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It seemed interesting to us to make you discover the profiles of our guests. Discover Ariane Spanier.
Biography Ariane Spanier is a Berlin-based graphic designer, originally from Weimar, Germany. She studied visual communication at the Art Academy Berlin-Weißensee and later opened her own studio in Berlin. Ariane's work focuses on typography and spans print, identity, and digital design, primarily for cultural clients. Spanier is the creative director and co-editor of Fukt, a magazine for contemporary drawing. Her award-winning work has been widely published, and she is a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale).
Interview
What is your favorite way to start a day?
Ariane Spanier Sleeping in. While every single successful person in the world seems to be an early riser, I am wired to be a night person since I was 15. So far nothing could change that. That’s possibly the biggest reason I started out on my own almost immediately. If it’s the days of the week my collaborators come in to the studio we chat about what there is to do, or how the weekend was, which shows we’ve seen, whatever is on, then we would maybe start half an hour later to work. Then checking client emails or I jump right into what I had left the day before. I almost always had my studio space at home, we have an apartment connected to the studio space. I sometimes dreamt about a totally separate studio. But for long it has made family life a lot easier, when my 2 daughters were small it kept me flexible, I saw them way more, than I would have if I would be further away. If they were sick, I could take care of them in between while the studio was running. There were/are many advantages. On top of that it keeps costs down as well, which is great in this profession, keeping some pressure at bay. When I started out I wasn’t so bound to a space and just took my laptop anywhere. But I have always needed my colour books and paper samples and cutting materials, as I still work quite a bit in print as well, so there are things to print, to fold, to test, to spray. This can be tricky if it’s not a well set up space.
Do you listen music?
Ariane Spanier I stopped listening to music while I work a few years ago, only if I do a little more repetitive work, something that doesn’t need too much thinking and when I am alone. Often it’s a lot of conversations with my staff, writing emails, thinking about new concepts, for some reason music started to be distracting for that.
Do you read news?
Ariane Spanier Right now I am trying to reduce it substantially because it’s not making me feel good. But of course I want to stay informed, so I don’t really manage. I do listen to podcast-like news of the nytimes, guardian, zeit, bbc… (if i am alone, not writing emails or answering interview questions)
“While every single successful person in the world seems to be an early riser, I am wired to be a night person since I was 15. So far nothing could change that. That’s possibly the biggest reason I started out on my own almost immediately.”
– Ariane Spanier
What do you think of social media platforms today?
Ariane Spanier I only use instagram and it’s no fun anymore. I do post about my work, but it’s not enjoyable to look at in general because of the upped commercials flooding in. Pinterest as well sometimes, but often it’s a way to check that a specific idea hasn’t been done before but all these are rabbit holes and better to avoid.
What do you do to evade yourself from work?
Ariane Spanier Travelling, taking walks, seeing exhibitions, going to see a theatre play, meeting friends for dinners is what I do when I don’t work.
You prefer work in a team or alone?
Ariane Spanier I need both, I enjoy the exchange on the days of the week with the other designers in the studio, but I need a few days alone as well for concentration and concepts. In most cases I start to think about new projects and concepts alone, then we discuss it over and continue from there and bounce a little back and forth.
Do you ever feel "too comfortable" in a certain style, project, field, or medium?
Ariane Spanier I am constantly doubting every single thing I do until the very end of each project. In parts i think its necessary because it's a constant evaluation process while I am at something, I basically try to find the weak spots to be able to eliminate them. But it can make work feel hard at times. If I would feel too comfortable — it would make me very uncomfortable. That’s not saying that I am always innovative — I’d wish. I work a lot in the cultural field, and that is a quite cozy area for graphic design — so I do allow for a bit of comfort.
Does AI change the way you work as well your relationship with your clients?
Ariane Spanier Not yet really. I am still lucky to not consciously having lost clients over AI, but who knows. I haven’t found a conceptually meaningful way to use it yet for visual work because it’s neither an aesthetic I use want to achieve, nor am I a designer producing images very often when working with typography, but most of all it’s really not as satisfying. I want to keep my brain and my imagination and my making process going and will do as long as human design is wanted. It doesn’t mean I won't find use of it in the future, but so far on the visual side — no. But I can enjoy discussing concepts with GPT, it can certainly give some valuable input, and it also starts to be more helpful now by providing some file types or technical support. Many applications having implemented more and more AI aspects in their tools, so I am working with it whether I intend to or not. Of course I use GPT for text (not for this interview though!), but knowing that a single request to GPT uses a bottle of water for one text it gives you, (necessary cooling of the data centers) — and a lot more energy than a google search — makes me think twice as well. This is a serious issue on top of everything else implied with it.
What are your thoughts on the trend of grotesque and geometric sans-serif?
Ariane Spanier Well, there is always a reason for trends, the simplicity and cleanness is something that seems to attract people so much, I agree. I am in it myself, part of me falls for that too, an immediate positive reaction to a lovely designed grotesque typeface, used in a very minimal way. But the other part wants to do the more special crazy stuff. I don’t decide, I switch, I want it both.
As a user of type, are you always on the lookout for new typefaces and where are you finding them?
Ariane Spanier Totally random, yes i’d follow some type foundries and type designers, just things that float in. As a graphic designer a well designed specimen is making me notice something, but it’s also personal preference for certain attributes of single characters that could catch my attention. In some cases it might be language support if I’d need to design something in different languages.
What drives you to create new typefaces?
Ariane Spanier I am not a trained type designer, but the tools that emerged over the years made it so much more fun and easy to at least sketch something up quickly and get it to work for testing. I must have learned some basics at some point that stuck, but I consider myself a dedicated amateur if compared to a real type designer. Luckily that means today one can indeed design a typeface. I have never designed a new typeface just for fun without context, but I would do so for a project, an identity or a book and it’s super fun.
“If I would feel too comfortable — it would make me very uncomfortable”
– Ariane Spanier
What do you think of this trend of free or open source fonts?
Ariane Spanier Personally for me as a graphic designer it’s great, I can get it for free and just use it, why wouldn’t I? I can’t speak for type designers who make a living of designing fonts. It must be a little concerning. But there is a never ending need for new fonts, because typefaces carry so much personality, they are a reflection of a designers aesthetics, preferences, taste for playfulness — as they are part of trends in expression as well, it means there are never ending possibilities that will always change and be reflections of our time, like fashion. And people will pay for the good ones that stand out.
What are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of your work as co-editor and creative director of Fukt?
Ariane Spanier Mostly it is rewarding, it’s our own in-house project, it’s independent, we don’t have to report to anyone and I do whatever I feel like design wise for the magazine. For its content, my partner Björn, who founded the magazine, and I share a love for drawing and we see others do too. Thematically it’s a super niche magazine, and there are almost no competitors which makes it stand out somehow. We do it since such a long time, and are able to grow the audience over time, and a knowledge of drawing art. Overseeing a project over a long period of time makes you learn and getting ideas that otherwise never would have happened when it would have been stopped after 5 issues. The challenges have been distribution in the beginning, it took a while until we worked that out, and it’s probably still not perfect, but it’s a generally tricky matter for independent magazines, so I can’t complain.
How do you balance artistic expression with functionality in your design work?
Ariane Spanier I still want people to be able to read a publication so I don’t think i am too crazy on that side. But where i see more expressive typography fit, it will be done.
Do you remember when you decided to pursue your career in design?
Ariane Spanier I come from an artistic family of designers, artists, art historians and I did always love to draw, paint, taking photos, making little zines as a kid. It felt very natural to start with graphic design, because that seemed the most broad field for all these interests. I considered film as well before I started out, but it wasn’t for me. Of course, what made it so much easier, was seeing that this life style works, I didn’t questioned it or wondered if one can make a living of art or creative work, that’s the advantage of coming from such a family background. That’s why I admire people who didn’t have that.
Who were your biggest influences when you started?
Ariane Spanier My father for sure is important, he is a trained industrial designer. All the observed making and crafting models back in the day had a huge impact on me. From my mother came this interest in art and the ability to speak about it. My uncle is an artist, sculptures and graphic art, I cannot underestimate family — but it also clicked with me early on. When I studied we had teachers for a bit of everything, but our professor for drawing is the one I took a lot from because I was very interested in it at the time and even considered to become an artist. However I was missing something (type, words, language!). And I went to intern at Stefan Sagmeister’s studio right after I graduated and that was kind of my kick start into the graphic design i wanted to do. It was lingering inside of me, and the time at his studio showed me a way and how much fun it can be. While there always is luck playing a big part–the right thing happening in the right moment–we do have an our inner compass to lead us, even if it’s unconsciously happening. We look for the right people and the right places to get us going.
Do you sketch before going digital?
Ariane Spanier Yes I do very initial sketches in paper notebooks. They aren’t beautiful or anything, they are just a way to get going – a first attempt to get something out of my head into reality. But to see if it works I have to move quickly to the computer because thats where it’ll get finished mostly.
Any advice for aspiring graphic designers?
Ariane Spanier Any advice these days feels old because I have no idea where things are going to regarding AI and graphic design. We are at the brink of such a major shift — in the creation but also reception side of design on the clients and audience side. Hopefully human design will become even more valued over time. As superficial it may sound, simply doing what you love or what you enjoy should be the guide, because what else? The designers of tomorrow will act in a different world that my generation was brought up and educated for. I am thinking in the old system of learning through making, if making itself falls to AI — I am not the one who can give advice. However i am convinced people will find their way, young designers will find their place but it’ll be different than before. But a strong feeling is that personal, individual and even handmade analog approaches will (again) play a bigger role because humans are human.
Thank you very much Ariane!
Interview by Laimė Lukošiūnaitė
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