“Hi, I’m Erik!” is the biography of design legend Erik Spiekermann many had been awaiting a long time. Edited by Johannes Erler and published by “Gestalten” the book follows Erik on his tracks since childhood and leads through the phases of his rich professional life. Julia Sysmäläinen who joined Erik’s crew in 2004 contributed the background story about the United Designers Network (2004–07), SpiekermannPartners (2007–2009) and the founding of Edenspiekermann_ (2009-).
The world we find ourselves in is called “Espi”. Espi stands for Edenspiekermann, rather than Erik Spiekermann, as some new clients erroneously write. Erik is only in the second – though notably larger – part of the word. The shorter first bit belongs to our Dutch friends from the partner office in Amsterdam; small and beautiful. The name is an interesting construct; one has to imagine it on a business card:
edenspiekermann_
prof. dr.h.c. erik spiekermann.
The many laters at the beginning of the second line serve to differentiate between company and person. Or spoken, in my case: “Good Morning, this is Julia Sysmäläinen, Edenspiekermann, Berlin”. How long would that take to spell out over the telephone? With my last name it takes a good two minutes, like buying a ticket for the Berlin metro using an electronic cash card – long enough to miss the train that has just arrived. With a name combination like that you get to test the humour of whoever is at the other end of the line. It they are not altogether humourless, you already have a topic for small talk. However, Espi was not always Espi: there were other names before it. …
At Gestalten Publishers “Hello I am Erik” or “Hallo, ich bin Erik”.