Fresh off his induction into the European Design Awards Hall of Fame, Erik Spiekermann just sat down to a great interview with our friends over at Ideas on Ideas. It's maybe the best interview we've read with the man, as they load him down with interesting questions. And, maybe even more importantly, differing from other sit downs we've read, they talk to him about how his firm, Spiekermann Partners, functions day-to-day. Really interesting. Here's a sample question to get you started:

EK: The last time I checked, your firm was at 40 members and growing. How do you ensure the quality of work remains consistent? Additionally, how much "Erik Spiekermann" do clients get when they hire SpiekermannPartners?

ES: We're not quite that many, but almost. Clients get my initial input and my involvement all the time. I am very quick to understand the issues and I am also pretty good about delegating the design work after we have identified the way to go. I look at all the presentation, and I usually present the most important phases myself. But the main thing is to hire good people who are better at some things than I am. And you have to understand that delegating means giving up. You cannot let a team work on a project for weeks without ever seeing what they're up to and then, at the end, tell them that their work sucks. My former partner used to do that, and in the end, nobody wanted to work with her anymore.