Gunnlaugur SE Briem
California, USA
Calligrapher, designer, publisher
Biography
Gunnlaugur SE Briem is a designer and lives in California. His postgraduate studies in Copenhagen and London ended with a PhD from the Royal College of Art. He also passed, for good measure, an apprenticeship exam at a typography college in Reykjavik in 1989.
He took part in the introduction of cursive handwriting in his native Iceland, where his method and manuals have been used in classrooms for over twenty years. Some are on his website: briem.net. He is also a member of the advisory board of Visible Language, a research magazine. He also publishes free e-books on fonts and related subjects at: www.operina.com.
He designed several fonts for: The Economist, The Times, and for general licensing. He also lectured widely in Europe and America, and was Designer-in-Residence at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1990.
He organized traveling exhibitions of lettering and calligraphy. For a time he ran a calligraphy gallery. He had several one-man shows of his own work, most recently at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and won a few awards.
Three Futharks, the runic alphabet
91.5x129 cm, Viking writings, digitally created calligraphy work based on handwritten script, 2009
The End of the World
91.5x129 cm, Viking writings,digitally created calligraphy work based on handwritten script, 2009
Brush futharks
91.5x129 cm, Viking writings , digitally created calligraphy work based on handwritten script, 2009
ABC Song
Silk screen decoration on card stock, 64x45 cm, 1980s.
Imre Reiner Exhibition Poster
Silk screen decoration on paper, 44,5х63,5 cm, 1983.
Doomsday Clock
Silk screen decoration on paper, 43,3х64,6 cm, 1986.
Variations on the Letter S
Linocut, 44,5х64, 1983.
Exhibition poster. London
Silk screen decoration on paper, 52x78 cm, 1982.
Exhibition poster. Living Letters. Reykjavik
Silk screen decoration on paper, 48x74 cm, 1982
Exhibition poster. Jonathan Pollitzer
Silk screen decoration on metal foil, 52x76 cm, 1987.
Poster for an art school course
Silk screen decoration on metal foil, 57x77 cm, 1976.
Exhibition poster. Arthur Baker
Silk screen decoration on paper, 45x64 cm, 1985.
Outline uppercase letters (educational alphabet)
Silk screen decoration on paper, 44x57 cm, 1983.
Boxed set
Silk screen decoration on paper, 43x65 cm, 1986.
Preamble of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
Paper, inkjet dye, 90x120 cm, 2008.
Homage to Juan de Yciar
Woodcut, 29,5x45 cm, 1986
Utopia
Paper, inkjet dye, 90x120 cm, 2008.
Rough study
New Year card, 90x90 cm, 2005.
Ribbon black letter, Gothic script
Paper, Inkjet dye, 90x120 cm, 2008.
Cursive handwriting. Icelandic method
Paper, inkjet dye, 90x140 cm, 2008.
Interlace alphabet
Paper, Inkjet dye, 90x85,5 cm, 2008.
Copperplate
Paper, inkjet dye, 72x77 cm, 2007.
Bold wood
Paper, inkjet dye, 90x120 cm, 2008.
To Phoebe
William Schwenk Gilbert's sardonic poem.
Block letter writing, fashioned as a writing exercise with a defined baseline, midline and left margin. Lettering print, 42x59,4 cm, 2010
Machiavelli
A quote from Niccolo Machiavelli in Italian and in English.
Casual italic text in black and light outline letters on rough paper. Lettering print, 42x59.4 cm, 2011
Spirals
One of the texts is a lament from a poem by Jonas Hallgrimsson (1807—1845), the other — the traditional beginning of Icelandic fairy tales: "Once upon a time...".
Freely written with a broad-nib pen in italic and monoline italic, a handwriting model for schoolchildren. Lettering print, 42x59.4 cm, 2011
