That interview was awesome.

We were at Linotype in Bad Homburg for the day, to dig around in their archives and interview Bruno Steinert and Otmar Hoefer. When we showed up, they told us, “Hermann Zapf happens to be here today.” And we were like, “Does he want to talk about Helvetica?” And they said, “Not really. But he’ll talk to you for 15 minutes, after lunch.” So we didn’t have that much time with him. The interview was actually shot on the patio of the lunch room at Linotype. It looks so lush and tropical! All the Linotype staff have gotten a good laugh out of that.

Thanks for posting that - It was a pleasure to watch.

Yes, many thanks for the post. Zapf has been a long time hero of mine and this little video was a delight.

Sorry but my first reaction to the interview was, “Where were you in 1939?”

Where were you in 2003?

>Sorry but my first reaction to the interview was, “Where were you in 1939?”

The answer to this question is actually covered in many of his books, including his most recent one, which was co-published by the RIT-Press. But you can also read some elements from his biography online, particularly these two links –

http://www.linotype.com/1494-12706/fromnuremberg.html
http://www.linotype.com/1494-12707/atthecartographicunit.html

It’s funny how no Germans voted for Hitler and of course they didn’t know what was going on.

Dude. Seriously. Unless you have some sort of evidence against someone, you don’t just go around implying that someone was a Nazi or whatever. That’s just not cool.

Note also that the NS-regime arrested Zapf’s father and interned him at Dachau for a time in the 1930s (http://www.linotype.com/1494/theschoolyears.html). I suspect that his family must have had some idea of “what was going on.”

Bob,

Check your xenophobia. It’s simplistic and ignorant to make such generalizations about all Germans. It’s also offensive to Zapf’s personal friends who post here. Zapf is a peacenik and has always exhibited the most humanitarian spirit. Consider how others might pre-judge you.

You Southerners....

I love that he explains himself away by saying he doesn’t drink coffee so he has a steady hand. That’s humility.

Ok Ok I just thought he looked like Zell from MM. I couldn’t follow crossgrove’s “You Southerners....” then I remembered. For a minute I thought he meant SoCal.