“When we first met, we spent 24 hours a day, seven days a week with each other. We got to know each other well, which makes it possible to have less face-to-face time. We mostly know what the other person is thinking, without seeing their suppressed frown.”—Bas Jacobs
Bas Jacobs: Co-Founder, Underware / The Hague NL
underware.nl
“when we first met, we spent 24 hours a day, seven days a week with each other. we got to know each other well, which makes it possible to have less face-to-face time. we mostly know what the other person is thinking, without seeing their suppressed frown.”—bas jacobs
Do you have separate studios in The Hague, Helsinki, and Amsterdam?
Yes. Mostly everybody works in his own town, in his own studio. Occasionally we get together, but mostly we have Skype open all day long. Mentally, we are in the same room, just physically not.
When we first met, we spent 24 hours a day, seven days a week with each other. We got to know each other well, which makes it possible to have less face-to-face time. We mostly know what the other person is thinking, without seeing their suppressed frown.
Sketching
courtesy of underware
Does your collaborative process change when you’re together in the same space?
We don’t physically get together very often, maybe once or twice a year. When we do, we try to keep our laptops closed as much as possible. Instead, we lay down in the snow after an extremely hot sauna, have a sailing trip, a walk on the beach, play three-way chess, or do other masculine stuff while discussing our work and making new plans. The little time that we have when we are physically together is mostly not used for working, but to discuss the work, and put a new dot on the horizon.
If we work together with other people on certain projects, which we do regularly but not all of the time, it is very important to physically meet and see their faces. You have to know somebody very well to make a long-distance cooperation work out.
Is it easier to collaborate on design in the same physical space, or remotely?
It’s likely more effective to be in the same space; it saves lots of time. On the other hand, now we don’t bother each other with that strange thing your mother-in-law did last weekend, which gives mental peace, and saves time for other things. If we would be together in the same space, it probably wouldn’t change a single thing in our cooperation.
How does your studio environment facilitate collaboration?
Our main studio is in The Hague. Most administration and stock is there, but cooperation-wise, we could be anywhere in the world. As long as you have internet and electricity, nobody notices locations anymore. Sami once spent a couple of months on a mountain top in India, and although the internet is quite a different story there, it all worked out pretty well.
Type Sample Process
courtesy of underware
Auto Pro used in De Illusie 1991-2006
courtesy of underware
Do you have a particular process?
Our creative process mostly goes from A to B. There are different stages in that process: germination first, then assimilation, and lastly, completion. When we reach point B, we wonder if this is really the end point. Sometimes there can be external factors, like time or money, which define the final destination. Personal factors, like a lack of inspiration, can also mean that point B is our final destination. Or maybe we are completely satisfied and ready for a new challenge. But we hardly have one of these personal factors, or external factors like time and money, forcing us to stop. So we usually go halfway back to A, continue the creative process, and work towards B again. After reaching point B again, we have the same situation: we look at personal and external factors and come to the conclusion that we definitely should continue the creative process again and again. After reaching point B many times, we are finally personally satisfied. But meanwhile, one of us may come to the conclusion that we actually have to proceed to point C, so then we continue.
Stencil Type Workshop
courtesy of underware
Our creative process is not chronological, but uncontrolled and chaotic. We like to surprise ourselves.
Do each of you work on different projects simultaneously?
We work on several projects simultaneously, but all together. We don’t separate our jobs, and everybody can say anything about any aspect of any project. In the end, we are a united organism; we can’t tell anymore who did what, as it completely varies.
None of us would end up at the same final destination as an individual. Even though every person has his own specializations, everybody can contribute to any phase of any project. That can surprise the others and bring the project into a direction nobody would have expected.
Liza Pro
courtesy of underware
Our slogan has been the same for more than a decade: three men, one mission.
What does a type design collaborative group need to have?
Skilled people with brains.
How did you meet?
We met while studying at the Royal Academy of Arts. Due to a lack of education, we started to create our own projects. When we graduated, it was easy to decide what to do: just continue with our own projects. We enjoy our work, and we enjoy working together.
Do you change roles depending on the project?
Yes. Akiem can dream up any kind of code; you wouldn’t want me to program that animated web typography demo thingie. Our cooperation is completely equal, concurrent, tuned, and every voice has the same value. Only the outcome matters.
How does collaboration benefit type design?
Any project that we do is the outcome of our collaboration. Liza Pro is probably the most extreme example, because it was the most extreme creative process that we ever went through. After working on Liza for three years, we emailed each other the final beta-version. After that, it still took us two intense years to release the final font, so that beta wasn’t really beta. All together, the development of Liza took five years, ending up with 2,000 emails in a Liza-mailbox, and the folder with all Liza-files on our computers was almost 1 GB (a typeface is ± 300 kB, so calculate the amount of beta-versions yourself). Crazy. We’re very bad at finishing stuff, as we always keep developing new ideas. Sometimes projects just never seem to come to an end. When we were almost done with Liza, for example, we got the idea of the ‘out-of-ink’ feature, which simulates that you’re out of ink while sign painting, and you would have to dip the brush into your ink pot again. Cool feature, but it meant that we had to draw new glyphs for all of the letters, and rewrite the code of the complete typeface—another two months of extra work. As long as we think a new idea adds value to the final product, then we do it, no matter the stage of development.
Tripper Tricolor used in Type Workshop 26-X
courtesy of underware
Fakir Pro used in Book of War, Mortification and Love
courtesy of underware