I met Gerry exactly one year prior to my studies. He was my first contact at Reading and one of the reasons I applied. Unfortunately, as a type designer, he was not my professor. But I had the privilege of sitting in on the occasional tutorial and I benefited greatly from his occasional presence in our Monday sessions with Michael. His recent interview with form is testament to why his students are sought after globally, not only for their designs, but for their highly analytical approach to contemporary typography and type design. To be both faithful to typography's foundations and constantly pushing the discipline forward requires a security that can only come from expert training.

In the interview, he makes mention of non-Latin type design, a mandatory component of Reading's MATD program - an excellent read. But my favourite bit (below) is his commentary on today's typography education and where he feels we should focus our efforts. I like his thoughts because they are so far from my own. I don't disagree. I'm just behind.

It is my impression that design education has not responded fast enough to the challenge (of new) models of publishing, and have not acknowledged the need to respond to the demand for these new roles. Furthermore, we are now at a stage where “traditional” typographic education is at risk of falling behind. The sequence in which complex documents are migrating to screens, and the way in which content is specified, has helped establish some basic parameters for on-screen typography that makers can refer to while maintaining the readability of documents, but lacking the skills and understanding to deal with more complex information structures...