“Lucky Yves” © Stephen Coles | Fernsehturm Berlin, Typo Berlin Music 2007
Last Thursday evening I punched in the alarm code for the very last time when I left Magelaan, the communication agency I worked at for the past 13 years. With that, I literally closed the door on a 17 year career of graphic design and communication and transitioned from a life as employee to becoming an independent. I remembered the deadly silence in the conference room two months ago when I explained my colleagues that I certainly didn’t leave to go work for the competition, or because I was unhappy at Magelaan, but because someone made me an offer I simply could not refuse. It was a bittersweet parting, as I left behind more than just colleagues but mostly friends.
It all began halfway February when I visited Berlin for a crash course on FontFont font production and OpenType at FSi. No, actually it began when I popped the TypeCon2005 NYC booklet in the mailbox of FontShop BeNeLux. No, actually it began when David John Earls sent me an e-mail at the tail end of 2004, asking me if I wanted a “shit job”.
No, it really began in August 2002 when I applied for a job teaching typography at Sint-Lucas Beeldende Kunst, Gent. The reason they gave me for not hiring me was that I didn’t have “a name” in Flanders. (To be fair the fact that I don’t have any academic background in typography also might’ve played a role ;). Whatever the real reason, this left me so frustrated that I decided to do something about that specific problem. If all it took was a reputation then – for the sake of experiment – I’d try to build one.
So I went online. After some sleuthing I stumbled onto the budding Typophile website and discovered this great online community of type and typography lovers. The Type Identification Board was a perfect entry point for me. I learned to know a whole bunch of likeminded people and started to make myself useful as moderator. This led to the chain of events explained in my Welcome post: I started writing occasional contributions to Typographica; late 2004 David John Earls invited me to join Typographer.org as a regular columnist, and Stephen Coles asked me to contribute to The FontFeed, our sister blog at FontShop.com.
Rudy Geeraerts, FontShop BeNeLux; my original employer © Frederik Berlaen
From 2005 on I started speaking at type conferences, and the TypeCon2005 NYC booklet I wrote and produced helped me get in touch again with my very first employer: FontShop BeNeLux. To cut a long story short, spring 2006 I was hired to write and maintain Unzipped, the very blog you are reading now. This was the beginning of the most thrilling ride in my professional career – but also the most demanding one. From then on I had to constantly juggle three to four jobs and writing assignments plus a rock band and combine that with family life. Needless to say I occasionally dropped the ball. Fast forward to halfway February this year. I’m sitting in Erik Spiekermann’s cool new house, sipping tea while we’re discussing his Spiekerblog and my Unzipped. We agree that it sometimes can be very frustrating when you can’t update your blog often enough due to other work, and I admit a sense of guilt towards my readers every time that happens. When I explain that I get paid well enough for this, Erik replies: “But not enough to leave your day job?” 
Erik Spiekermann at Typo Berlin 2008 Image © Alex Blumhoff After my second (still unofficial) FontShop meeting at Typo Berlin this May, Erik grabs my shoulder and says: “We go a long way back, don’t we?” Then it hits me. I have always considered myself a fortunate interloper (thank you Jon Coltz for coining this phrase) on the type scene, but we do go a long way back. I went to MetaDesign for a month after I graduated from the Art Academy. I witnessed FontShop being born and was one of the original employees of its Belgian franchise. Even after I left after three years I never stopped being a FontShop kid. And now it feels like my life comes full circle.
Last Friday I took my bike and rode the 10 minute trip to FontShop’s Belgian franchise. From now on I will fill my days with stuff I never studied for. I will write. I will market. I will educate. I will network. I will almost exclusively do that for FontShop USA and BeNeLux, but I already have a first small assignment for an independent type foundry. My days will be filled with nothing but type, my first and only true (professional) passion. And who knows, maybe I can continue teaching Typography and Digital Lay-out half a day a week come October? Because in some odd roundabout way, the experiment which started all this did pay off. ;) 
© Rudy Geeraerts
Most people when they near their forties hit a midlife crisis, because they realize this is what they’ll probably do until their retirement. Me, I just turned around my career. This is about as exciting as it gets. |
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