German has always had a strong tradition in the design of printing types, with influential modern figures like Rudolf Koch, Paul Renner, Hermann Zapf, and Erik Spiekermann himself. Spiekermann has worked with Dutch designers for most of his life, and Dutch typefaces were amongst the first to be issued by FontFont, his digital foundry from FontShop*. Currently many German type designers study at Type]Media in the Netherlands, the one year master course in type design at KABK (Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten) in The Hague.

(*) Read more in the third anniversary interview which will be posted on The FontFeed later today or tomorrow.

What are the differences between the strong Dutch and German typographic traditions, and do these differences still exist? Spiekermann will delve into this topic during his lecture.

The Frederik Muller Lectures are organised by the Special Collections in collaboration with the chair Book & Manuscript Studies, the Institute for Culture and History and the Library of the Book Trade Foundation. The lectures are subsequently published in book form with the support of Tetterode.