SOTA Typography Award Honors Erik Spiekermann

The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) has announced that architect, type designer, author, and educator Erik Spiekermann has been honored with the 2011 SOTA Typography Award. The presentation took place on Saturday, July 9th 2011, at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans, as part of TypeCon2011.Spiekermann is widely known for his typefaces, of which FF Meta and ITC Officina are considered to be modern classics. He has also designed FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk, and many exclusive corporate familes. In 1979, he founded MetaDesign and in 1989, FontShop. He is behind the design of well known brands such as Audi, Bosch, VW, German Railways, and Heidelberg Printing, as well as information systems for Berlin Transit and Düsseldorf Airport, and publications including The Economist. The family of typefaces he created in collaboration with Christian Schwartz for DB German Railways received the Gold Medal in the German Design Awards 2007.He is currently managing partner and creative director of Edenspiekermann. Erik is Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen and in 2003 received the Gerrit Noordzij Award from the Royal Academy in The Hague. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorship from Pasadena Art Center. He was also made an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA in Britain in 2007 and Ambassador for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation by the European Union for 2009.Spiekermann was the unanimous choice of the 2011 jury, which included designers and educators Veronika Burian, Simon Daniels, John Downer, Ellen Lupton, Theo Rossendorf, and jury chair Albert Whitley.Spiekermann was chosen to receive SOTA’s 9th annual Typography Award due to his outstanding and diverse body of work in type design, his history of teaching and mentoring, his thoughtful authorship, his influence on countless designers, and his standing as a respected leader of the global typographic community.The SOTA Typography Award is presented each year to an outstanding member of the type community. Past recipients include Hermann Zapf, Ed Benguiat, Matthew Carter, Adrian Frutiger, David Berlow, Gerrit Noordzij, Gerard Unger and Doyald Young.