This week as part of the lecture series we had a lecture given by James Edmondson who is the founder of the Ohno Type Foundry.
James started the lecture off by giving an introduction about who his is and the big family he grew up in. Growing up, being the youngest of 6 siblings meant that he had to entertain himself. From a very young age he was drawn to logotypes in which he practiced with patience. As he got older he moved in with his older brother in San Francisco, working for him, finding his love and passion for typography.
He mentioned that he often gets upset and offended – to a religious level if people put down other people’s work, offend them or aren’t encouraging. I relate to this on a personal level as I often feel offended on behalf of someone when I can see how hard they have worked and it immediately gets put down, running to the persons defence as its not nice when something you have been working hard on gets degraded or spoken about in a negative manner.
He found San Francisco to be inspiring and realised that when someone you value gives you advice, it carries more weight and has a bigger impact on you.
James also mentioned the cycle of starting from scratch. He would get in touch with design agencies, work hard to show them what he had to offer and after some back and fourth contact – it wouldn’t progress any further. Initially James started off wanting to do merch with the typefaces he created however realised that no one will appreciate his work like he did. He liked that by working for himself he was able to come up with his own projects with constraints he set himself. It gave him the opportunity to execute the work and designs how he wanted, the ability to make his own rules and setting his own deadlines. This allowed James to really own his work as often doing work for other people wasn’t as good as doing work for yourself. He noticed that working for himself became an investment, his journey allowed him to reflect on the immense growth and numerous setbacks he had to overcome to reach his current success – proving don’t just do what needs to be done, do what makes you happy and is fuelled by your passion.
This showed me that after ages of trying and it not working out, you will eventually see the fruits of your labour and it’s important to never give up on the things you love.