Barry & Eli
Today our pack is excited to introduce you to our friends Barry and Eli. Nicole met Barry Spencer 8 years ago when Eli was just a young dog. Barry’s work is bold, daring and refreshingly different. He takes creative risks and experiments but his work has a defined methodology which grounds his design in theory while seeking to advance the accepted territory of typographic form. We spoke to Barry to learn more about how he redefines the typographic landscape and his relationship with his four-legged pal Eli.
Please introduce yourself…
My name is Barry (@speculatype), I’m a type designer, graphic designer and lecturer from Melbourne, Australia. I specialise in creating exploratory letterforms and typefaces through continuous experimentation and speculation with their shapes, components and configurations. In 2017 I self-published my doctoral thesis Speculatype as a book which presented an in-depth look at my creative approach.
I also feed this approach into my work as a graphic designer and lecturer as a way to encourage my student’s creative exploration as well as push my own into unexpected areas that may have otherwise been left unexplored.
And your four-legged companion Eli?
Eli is a super tall 11yo purebred English Staffordshire Terrier.
What is Eli's Origin Story?
The idea for Eli came along when my partner and I moved into a place that had a small backyard and decided there was a dog-shaped hole in it. After searching around we found a breeder in Geelong, Victoria.
We went and checked it out and there he was, 4 weeks old, nestled between his brothers and sisters. A few weeks later we were able to pick him up and take him home. The only thing left was to give him a name, however, on the way home we felt that our originally name choice ‘Rufus’ didn’t suit him and wasn’t going to cut it so I randomly suggested Eli and we thought it was perfect.
How does having your dog improve or support your wellbeing?
The biggest thing that I would say Eli encourages is movement. He has always had so much energy and it has encouraged us to get out and walk him almost every day of his life. This a bit less now that he is older and injured his knee, but it’s still a regular part of our lives.
Our human Nicole is a long-time fan of your speculative typography work and is excited to see you take your experimentation into motion. What can you tell us about your current work?
My current work looks to explore new ways of creating. Big things in my focus right now are variable and scripted fonts and a deep dive into creative coding and generative design. This kind of work is challenging how I create things and although I am yet to tie it all together, I know that I will just keep playing and see where it leads. It’s ok to not know the answer.
With the variable type, I like exploring iteration and movement that is built into the letterforms themselves and that the user controls. With the coding, I really enjoy engaging with random creation both as a built-in function of the programming language and through variable elements that allow for spontaneous or one-off results. It is still early days and I’m always searching for more insight into better ways to write the code or adapt my thinking. I plan to push it into other programming languages in the future.
What has been the most difficult thing in taking your design work into new technologies?
The learning curve for sure. I get frustrated by not knowing how to do things and it usually makes me charge headlong into figuring it out. My current stream of thought started because I wanted to have an interactive terminal at my Type. Grid. Play. exhibition in 2019, but the idea of motion has always bubbled below the surface and been kind of a slow build. I have wanted to add the element of motion back into my work after regular play in the very early days of my career. Back then I used Flash to make things move but fell out of it once it was no longer really supported.
In my travels, I kept seeing motion applications of type and wanted to look into how I could engage with it too. First through Photoshop frame animations, then After Effects, then Drawbot and Python, which I kind of stalled a bit, and now p5.js and JavaScript. It has led me down a giant rabbit hole that has led to a wide range of interesting areas that I want to keep exploring.
Do you have a preference between analogue and digital practice?
For my letterforms, I still very much prefer using pencil and paper, so I could safely say analogue for that. I find it so important to generate rough ideas first so I don’t get stuck on my initial thought. So much of my work it iterative as well, so getting my head around the variety of self-imposed rules that I give myself is easier by hand. I would love to explore that process more through coding (maybe soon?) though.
With the digital side of things, something I have been doing lately is opening up a new blank sketch and simply freeform coding to see what happens. I love the realm of “what if?” and starting with nothing, adding something, then another, and so on allows me to not overthink my limitations and the fact that at this point in time I am very new to writing code.
How does having Eli at home while your working shape your creative practice or inform your work schedule?
Having Eli at home in the early days actually led to using his morning and afternoon walks as a way of telling myself when I started and finished my daily work. It’s less of a thing now with him being older but still a nice way to start and/or end the day. He needs to be walked and I know I need to stand up and be active more often.
One of my favourite stories for this revolves around my visual response for Typograph.Journal Vol.2 (where we were asked to visually respond to a designated song). To make myself not sit at my desk for too long staring at a blank page or getting sidetracked, I would take Eli for a walk while I listened to the song (on repeat) which allowed my attention to ebb and flow, while focussing on different elements of the song each playthrough and influenced my ideation. He, of course, loved it.
Tell us about a typical day in the life of Barry and Eli?
These days the typical day is quite understated. We usually get up, have breakfast and then go for a 30 or so minute walk before work. From there Eli will sleep most of the day while making a ruckus with either his loud snoring or sleep barking.
Where is Eli's favourite spot to hang out while you are creating?
His favourite place to hang out would be his bed for sure.
From there he can either sleep or take in the world. From day 1, we pretty much trained his “default state” to be on his bed so it’s just naturally where he wants to be.
What mischief does Eli get up to when you are at your teaching gig?
Nothing really, he is a good (and old) dog. He might whine at the back door a bit if he is outside, but other than that he knows that if he doesn’t move I’ll forget he is inside and he will get to stay in bed.
What life lessons has Eli taught you?
I’d say probably care and responsibility. The time, energy and discipline it takes to train a dog is massive but it has made him so much easier to be around and communicate with. You need patience, clarity and consistency to make it work. He knows the places he is allowed to go in the house and what’s off-limits, he knows where to sit to tell us if he is hungry, needs to go outside or for a walk. Plus it means that we can (within reason) trust him to be played with and walked by both of our kids (4 and 7yo) without pulling or randomly going after other animals. They love having him around.
What is your favourite thing to do together as a family?
Simple walks, fetch or hide and seek. Fetch and Hide and Seek are Eli’s favourites for sure.
What project are you most proud of?
I have to say either publishing my book Speculatype or putting on my first solo typographic exhibition Type. Grid. Play. in 2019.
Is there another creative canine combo you'd like to see profiled on WalkThe_?
Maurice Meilleur (@mjmeilleur), Miriam Martincic (@themiriamdraws), Oona and Henry.
Finally, where can we see more of your work?
My most up to date working and process can be found on my Instagram @speculatype but for a bit more detail my projects you can visit www.barryspencerdesign.com.au
