In 1988, Joan and her (then) husband, Erik Spiekermann, brewed up a bold new idea: the first mail-order distributor for digital fonts, FontShop. In 1990, together with partner Neville Brody, they formed the FontFont® label, today’s largest independent library. Besides heading FontShop International and FontShop San Francisco, Joan enjoys her grandson and oil painting.
Erik is a world renknowned information architect, type designer (FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk and many corporate typefaces), and author of books and articles on design and typography. Since launching FontShop with Joan and Neville, Erik has acted as statesmen for the company, traveling often and speaking to students and professionals around the world about design.
Since the founding of FontShop, Petra has been at the helm, forging relationships with partners and keeping the business in line. While she continues her intimate involvement in the type community, the smooth sounds of Motown keep her grooving.
After leading a transitory lifestyle split between Amsterdam, Boston, Los Angeles and Elko, we are pleased that this aspiring yogi now calls San Francisco his home. In charge of bringing balance to FontShop’s technical and business strategies, Jason has Zen-like aspirations for FontShop. When he’s not busy bringing home the bacon to FSI, he likes to his spend time tackling his Netflix queue and rocking out to ’80s punk.
At the FSI office in Berlin, Greg handles the sales and support for those on the other side of the pond. But he grew up in the middle of another pond altogether: the Pacific (Papua New Guinea). Not only is Greg an all star font guru, he's also a starting pitcher for the Berlin Challengers baseball team and an avid runner, swimmer, and squasher.
After a short stint as a sports radio personality, Bettger brought his booming (but soothing) vocal chords to FontShop’s legendary tech support lines. His dope skillz on all computing platforms will come in handy next time your fonts aren’t playing fair. This guy has ice-water in his veins. Every time he’s hit with an impossible call, he steps up to the plate and delivers. You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him. “We have a pitcher, not a belly itcher.”
From a far away land called Daly City, comes our newest support expert. Her myriad of projects constantly test her organization skills, but her planning technique is unstoppable. A love for sweet beats, good eats, vector graphics, handmade objects, polaroids, black and white, color, and helping you with your typographic needs keeps her going.
Stephen’s obsession with type and lettering wreaks havoc in his daily life where he is routinely tripped by fire hydrants while admiring vintage signs. Fortunately, his freakishness found a home at FontShop where he writes about their collection and advises clients on typeface choices. When he’s not waxing poetic about new fonts, Stephen publishes the blogs Typographica and The Mid-Century Modernist. He is currently dating FF Tisa after breaking off a long and passionate affair with Motter Femina.
His official title is “Marketing Coordinator”, but Michael usually gets his talented little mitts into everything from systems administration to budget balancing to keeping our teacups full. Are you an art magazine seeking advertisers? Design conference looking for hot swag? Give Michael a call. He’ll swiftly replace his headphones full of Bach with a wireless headset and greet you in an exceedingly polite tone.
From French New Wave film to post-war Japanese novels, rap music to public radio, this designer's interests span the culture gamut. His myriad influences seep into everything he creates. If you catch a Clipse lyric or Godard reference in a FontShop type specimen, you can bet it was crafted by Mr. Hamamoto.
A recent graduate from the Academy of Art University, this sassy lass is the newest addition to the FontShop design team. Aside from her ongoing search for the next Bay Area sushi hotspot or cupcake bakery, you’ll find this self-proclaimed “food monster” preoccupied with type. Staving off nightmares of FF Trixie, her ‘Favorite Things’ are all things typographic — and Harry Potter.
If you happened to lift the giant yellow and black curtain of FontShop.com, the man behind it would be one Mr. Chapin — master of computer languages, databases, and deadpan quips. Whenever Jason is presented with what seems to us mortals like an insurmountable programming task, he glances at the ceiling for 3-5 seconds and then responds with a non-chalant but confident “yeah, I can do that.”
This developer’s unique name isn't the only thing that grabbed FontShop's attention. Originally from southern Arkansas, Star has been in the business of computers and web databases for over a decade. His interests and background span from developing web applications to digital media processing for indie music labels. Whenever Star decides to take a few steps away from his computer, you can find him biking, settling down with a hefty burrito, tinkering with whatever he can get his hands on, camping, or taking long walks on the beach. Just don't put a plate of uni in front of him.
Originally from Ohio, this California newbie has brought his passion for ’puters to FontShop.com. The transition would be more difficult, but thankfully most of Jacob’s attachments are screen-based. His love of the Unix command line may only be outweighed by his penchant for Mountain Dew.
FontShop was born in Berlin, so it’s fitting that the stateside office has its own German on board. Volker is an FSI veteran, an expert in all things fontish and anthropological. Under his able Alamanni fist, engineering bugs are squashed and tables are pounded in defense of oddball theories like the aquatic ape hypothesis. In our most trying times, we can hear the faint tone of Bavarian reggae emanate from his desk in the back room and know that all is irie in fontland.
Ever heard the stereotype that number crunchers are dreary, inhuman drones? Well you can forget that notion right now. You will never find a brighter smile or more cheerful countenance than Flora’s. Our bean counter receives your purchase orders and pays your invoices with equally good nature. When she’s not keeping our records, she’s breaking her own records on the DDR mat.
Our very own thrillah from Manila, Rommel recently brought his Excel skills and chess chops to the ’Shop. His best pals are Ben and Jerry – a friendship that would go straight to his waist were he not shaking off the ice cream to the tunes of Duran Duran and Depeche Mode and shooting a little roundball. Rommel aspires to “take Argretch Tamirgie to places and pages most cherished.” We don’t know what that means, but we’re sure the persistent fellow will make it happen.
The perfect office dog. Fetches mail, cooks lunch, never gets in the way.
 Founded by Erik Spiekermann and Neville Brody in 1989, FontShop is the original independent retailer of digital type. We offer more than 100,000 fonts from dozens of expert-selected foundries, including our house brand: FontFont.
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