Eric Olson

By Suzy Frisch

Stroll through the Walker Art Center or read one of its publications and you'll likely see the typographic identity system created by Eric Olson. Since earning a bachelor's degree in design communication from the Department of Design, Housing, and Apparel in 1999, Olson has emerged as a young typographer with a promising future, making a splash in national and international design circles for his work.

Olson's graphic and typographic designs have earned him worldwide recognition from the design media and industry organizations. He was featured in Print magazine, Step Inside Design, Font 004, and Eye, the leading British graphic design magazine. Olson also received a Best in Show award from the American Institute of Graphic Arts -- Minnesota chapter for his work on the University of Minnesota Design Institute piece, Diorama.

In 2002 Olson started a boutique design studio called Process Type Foundry, which creates original, contemporary digital typefaces for other design firms and businesses. He recently designed a new suite of custom typefaces for Chevrolet, and his fonts have appeared in the print work of other graphic designers, such as a Levi's ad in a British culture magazine, a book called New Tactics in Human Rights, and a French postcard. The College of Design uses Olson's font Klavika for its logotype, a font that the journal Typographica named as one of its favorites for 2004.

For these reasons Steven McCarthy, associate professor of graphic design, nominated Olson for a Rising Star Award from the former College of Human Ecology. Olson received the 2005-06 award.

"Eric stands out because he has distinguished himself in his professional life since he graduated from the University," said McCarthy. "He has worked at a few high-profile design-centered jobs, including at the Walker and the Design Institute. He has also been entrepreneurial in his work, creating Process Type Foundry. His work is fresh and contemporary and smart and innovative. He understands typographic history and he's also got a pulse on the moment." But best of all, McCarthy added, is the quiet dignity and tenacity Olson brings to his work.

Design Institute director Janet Abrams also nominated Olson for the award. She became impressed with the young designer at the institute's Typeface: Twin Cities project in 2002. Olson was the only Twin Cities-trained and Twin Cities-based typographer of the six participants to create a font for the competition. Though his Locator Display font didn't win, it received international publicity from the book Metro Letters: A Typeface for the Twin Cities, in which Olson was interviewed about his work and creative process. The book received reviews and coverage in about 30 design publications worldwide.

When Print magazine asked Abrams to nominate a designer for its annual New Visual Arts Review issue in 2004, she said it was a "no-brainer" to suggest Olson. The issue displayed some of Olson's fonts and wrote of the designer, "He is independent, precocious, blessed with good taste, and extremely knowledgeable about how technology forms a foundation for his work."

Currently Olson and his wife, Nicole Dotin, run Process Type Foundry from England, where Dotin is earning a master's degree in type design from the University of Reading. They plan to return to their home base of Minneapolis before the end of the year.

Olson first got interested in typography as a teenager, imitating the letters and logos on his favorite heavy metal albums. He was formally introduced to typography in the University's Type 1 class, which ignited in him a passion for the art form. These days, Olson enjoys the independence of creating typography from his studio, bringing it back from the large-scale industrial production that was prevalent in the 19th and 20th centuries.

For Olson, creating a typeface is a labor of love that can take about two years. But he's motivated by a passion for the craft and a mission to bring detail and refinement to the typefaces we use every day. "I¿m chipping away at it. Sometimes it seems slow, but I'm certain type designers need to make work that is a reflection of our time," he wrote in an e-mail interview from Reading. "Hopefully my work is pushing in this area."