typo*: A Scrapbook of Typographic Obsession

About Andy Altmann

Andy Altmann has an independent design consultancy based in London. He was a founding partner at Why Not Associates one of the UKs leading multi-disciplinary design companies. Andy founded Why Not Associates in 1987 with fellow Royal College of Art graduates David Ellis and Howard Greenhalgh. Although he trained as a graphic designer Andys work has taken him into the blurred boundaries of design and art. In over 30 years of experience he has worked on projects ranging from exhibition design to postage stamps via advertising publishing television titles commercials corporate identity and large-scale public art. His clients include the Royal Academy of Arts Channel 4 V&A Grace Jones Pompidou Centre Royal Mail Nike Paul Smith Chris Ofili Kobe Museum of Fashion and Tate Modern. All his work is bound by a fundamental love of typography research and experimentation. He has given numerous lectures on his work all around the world from Siberia to Japan via Manchester! In 1991 Why Not Associates collaborated with Edward Booth-Clibborn and Rick Poyner to edit and design Typography Now: The Next Wave which became the most significant most referenced best-selling survey of typographic trends and thinking of its time. A monograph was published in 1998 documenting the first ten years of Why Not Associates work and a second published in 2004 documented another five years.