Condensed Typeface Design Program

Condensed Typeface Design Program

The Condensed Typeface Design Program at the Cooper Union is a five-week-long studio course that at first glance, simply teaches the basics and traditions of typeface design. In reality, it was an amazing and intense summer spent with passionate people immersed in the world of type. During the 12-hour days (with breaks!) we studied type history, calligraphy, different drawing techniques, and learned the process of designing and digitizing a font. Most of the program time was spent on a final project in which each of us created an industry-standard OpenType font.

This year we were split into two groups, each taught by renowned typeface designers. Group 1 was with Just van Rossum and Hannes Famira; group 2 with Jean François Porchez and Stéphane Elbaz. Sumner Stone was on hand with his expertise and knowledge of design history, as were other visiting designers and lecturers who rounded off the course. As a student it was incredibly enriching to be around these luminaries, and the diversity of our peers only enhanced the experience. The 29 students represented 16 different countries; most being graphic designers, and all sharing a passion for typography. Some of us came with the intention of becoming typeface designers, while others wanted to better understand type to become better designers. Experience levels were across the board: some had never drawn letters before, while others had published multi-weight typefaces.

Left: Critique session with Erik Van Blokland.
Right: Class with Just Van Rossum.

The Final Project
At our final presentations on the last day, we each introduced our completed typeface and talked about the journey we took to get there. Despite everyone beginning the course the same way, we all were pleasantly surprised to see the variety of work. Projects ranged from revivals based on tombstone lettering, to traditional Baskerville-inspired faces, to beautifully ornate display type, to text families with 7 weights geared towards publications. Some had created a bold version to accompany their font, while others created a sans accompaniment. Knowing how much time and effort we put into our work, each and every one of us was proud of the results.

Just five of the many typefaces. Clockwise from top left: Barapa by Etienne Aubert Bonn; Moriarty by Kevin Paolozzi; Cancellarecta by Lara Captan; Cumulus by Laura Coombs; Robin by Sian Binder.

How We Got There
Before we started on our final font design, the instructors put us through the following course of exercises aimed at teaching us the ins and outs of letterforms, their traditions and history, the rules of construction (and how to modify them), and how to critique our works in progress.

Calligraphy
During the first days we did not touch a computer, but instead kicked things off with an introduction to calligraphy. We began with the broad-nib pen, focusing on correct construction of the letterforms, a process that helped us understand the proportions of each letter and why they look the way they do. Group 1 also worked on italics and how they differ from roman shapes, while Group 2 worked on Carolingian and Renaissance models before moving on to tracing the letters, then modifying the outlines and creating new forms.

Left: Chalk Calligraphy.
Right: Chavelli’s Calligraphy.

Understanding Serifs

Using selected letters to base our alphabet on, we worked on refining them by hand (again, based on broad-nib pen strokes) and adding serifs. After focusing on medium contrast forms, we moved on to low contrast then high contrast forms which taught us the relationship between serifs and letter strokes.

Sketching & Exploring

When it came time to consider our final project, some people had ideas for the direction they wanted to go in, but others were open to ideas and were encouraged to sketch and seek inspiration for their final project (or use TypeCooker!). For some that meant looking at found letters and developing a full font based on those forms; and for others it meant applying a strict set of rules and a concept to drawing new letters. There were a variety of approaches and sources of inspiration.

Left: Ron’s Carolingian Calligraphy.
Right: Ron’s tracing.

We were taught to approach a typeface design by first experimenting, drawing by hand, searching for the right forms, and only then, when the design is cohesive and consistent, go to the computer. Instructors showed us Gerrit Noordzij’s approach to sketching letters, a method more efficient than drawing outlines first, as the focus is more on form and contrast from the outset.

Digitizing

After a quick FontLab tutorial we were expected to dive straight in, scan our precise sketches and move to drawing bezier curves instead of pencil lines. We had wonderful TA’s to help and answer questions, they themselves having gone through the same learning process as they were students in the Extended Type@Cooper program. The fonts were all digitized and perfected using the program of our choice. We learned how to use Fontlab, but RoboFont and Glyphs were other options too.

Left: Ron’s proofs & comments.
Right: Sumner Stone & Jean François Porchez. (best caption wins a copy of Inside Paragraphs — seriously.)

Critiques & Lectures

Our daily studio sessions were supplemented with guest critiques and lectures. The first night featured a type design panel moderated by Ellen Lupton; Allan Haley and Erik van Blokland lectured in later weeks, along with Valerie Lester, who spoke in depth about Bodoni (the person, not the typeface) and really brought him to life. There were also intimate group critique sessions with Erik in week four, as he evaluated the progress of our typefaces and gave us tips on spacing. Cyrus Highsmith critiqued our work in the final week as our typefaces were coming together for the final presentation.

Left: Class with Hannes Famira.
Right: Zeynep’s Wall.

Library Visits & Type History Talks

Every Friday gave us a little break from studio time with field trips to rare books libraries. Sumner Stone shared his invaluable knowledge of typographic history from the Gutenberg Bible through to the present in our visits to the New York Public Library, Columbia University’s Butler Library, as well as the Grolier Club. During the week, 45 minutes were dedicated to learning about the evolution of letters all the way back from cuneiform, further bolstering our type education.

Conclusion

All in all the program was fantastic. We won’t lie and say it was easy, as it required a huge amount of focus and dedication. Sleep and socializing took second place as we devoted our attention to perfecting curves and tweaking serifs. Most of us would come home from 12-hour days of class only to spend a few more hours working on our typefaces. We did the same on weekends. It was a fun experience though, and at the final presentation, the fruits of our hard labor were clear and most certainly worth it.

The energy and dynamic of the people involved (students as well as instructors) was really inspiring, and we were all incredibly sad to see the course come to a close. While five weeks is not enough time to learn everything about type design, this course makes the most of that time and does a great job of jumpstarting things. Anyone looking to enhance their graphic design knowledge or get into the world of typeface design would definitely benefit from this course. The program is now in its second year and is still evolving, so we guess it will only get even better.

Special Thanks

We’d like to thank Cara Di Edwardo, the coordinator of the program; our teachers Just van Rossum, Hannes Famira, Jean François Porchez, Stéphane Elbaz and Sumner Stone; and all the great students that we got to meet and work with during the program.
Text & images by Ron Gilad & Chavelli Tsui.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

Condensed Typeface Design Program

I love typography, the typography and fonts blog
johno

Space: The Initial Frontier

Book review — Inside Paragraphs

I have long admired Cyrus Highsmith, both for his type design (Benton Sans, Prensa, Zócalo, & many besides) and his wonderfully unique style of illustration and lettering. In his debut book, Inside Paragraphs: typographic fundamentals, he brings both of these talents to bear on a single topic, the paragraph. The book might alternatively have been titled ‘Space: the initial frontier’ for its principal focus is what goes on inside — not a book, not a page, but — a single paragraph of text — and as what goes on inside is mostly space, white space, or negative space, it is the ideal starting point for an introduction to the craft of setting type, to typography.

Usually I dislike books that are wider than they are tall. I find them uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of reading. However, Inside Paragraphs works despite its backwards proportions: it is light and perfect bound, happily folding back on itself for single-handed reading.

The typography is simple and precise: Ibis Text plus Scout (both by Highsmith), generous margins, white space aplenty, beautiful and practical illustrations. The writing is informal, incisive, and fluid; the tone never condescending. Inside Paragraphs is a TARDIS of a book, its 100 pages peppered with gems like,

‘Setting type can be thought of as a collaboration between the typographer and the typeface.’

phrases like ‘hierarchy of white space’, plus practical advice about everything from optimal and optimum parameters for H&J, and why all-caps settings require more space.

Too often introductory texts fail the reader by trying to cover too many topics superficially — like a whistle-stop tour of some great city, where you’ll be sure to see all the sites, but learn little of any substance about them. Highsmith might easily have expanded each section by tens of pages, but the book is all the better for its brevity and his abstemiousness.

To write more about this book would demand spoiler alerts, so I will wrap it up here in, appropriately enough, a single paragraph:

Inside Paragraphs should be required reading for everyone who studies typography and graphic design. It will also be of interest to anyone else wondering why typography matters. It costs about three Venti Iced Peppermint White Chocolate Mochas ($ 15). Buy it.

Sponsored by H&FJ.

Space: The Initial Frontier

I love typography, the typography and fonts blog
johno

The Week in Type

Closing your eyes to see, covering your ears to hear

It has been a while since my last roundup, so buckle up. For those interested, I recently moved 4322.8 km (2686.06 miles) from my home in Japan to my new home in Vietnam. After nine wonderful years in Japan, it was time to move on. The other day I read an interview with my friend and too-infrequent chess partner, Oliver Reichenstein, who pretty much describes my own feelings on reaching Japan.

Arriving in Japan without any knowledge of the language, I lived in a world without words, where, almost like a baby, I had to learn everything from scratch. I think the experience of being illiterate and then slowly growing back into society has made me a better designer. When you can’t read or write and you need to interpret everything you encounter by deciphering visual clues, you begin to understand how things and people function behind the words…it was a magnificent training in basic interface phenomenology.

I felt the very same way coming to Japan, and feel the same kind of naive wonder as an ‘illiterate’ newcomer to Vietnam. That’s quite enough about me; let’s move on to more important matters:

Rather than wear your heart on your sleeve, why not wear some of these — wherever:

See all of the ‘typographic’ Tattly.

An enormous and beautiful collection of Viennese Façades:

Via @swissmiss

New fonts

Thema from Typonine, the beautiful un-stenciled version of Typonine Stencil. I can see these two teaming up particularly well for editorial design.

Idlewild, a new all-caps sans from H&FJ:

TypeManufactur’s wonderful revival of Georg Salden’s Daphne typeface of the same name:

Replete with numerous alternate glyphs and calligraphic swashes. Related: An interview with Georg Salden over at Typeradio.

Following up on the huge success of Pluto, Pluto Sans:

Atlas Grotesk by Kai Bernau, Susana Carvalho, and Christian Schwartz of Commercial Type:

The delicious Filmotype Zephyr from Ale Paul:

Inspired

Really enjoyed Stephen Coles’s Chromeography talk for Creative Mornings:

Creative Morning Berlin #10: Stephen Coles from CreativeMornings/Berlin on Vimeo.

And be sure to visit chromeography.com

Celebrating 40 years of Pentagram. Beautifully done:

The Forty Story from Pentagram on Vimeo.

Support Uppercase Magazine’s crowd-funded homage to the typewriter, The Typewriter: a Graphic History of the Beloved Machine.

Spirograph, the animated typeface:

Spirograph Promo from Animography on Vimeo.

More about the project at animography.net

Erik Marinovich’s work is brilliant:

Nice use of Kris Sowersby’s Karbon Slab Stencil for bar and tea shop, Leaf on Bold St.

Still some of Seb Lester’s So Much To Do prints available:

Thoroughly enjoying Nina Stössinger’s type sketches — a number of them based on TypeCooker recipes:

Type sites

The brilliant resource that is Fonts in Use is now open to the public. Now anyone can now add to the archives. What are you waiting for you?

Lovely redesigned portfolio site of Jean-Baptiste Levée:

Gridset app is looking very good. Be sure to sign up for the beta.

Some good work from the Type & Media Masters students, class of 2012:

Experiment with and combine over 23,000 web fonts with the Typecast app.

Frank Blokland’s blog accompanying his PhD research at Leiden University. Harmonics, Patterns, and Dynamics in Formal Typographic Representations of the Latin Script:

Type books

I have high hopes for this book, and have ordered two: Inside Paragraphs: Typographic Fundamentals, a new title from Cyrus Highsmith.

Perhaps it could become the typography primer. Read Paul Shaw’s review over at Print Mag.

In roughly 100 spreads, Highsmith explains the fundamentals of typography by focusing exclusively on one thing: white space. — Paul Shaw

A new book from a brand new publisher: Lazy Dog offers Luca Barcellona’s Take Your Pleasure Seriously for pre-order. Books ships in October.

And it looks as though Codex magazine had a small part to play:

I had been following Luca Barcellona for a couple of years, ever since I’d discovered him, almost by chance, online; I was struck by his hand and its expressive, determined naturalness.
Each new work fascinated me more and more. And then, late in the spring of 2011, I bought the first issue of Codex, a new American [sic] typography magazine that featured an interview with him as well as a piece of his on the cover. When his interviewer asked if he’d ever thought about publishing a book of his work he replied that, to date, he hadn’t received any good offers…
That’s when lightening struck, and I realized that was the road I had to take.

Stop, Think, Go, Do: How Typography and Graphic Design Influence Behavior by Steven Heller and Mirko Ilić:

Bookmarks

New and improved embedding code for Typekit.
An interview with Nick Shinn.
A new design podcast from Matt McInerney (Pentagram) and friends: On the Grid. Also available on iTunes.
A Time and a Place for Typography?
Generating a logo font in InDesign.
How To Maintain Readable Type In Responsive Design.
Monotype Imaging: Type Enhancements for Android.
Ministry of Type: Typographic Rhythm.
A new body text tester from Fontdeck.
Event: two-day printing history conference, 4-5 September 2012.
Benefits of using @import and tags for web fonts.
An interview with type designer, Jeremy Tankard.
How to Explain Why Typography Matters.
Reading with Oprah.
H&FJ: Books as furniture.
Kindle: Improved reading experience? No.
Trent Walton: Fluid Type.
Typedia: Tall Bold Slugger Set Vivid.

Issue #2 of Codex magazine is coming next month (August). We have settled on a twice a year publishing schedule. Issue #3 will be available in March 2013.