity, and we'll use whatever means is necessary.

That is a difficult one... Most times I go way over the time allocated to a project experimenting and pushing the creativity along the way. It drives my business partner wild, but it's about the right solution for the problem, and it needs to work, so for me, it has to be done.

It really varies and involves lots of factors, the most important of which is time to market. But if I can I like to invest time in experimenting.

When can we have that ready? It is the most common.

Working in London during my formative years, lots of energy (that I still have), and working with great creatives, in agencies and companies.

We have quite a few companies in the luxury beauty, luxury fashion, government, and retail industries. But we love a challenge so we are open to all possibilities.

I would have to say that brand systems are the work that inspires me the most. The reason is simply that it brings all the design disciplines involved together, design management, typography, graphic communications, art direction, film production, etc... and it's that mix and teamwork that truly inspires me.

We have some number of brand identities to start on in the coming months and some well-established brands that I want to reinvigorate.

We always work as a team with at least one central person that holds the project together.

I always have around 2 new fonts that have been designing that I would love to push forward and get in production...

Through our website or directly paul@salt-pepper.it, or 039 3295685928 to say hi to talk about brand systems and type design!

Thank you for your time!