School of Arts and Communication Design

TDi: five (or ten) days of typeface design

Diving into typeface design For over twelve years the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication has been offering a world-class MA programme on Typeface Design. This course redefined education in typeface design, inspiring many similar courses interna-tionally. However, the full-time commitment over a year makes it impossible for many to attend. So, in 2009 we launched a short course that took some of the strongest features of the MA programme and condensed them into five very inten-sive days. A year later we added an extension of one more week for people wanting to develop their projects further.

This year we are repeating this format, aiming to work closely with a small group of people to build an understanding of context and perspective in typeface design. We will show how theoretical approaches and the historical context permeate typefaces, and influence every new design project, and will discuss the impact of technology on design decisions. We will help you make informed design decisions, and how to identify quality in your design work.

We aim to help you build a sense of context, understand the conventions, and get a feel for the scope for originality in typeface design. In other words, we are not aiming for you to just make a font in a few days, but to become a better designer in the long run.

Course information

8 – 12 and 15 – 19 July 2013

Full-time attendance Local accommodation, or within reasonable commuting distance

Participants Typeface designers, typographers, graphic designers, educators, researchers

Contact details

Further information Gerry Leonidas Course director

email g.leonidas@reading.ac.uk

www.reading.ac.uk/typography/

typefacedesign.tumblr.com

“Definitely an exceptional week. For my part it was the most valuable five days in my graphic design career. Thank you all for making it thrilling and fun.”

The word ‘adhesion’ is used to enable rapid development and testing of a new typeface’s basic proportions and features. Here the difficult ‘s’ is omitted for faster progress.

The background: why Reading?The Department of Typography boasts the first typography course within a research-intensive university, and includes world-class collections and archives that support research and enable hands-on learning. From the theory of graphic language to research in perception and visual literacy, and from the history of typesetting technology to the study of typefaces for world scripts, Reading has been at the forefront of the narratives that are helping typography mature as a discipline.

The Department is idependently recognized for its exceptional research output, as well as the quality of its teaching. Under one roof seminal publications like the Information Design Journal and Typography Papers were founded, and a wide range of funded research projects, knowledge transfer partnerships, and consultancies are underway.

We approach design from the perspective of the user, and integrate the wider context in the development of design decisions. In this environment, we approach typeface design at the apex of three aspects: • typemaking tools, and approaches to designing typeforms; • the requirements of documents, as reflected in typographic specifications and the restrictions imposed by typesetting technologies; and • the wider conventions for genre and style, at each time and place.

We use these perspectives to inform the designer’s seeking of originality and innovation, and to show how typefaces can be be useful, relevant, interesting, and exciting. You will be able to get an insight into the different ways that type-faces are successful, as well as why it’s not so easy.

Main contributors Fiona Ross discusses Devana-gari; Gerard Unger lectures on national identities in typeface design; Gerry Leonidas makes observartions on proportions and spacing.

Typography and typeface design choices that survive centuries of developments in technology and style have a lot to teach us: on fitting, designing for paragraphs of text (not words alone), and the relationship of parallel scripts, most obviously. This example is Henri Estienne’s 1591 Dio Cassius.

The people, the scheduleThe first week is built around practical exercises, workshops, hands-on sessions with materials from our collections, and feedback sessions. Gerry Leonidas, Fiona Ross, and Gerard Unger (the core teachers on the MA programme) are engaged with the group all day, every day. We alternate some seminars and hands-on ses-sions, to ensure that every participant covers all material on offer intimately, and share feedback sessions in the studio. We usually round off the day with a pres-entation. There will be also additional sessions with other members of staff and visitors (for example, Martin Andrews on reconstructing Gutenberg’s press, Paul Luna on typefaces for dictionaries, Eric Kindel on stencil letters, and Dan Rhatigan on typefaces for mobile devices).

We will look closely at typeface design for specific applications (such as news-papers, reference works, signage, and small screens), identifying suitable design procedures and testing approaches. We will deal in depth with the design issues surrounding the rapidly growing area of world scripts, highlighting the contri-bution of research to new designs. And we will address the critical balance of originality and utility in typeface design, the development of quality throughout an extended family, and the capture of personality in a finished typeface.

The first week is self-contained, and includes as much learning as we can fit in the five days (and evenings…). If you have your own designs to bring to the practical sessions, we will use those to expand your skills. If you don’t, we will help you develop your working methods so that you can take first sketches to a typeface you can test. We will also introduce wider issues (such as how to approach a whole family) for you to explore later.

During the second week we focus more on the development of practical projects, with Gerry Leonidas and Fiona Ross available as before, and some targeted sessions on development and non-Latin (e.g. by Jo De Baerdemaker on coding with VOLT). The second week will be particularly useful for participants with specific briefs to develop: single styles to be developed into families, or extending anexisting family across a range of scripts. We will have hands-on sessions with some of the most valuable resources for Arabic, Greek, and Indian typography.

We occupy a large studio and a seminar room adjacent to our collections (for easy access to additional typo-treasures). Some of our sessions are built around discuss-ing design developments over tables covered with original material. Our feedback rounds are both in small groups, and in one-to-one sessions. On both weeks, there’s no hand-holding: we expect people to work quickly, be independent learn-ers, and have their questions to be answered with more probing questions. And there is no simplistic “this is how you do it”: we will give you the context, and the way to ask questions that advance your design thinking.

Additional contributors Dan Rhatigan on web-fonts; Eric Kindel introduces early stencils; Martin Andrews on presses in the fifteenth century; Titus Nemeth on Arabic.

Understanding the roots of lettershapes by writing, to reveal the relationship between tool properties, movement, and substrate.

Look at this!Our world-class collections on typography and typeface design are used for teach-ing, research, exhibitions, and publications – for example, the current exhibition on Isotype at the V&A Museum in London, and the From hieroglyphics to Isotype book Revisited are direct outputs of a major research project recently concluded in the Department). Our collections span early printing, the development of newspapers, printed ephemera, corporate identity, British modernism, and many other areas. We are particularly strong in type-related areas, with extensive collections of type specimens, original drawings for many scripts, wood and metal letters, and letter-press as well as hot-metal equipment.

We make frequent use of our collections during the week, depending on the seminar topics and the theme we are exploring. For example, when discussing Greek we examine original editions covering the full five-and-a-half centuries of Greek printing; and when looking at Indian typefaces we have access to the origi-nal drawings of the most popular typefaces for the whole of the continent.

We also use our collections to inform wider considerations: imagine discussing experimentation and originality over the finest editions by Dwiggins, next to a table covered with the complete run of Emigre magazine, then comparing that to a run of Octavos, and you get the picture!

We always work with original artefacts: experiencing the scale, material, and reproduction technology of designed matter is essential for understanding why this is worth discussing.

For example, how does the shift to smaller print formats influence the design of newspaper headline typefaces? And how does the translation of a typographic structure developed for print to a tablet with flexible layout impact on the brand-ing typeface?

In the case of non-Latin scripts, a good understanding of how technological con-straints influence the decisions of typeface designers is essential to appreciate why the typographic forms of complex scripts (like Arabic and many Indian scripts) have evolved as they have. And, even though many limitations of past technologies have been exceeded, the forms of typographic letters still reflect past decisions. We look at these through case studies, using the original drawings of the typefaces, and compare them with the printed versions in real-life documents.

(See www.reading.ac.uk/typography/collectionsandarchives/typ-collections.aspx for a brief description of our collections. TDi 2010 participant Ben Archer published a slideshow which shows how we worked on www.typeculture.com/academic_resource/education_extras/TDi_2010/ , and MA students post images of some material we use in seminars on www.flickr.com/groups/matd.)

Above The original Dwiggins Letter to RR with his drawing of a template for a stroke, and his “sten-cils” for constructing the Falcon typeface.

A selection of Emigre issues, part of our explora-tion of technology informing design decisions.from our extensive type specimen collections. Below, a specimen of Vendomme. Type specimens like this not only show typefaces in reference rendering, but are often objects of exceptional typographic design.

A detail from the Etymologicum Magnum dem-onstrates the close link of writing and early Greek typefaces. The 1499 example represents a key chapter in Greek typography.

Neel Kshetrumayum demonstrates writing with a cut reed pen during the 2010 course. Titus Nemeth demontrates Arabic writing in 2011.

Devanagari drawing Detail from a drawing for the d·ha typeform from the Rohini Bold typeface by Fiona Ross and Georgina Surman, now in our Collections. The dates are 1986 and 1988.

“It’s been a fab week! I’m not fully recovered yet. Thoughts dance in my head, competing for attention.”

Who should come? We expect that experienced graphic designers and typographers, and researchers in related fields, will benefit most from the course. Current students in other uni-versities are welcome, but should expect a steep learning curve. Although people do not need to have designed typefaces before, we would welcome experienced designers who want to extend their understanding of the field, and extend their skills in an intensive environment. Intellectual curiosity is a must!

Previous participants have been postgraduate students (needing, for example, addi-tional support for a type-orientated final project), graphic designers who want to dive into typeface design, educators, and expereinced typeface designers who want to focus on non-Latins.

We also welcome repeat enrolments: the second week is open both to partici-pants on the previous TDi courses who may want to extend their projects. This opportunity is ideal for designers who want to benefit from the familiar intensive environment to advance their work.

How much will it cost?The fees for the first week are £1,640 and cover tuition and materials, and five light lunches and coffee/tea delivered to the Department. The second week fees are £760, and include the tuition fees and use of facilities as before. Printouts and pho-tocopies are included in both weeks.

You will need to factor in travel costs to Reading, and accommodation. There are several options, about which we can advise: get in touch before you make any bookings, and we’ll help you make the right choice.

We suggest travelling so that you are in Reading by the evening of Sunday 7 July, so that we can get a good start on the Monday. We are planning an informal get-together on the afternoon of the Sunday.

What you should do nowGet in touch with the course director, Gerry Leonidas, to declare your interest. We will discusss your interest, proceed to make a firm booking with you, and help you with all other arrangements.

Typeface Design at Reading

For more information, please contact:

Gerry Leonidas

University of Reading Department ofTypography & Graphic Communication 2 Earley Gate Whiteknights Reading RG6 6AU UK

g.leonidas@reading.ac.uk Tel (+44) (0) 118 378 6397 Mob (+44) (0) 7775 850 003

www.reading.ac.uk/typography

The BBC Arabic website uses a customised webfont version of Titus Nemeth’s Nassim, a typeface that grew out of the MATD programme. In 2012 Titus pre-sented a case-study session on the project, which has since bee nfeatured in the TypoLondon conference.

Working intensely in a small group, with ample opportunity for one-to-one feedback.