In 1989, Joan and her (then) husband, Erik Spiekermann, brewed up a bold new idea: the first mail-order distributor for digital fonts, FontShop. In 1990, together with partner Neville Brody, they formed the FontFont® label, today’s largest independent library. Besides heading FontShop International and FontShop San Francisco, Joan enjoys her grandson and oil painting.
Since the founding of FontShop, Petra has been at the helm, forging relationships with partners and keeping the business in line. While she continues her intimate involvement in the type community, the smooth sounds of Motown keep her grooving.
He is in charge of new sales verticals, new horizons, and new technology on FontShop.com. Mike is driven to maximize FontShop efficiency and total customer experience. Not only can he complete full sentences using only articles and acronyms, but our visionary is also proficient in gourmet cooking, backpacking, and choraked faad haang.
FontShop was born in Berlin, so it’s fitting that the stateside office has its own German on board. Volker is an FSI veteran, an expert in all things fontish and anthropological. Under his able Alamanni fist, engineering bugs are squashed and tables are pounded in defense of oddball theories like the aquatic ape hypothesis. In our most trying times, we can hear the faint tone of Bavarian reggae emanate from his desk in the back room and know that all is irie in fontland.
At the FSI office in Berlin, Greg handles the sales and support for those on the other side of the pond. But he grew up in the middle of another pond altogether: the Pacific (Papua New Guinea). Not only is Greg an all star font guru, he's also a starting pitcher for the Berlin Challengers baseball team and an avid runner, swimmer, and squasher.
If you happened to lift the giant yellow and black curtain of FontShop.com, the man behind it would be one Mr. Chapin — master of computer languages, databases, and deadpan quips. Whenever Jason is presented with what seems to us mortals like an insurmountable programming task, he glances at the ceiling for 3-5 seconds and then responds with a non-chalant but confident “yeah, I can do that.”
Ever heard the stereotype that number crunchers are dreary, inhuman drones? Well you can forget that notion right now. You will never find a brighter smile or more cheerful countenance than Flora’s. Our bean counter receives your purchase orders and pays your invoices with equally good nature. When she’s not keeping our records, she’s breaking her own records on the DDR mat.
Do phone trees tick you off? When you call or email FontShop, you won't get a mindless robot — you'll get Jeff. While he can't shoot lasers or talk in a mechanical voice, he can help get your fonts working. Mac, Windows, PS, TT, OT — Jeff knows 'em all like the back of his human hand. In his off time, this Scottish lad dons a kilt and samples every sandwich shop in the Bay Area.
Stephen's obsession with type and lettering wrecks havoc in his personal life where he is routinely tripped by fire hydrants while admiring vintage signs. Fortunately, he found a place where his freakishness is accepted. When he’s not waxing poetic about new releases, or filling the FontFeed with creative fodder, Stephen is editor of the online typography journal Typographica. Stephen is currently dating Motter Femina after breaking off a long and passionate affair with FF Strada.
His official title is “Marketing Coordinator”, but Michael usually gets his talented little mitts into everything from systems administration to budget balancing to keeping our teacups full. Are you an art magazine seeking advertisers? Design conference looking for hot swag? Give Michael a call. He’ll swiftly replace his headphones full of Bach with a wireless headset and greet you in an exceedingly polite tone.
After a short stint as a sports radio personality, Bettger brought his booming (but soothing) vocal chords to FontShop’s legendary tech support lines. His dope skillz on all computing platforms will come in handy next time your fonts aren’t playing fair. This guy has ice-water in his veins. Every time he’s hit with an impossible call, he steps up to the plate and delivers. You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him. “We have a pitcher, not a belly itcher.”
Our very own thrillah from Manila, Rommel recently brought his Excel skills and chess chops to the ’Shop. His best pals are Ben and Jerry – a friendship that would go straight to his waist were he not shaking off the ice cream to the tunes of Duran Duran and Depeche Mode and shooting a little roundball. Rommel aspires to “take Argretch Tamirgie to places and pages most cherished.” We don’t know what that means, but we’re sure the persistent fellow will make it happen.
Our newest support expert loves hooded anything, big bags, big glasses, sweet beats, good eats, vector graphics, handmade objects, polaroids, black and white, color, and helping you with your typographic needs.
When he's not anticipating and preventing what will frustrate a user, our code wrangler's massive brain is buried in urban planning, history, films with sad/ambiguous endings, yoga, his sister's music, and fantasizing about making the worst possible user interface (or at least giggling about it in his head).
From French New Wave film to post-war Japanese novels, rap music to public radio, this designer's interests span the culture gamut. His myriad influences seep into everything he creates. If you catch a Clipse lyric or Godard reference in a FontShop type specimen, you can bet it was crafted by Mr. Hamamoto.
Jason Worley brings his decade of IT experience to FontShop.com's inner workings. That (and his stints in several Bay Area heavy metal bands) makes this open source, espresso-fueled, LAMP wonk a formidable contender when any tech problem rears its head.
The perfect office dog. Fetches mail, cooks lunch, never gets in the way.
Achates’ fearless sidekick. Just a wee pup, we’re still working on basics like “don’t chew the cables” and “don’t chew the Nerf balls.” She’s got kerning down pat, though. Kern Harlow! Kern! Good girl!
Watch this space for more FontShop staff bios designed to embarrass and entertain.
