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Andreas Friberg Lundgren on coping with an open brief

Can you give an example of an open brief you've worked on?

To celebrate the launch of the FS Emeric typeface, English type foundry Fontsmith asked Lundgren+Lindqvist, and 11 leading design studios from around the world, to create a limited-edition poster.

There were no stipulations at all?

Each poster was to be designed with one specific weight of the typeface. We were assigned the ExtraLight weight. Apart from that, and the fact the posters were to be screen-printed A1, using a maximum of two colours on GFSmith Colorplan stock, we were free to do what we wanted.

Where did you begin?

Through mere chance, at the time of designing the poster, we had a one-week intern, Anna - the 14-year-old daughter of two of our clients. Normally, we'd never take on an intern that young, but, due to our relationship with her parents, we made an exception. Her being quite small for her age exaggerated the notion of her being an 'extra lightweight' designer. The connection to the weight of the typeface assigned to us was just too obvious to ignore.

What was the feedback on the project like?

Using simple typographic means, our contribution aims to illustrate the fact that by choosing the right typeface, good design is easily achieved. Even an unschooled 14-year-old can do it. Many clients would've viewed such a straightforward, simplistic solution with suspicion, but given the openness of the brief we were able to see it through.

Words: Gary Evans

This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 218.

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