Radim Peško
Interview (2021)
I would like to ask you from your background, what kind of culture or music were you into when you were young?Pretty eclectic: watching MTV in 90’s, so grunge, hip-hop and so on, combined with classical music. I was always a movie fan, too. Silent movies—the beginnings.
How did you become interested in graphic design, and in particular type design?During my high school studies. I attended art school in a small town next to where I grew up and spent a lot of time in the library going through art books and magazines. If you sit in a library and take a pile of books, you realise how one book leads to another one and yet another. It takes you on a kind of unexpected adventure. I was eager to look and learn about a lot of different things, and one of which was graphic design, and then typography. Type design came later. I started to create my own typefaces because I did not have access to the things I had seen in those magazines. It was quite basic stuff for fun. When I left school and there was no work, type design was something that kept me busy. It gave me something that I could keep developing, in the hope that one day I could do something with it.
What was it about graphic design or typography that attracted you at the time?I don’t know if this means anything, but I have always liked covers, LP covers, sleeves, packaging, stationary, books, things with typography and images on them. I liked the fact that they are available, accessible— everyone can have a piece at home.
Which designers or artists and works have influenced your sense of design?On formal level there are probably too many to list, especially when you are just starting and searching for your own place and identity. But rather than pieces of design, I was always more interested in authors themselves: their ideas, mindset, work ethic and so on. The stranger, the better.
What sort of individual perspective do you think being from Czech Republic gives you as a designer?It is a small country so you need to go after the information a bit harder or figure out things yourself. It also takes more time. But there are benefits to it as well, it forces you to be inventive. I must say having experienced the change from a communist regime to a capitalist one was probably the most significant experience there was in terms of a cultural shift. I feel it gave me a perspective that is somewhat broader or more complete—but it is hard to put into words.
What are the common senses or elements of design that you find attractive?I am drawn to things that are not obvious or easy to understand.
That’s convincing. Please tell us what the other elements are indispensable for what you consider as an excellent font or great typography?Consistency.
How do you get the ideas that are the starting point for your work?It is usually an abstract image, which I then try to transform into typographic form. To make this happen I usually set up some device or obstacles that will help me to navigate through the process and force me to make the decisions that need to be made. It is out of these limits that freedom comes.