So it’s been a couple of weeks: how am I doing with those lofty goals I set myself to spend more time with some of my previously peripheral interests?

I haven’t played all that much chess. Despite carrying Shredder around in my pocket and having it on my laptop I’ve shamefully managed less than a half-dozen games. It’s proven to be difficult to shake the habit of opening a Twitter client and feed reader instead of playing chess, and I think partly that is down to the disparity in the amount of concentration required. I’m going to have to make more of an effort with this one: maybe find an online community or read a chess news site.

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I’ve been slightly better with typography. I subscribed to a couple of type blogs, downloaded the PDFs of issues 1 & 2 of 8 Faces, and, having remembered him from Gary Hustwit’s documentary Helvetica, started digging around for more information on Erik Spiekermann. By virtue of longevity and centrality within the typography community* (as well as sheer force of personality) Spiekermann proved to be an excellent starting point. He’s passionate, engaging, witty and irrepressible as well as being deeply knowledgeable in his field.

I found a highly entertaining and informative six-part interview with Spiekermann on Typography podcast Type Radio, in which he speaks candidly about his history in the industry, and that led me to a recent interview with Gestalten TV.

Spiekermann’s enthusiasm and the passion of his belief in the power of good (and bad) design is admirable and persuasive. It seems that, as with Miles Davis in jazz or Steven Spielberg in film, the most famous name is an ideal place the start for the amateur typophile. His dislike of Helvetica also provides an interesting counterpoint to the direction from which I was approaching typography in general.

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I’ve also fared pretty well in regard to meditation, thanks in large part to The Guardian hosting a couple of meditation videos and podcasts as part of their Start Happy campaign for the beginning of 2011. The content, provided by London-based Headspace, proved to be an excellent opportunity to re-shape a basic meditation practice. The mindfulness of breathing meditation they set out is very similar to what I used to do semi-regularly some years ago, and with the tools on Headspace’s website I’ve been able to keep to a regimen of sitting little 10 minute sessions each day, with the aim of building those up over time. The content does a good job of demythologising meditation and explaining its purpose from an accessible and grounded secular standpoint. You also get to play with graphs:

Now that I’m done with the guided program I’ll be relying on my own initiative to keep the practice up, but getting back to it has been enjoyable enough that hopefully that won’t be too difficult.

* Eye magazine recently paid tribute to Spiekermann’s influence with a supplement entitled Six Degrees of Erik Spiekermann, showing how almost every type designer in Berlin (and London) had worked with him at some point.