Matthias Hillner Supreme Educator years, I forced myself to push my typography and layout skills. Connecting typography with multimedia and digital technologies was just another step for me. Animating type on screen allowed me to explore aesthetic experiences which static information could not produce. Using means of animation, and through the orchestrated fluctuation of visual ambiguity, I tried to emulate the aesthetic impact which good quality photography can produce through atmospheric means such as light, depth, selective focus, obscurity. How did that evolve into the position you hold now?
When did you first think about design as a profession and writing about design and typography as something you wanted to do? To begin with, I was simply looking for ways of using my creative capabilities as much as possible. My art teacher in school warned me not to become an artist, because earning a living was thought to be far from easy. When I asked him about design, I was told that this would be a much better option. In retrospect I also realized how important design is for culture and society, for innovation and for creating sustainable futures. My problem was that to study design in Germany requires having an internship. As I could not secure any, I decided to train in advertising photography first, before embarking upon my design education. I did not know anything about typography and of its cultural significance until I was half way through my under graduate studies. However, I am generally attracted to the unknown, and I felt that excelling in typography might be the only way for me to prove myself worthy a graphic designer. I did not want to rely too much on my photography skills to succeed with my studies. It is ever so easy to turn an ordinary layout into an impressive spread or poster using stunning photography. Through working without photographic elements for a couple of
This was a long journey. After publishing my first book entitled as ‘Virtual Typography’ in 2009, I was regularly invited to speak at conferences and to give visiting workshops. Thus I learned how to share my skills and knowledge with design students of different caliber and cultural backgrounds, and this inspired me to think a little bigger. At the time I was working at a range of British design institutions in and around London. Here I taught numerous exchange students from Singapore who impressed me not only with their extra ordinary commitment to their studies, but also with their proficiency, design knowledge and experience. When I gave a workshop in Kuala Lumpur in 2015, the opportunity to lead a few design programmes in Singapore emerged, and I decided to emigrate to Asia. The progress that can be made here within a short period of time is extraordinary. This is partially due to the continuously growing range of development opportunities and partially due to the working mentality you typically find here in Singapore. In half a year ago, I received the offer to join Glasgow School of Art Singapore as the local Director of Programmes, and I could not have wished for more. Through this role, I joined one of the world’s top-ten art and design institutions, and also a very seasoned team of research-active academics. From 2012 to 2019 I carried out a PhD study in innovation management, and GSA provides me with the p erfect en v i ro n m en t t o b ri d g e d es ig n a n d
