TypEdu | Work List Overview

The work on this page stands examplary for the kind of practical work the students do. There is an inherent logic to the steps taken here. For students of the foundation year who are not sure what it is they should study and if they even like that choice at all there is a short period of very basic sensitization. Then at the beginning of type design there is writing. After writing comes drawing and then digitizing of type. Throughout this process it is important to constantly insert a sense of proportion. Characters work inside words and text, not by themselfs. Just like type that works inside graphic and typographic design and not by itself.

The examples here were created by students of the SfG (Schule für Gestaltung Basel), the The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and CUNY (City University of New York). All rights reserved.

Hannes Famira · Sep 17,’07

№ 01

The Stages of the Type Design Education

sensitization and orientation
for freshmen and foundation classes
writing
drawing
digitizing
design integration

Basics

The first group of assignments are designed to train basic perception and and visual sensitivity as well as to build a vocabulary for a critical discurs.

№ 02

Composition

A basic composition exercise.

№ 03

Free assignment

Following a semester of introduction to type the students now create their own assignments. Taking their own reigns in this early stage of the education allows the students to explore aspects of type that resonate with their individual interests.

№ 04

Research assignment Typeface

Existing typefaces will be researched and placed in historic context. The shapes and appearance of the font are to be examined, looking at details of one glyph at a time aswell as studying the font's overall impression in text. The outcome of this investigation will be a graded oral presentation. Choose from the following typefaces:

№ 05

Research assignment Type Designer

The Student learns that fonts are made by people, that certain designs grow out of certain cultural environments.

Writing

This is a very compact phase of the class. The aim is not creating the esthetically pleasant shapes of calligraphy but to make the student experience the distinct shapes of the different kinds of contrast and construction and to establish the concept of the LetterModel.

№ 06

Translation and Expansion, Roman and Italic

Writing with a broad nibbed calligraphic pen while studying the LetterModel is a very efficient way to communicate the modular character of the alphabet and the roman translation shapes. The desired effect of this exercise is to allow the student to absorb the relationship of writing movement and writing tool that inevitably result in a very particular thick-thin contrast. It makes sense to study both roman and italic forms before heading on to the expansion forms of the pointed nib.

Drawing

The transition to drawing type is directly founded upon the foregoing writing exercises. A single lower case letter blown up on the photo copier to approx. 2,5 inches is being corrected and serves as the basis for an examination of the design space, as defined by the axis of contrast and weight.

№ 07

Drawing Letterforms Using the Written Alphabet as a Template

Advanced

The previous assignment —drawing separate shapes of glyphs with a translation type contrast— forms a natural basis for this next step, that takes type from the drawing board into the computer. This step is called digitizing and we use a vector based application to convert the scanned shapes into beziers.

№ 08

Digitizing

The glyphs are functioning in the context of a test word now. This means that the observation of isolated glyphs of previous drawing assignments has now advanced to the observation of the significantly more complex structure of "natural laws" as imposed by the total of a word. This exercise serves as a first encounter with the Type1 point structure and is meant to help the student get a better grasp of the correlation of corresponding parts in the almost modular nature of glyph shapes.

Drawing, marker on tracing paper

Digitized using a vector based application

№ 09

Interpolation Exercise

The four corners of this matrix are the most extreme forms you can get from the same shaping principles that define a single glyph while exploring only the axis of weight and contrast. In other words, this matrix ilustrates a two dimensional slice — defined by the four extrema — of the design space. By introducing the slice of expansion forms the matrix transforms into the Noordzij cube. Adding the respective italics takes the cube into a four-dimensional space, which is a fun thought experiment and hammers the point home that all character shapes are to be understood of instances in a multi dimensional space.

Who wants to contribute the missing picture for the italic?

Type Design

Once the basic form principles are established the real design work can start.

№ 10

Designing a digital font

One way to take relatively unexperienced students through the the process of designing a font is to start from hand drawn letterforms and experiment with different writing tools.

Digitized from remarks in Sofy's passport hand written in cyrillic using a ball point pen.

№ 11

Digital Font from Hamburgefonstiv

A sure way to get good lettershapes and work on a complete font in no time is to base the alphabet on the hand drawn glyphs created in Assignment No. 08

Christina made this typeface and much more in one short semester (Hut ab)!

Florian!

Design Intergration

Type communicates contents. Integrating a type design assignment with a graphic design assignment takes tpe design out of a context vacum and places it in the service of communication.

№ 12

Graphic Design

Creating a type design specifically for a particular graphic design assignment.

№ 13

Application Specific Type Design

Designing a typeface specifically for a particular class of production environment. This could be a typeface for labelling wooden crates, for printing in specific super small sizes, a headline font for a particular newspaper...

Typeface Nomad created for orientation system (Faber rocks!).

Typeface Engineered Round Monospace v.1.0 created for a modular display system (Rich Watts).