Typography on the web can be kinetic; malleable; and interactive. With the aid of programming, digital letterforms can be playful and reactive to its environment and the people that view them. New tools and frameworks have been developed over the last decade that present us with opportunities to shape the content on our screens — and anyone can learn to use these tools. During the course of three days, students will solidify their understanding of the concept of programming, gain familiarity with the p5.js library, and create typographic projects of computational nature.
Mon–Sun,
June 13–15,
2022
10am–5pm
$730
Details and registration
Join two type designers, Marie Otsuka and Victoria Rushton for an informal chat. They will discuss design, technology, career paths, and what’s going on these days at Occupant Fonts. You can ask them all your burning questions or just listen in. It’s free but you do need to register.
Mon, June 13,
2022
12–1pm
Free
Details and registration
In this talk, Felipe Taborda will present the web series of articles he has been writing for Experimenta magazine called, “Maestros del Diseño en América Latina”. The series he writes is a closer look at the work of a few professionals of graphic design from Latin America, generally unknown and misunderstood, and often not recognized internationally — and even in their own countries. This talk will focus on five masters of typography: Álvaro Sotillo (Venezuela), Félix Beltrán (Mexico/Cuba), Fernando Pimenta (Brazil), Jaime de Albarracín (Peru), and Rubén Fontana (Argentina).
Mon, June 13,
2022
12:30–2:30pm
Free
Details and registration
Ever want to ask a type designer what they think about X? Or, how do they do Y? Or possibly, how does one commission Z? Ben Kiel and Jesse Ragan —partners in XYZ Type— will virtually open their studios to answer your questions about typeface design and their practice. They will also show in-progress work and gems from their book collections.
Ben Kiel and Jesse Ragan make useful, quietly offbeat fonts at their independent digital foundry, XYZ Type, which operates in the interwebs between St. Louis and New York. After hiring each other back and forth and realizing they worked well together, the pair launched XYZ Type in 2017 to merge their respective strengths and extensive experience crafting typefaces and lettering for major brands, cultural institutions, and publications.
Tue, June 14,
2022
1–2pm
Free
Details and registration
“Letterforms are loaded cultural objects” 1 — as a container for language, typography is both implicit and explicit in its role in upholding or disrupting dynamics of power. How can typography serve as a way to reframe (past), shape (present), and imagine (futures)? This presentation includes two prototypes that explore typography as a vehicle for storytelling and voice: Irene, makes space and brings to the fore the work of artist, designer, and educator Irene Delano; and Louisa, an attestation to the typewriter’s role in women’s entry to the American corporate labor force. Through “hearing one another’s voices, recognizing one another’s presence,” 2 we can begin to shift towards a pluriverse.
Citations:
1 Shehab, Bahia and Haytham Nawar. “Early Arabic Printing” in A History of Arab Graphic Design. American University in Cairo Press: 2020.
2 hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge, New York: 1994.
Wed, June 15,
2022
6:30–7:30pm
Free
Details and registration
Are there typefaces that help dyslexics to read?
The purpose of our workshop is to discover whether there are real benefits to be had from using a particular typeface. We will understand which visual variables of the typeface could be worked on to improve reading performance. We will see how to compare typefaces and how the data of an experiment aimed at measuring a reading performance are analysed and can be used.
Are you a typographer, typeface designer or a book designer? You can’t miss this opportunity to get your personal toolset for printing readability.
Thu, June 16,
2022
12–3pm
$120
Details and registration
In this two-day class, you will learn the basics of designing and generating a variable font with the font-design software Glyphs (Mac only). Go beyond choosing the same typefaces from the type menu to creating your own. At the end of the class, you will not have a finished font, but a respectable start and a deep understanding about how fonts are made. This workshop is both online and in person.
Sun–Mon,
June 19–20,
2022
9am–5pm
$565
Details and registration
Use this one-day workshop to spark your creativity, find new inspiration, and create a chill portfolio piece. Participants receive copies of Ellen Lupton’s book from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Design Is Storytelling.
Sun, June 19,
2022
10am–5pm
$245
Details and registration
Through a series of lectures, discussions and exercises students learn to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of fonts. They’ll learn about how technology and culture has changed the way we interact with fonts. With an understanding of today’s best practices, students will gain confidence to make better informed decisions.
Mon, June 20,
2022
10am–5pm
$245
Details and registration
The past year has seen an explosion of AI tools that can generate images from a simple text prompt. In this workshop we’ll explore the models and tools that make it all possible. Along the way participants will learn tips and tricks to control their image’s content and style by understanding how these machine learning tools work.
Mon, June 20,
2022
1–5pm
$165
Details and registration
For most of the 20th century decorative type was not taken seriously: Modernism with its “less is more” made it superfluous. Ornament was a crime for a long time.
But now those lettershapes are making a comeback: we see more and more display typefaces designed to be used at large sizes, mainly for titles or short sentences, and whose personality has to be apparent in just a few letters. Not created to be timeless, or with readability in mind, they catch better than others the spirit of the time.
How much contemporary type owns to the Victorian era? We will go back to the origin of display typefaces and investigate the wild yet systematic experimentation that generated them. And will see if there is a lesson to be learnt.
Mon, June 20,
2022
6:30–8:30pm
Free [in-person & live-streamed]
Details and registration
What makes remarkable typography? It’s the details. It’s seeing. It’s knowing what good typography looks like, envisioning a result, and using typographic tools and techniques to achieve your vision. That sounds easy enough, and in this one-day workshop, that’s what you’ll learn (or relearn) to do. You’ll look at many examples of good text and display typography and type hierarchies across the spectrum of typographic uses. You’ll see what does and doesn’t work. And you’ll learn how to make better type through a series of hands-on design exercises. We’ll end the day with a look at current trends in typography to help inform the decisions you make when choosing and using type.
Tue, June 21,
2022
10am–5pm
$245
Details and registration
Walking through a cemetery for fun may sound strange to some, but for those of us who are interested in lettering, it’s like going to a museum. Green-Wood Cemetery, which dates to 1838, is a beautiful green space in Brooklyn that not only has historic lettering but is now home to many New York luminaries such as DeWitt Clinton, Louis Comfort Tiffany, “Boss” Tweed, Samuel Morse, Basquiat, Leonard Bernstein, and of course, Peter Cooper. On this walk, we will focus on finding 18th & 19th-century ornamental lettering, but along the way, we will uncover just about every typographic style you can think of on the tombstones and mausoleums within this national historic site.
Tue, June 21,
2022
10am–1pm
Free
Details and registration
Join Alexander Tochilovsky, Curator of the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography, for an exploration of the Cyrllic hand-lettering in The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s. Learn how these varied letterforms were incorporated into the dynamic posters, helping these compositions captivate audiences over 100 years later.
Tue, June 21,
2022
6:30–8pm
$10
Details and registration
Join Watson staff members Holly Phillips and Jared Ash for an introduction to the library and a presentation of rare publications celebrating typography and letterforms from the 19th century to today featuring a wide range of type specimen catalogs, periodicals and monographs from Depero and Cassandre to Herman Zapf and Russell Maret. Thomas J. Watson Library is the central research library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Open to all researchers who are college age and above, Watson’s collection of more than one million books and periodicals relating to the history of art and visual culture is one of the most comprehensive in the world. Take careful note of the meeting location on your confirmation email. Arrive at least 15 mins in advance. Linger after to get a tour of the stacks.
Wed, June 22,
2022
1–2pm
Free
Details and registration
Get an exclusive in-person guided preview of the Jean-Georges’ newest food hall at the Seaport, which will open to the public in July 2022.
During the one-hour tour, Matteo Bologna and Sean O’Connor from Mucca will present their branding work for the venue. No photos allowed.
Wed, June 22,
2022
2–3pm
Free
Details and registration
Enter time machine and enjoy this one-of-a-kind Greek typographic trip down memory lane from the era of the myths through the contemporary cityscape of Athens with the good folks of Parachute Typefoundry as your guides and hosts.
Watch our short-film documentary on the typography of the city of myths, learn insights into the historical evolution of Greece’s non-Latin script, and discover little secrets of the unique shapes and forms as well as details about one of our world’s most historical type systems ever created, the Greek alphabet.
After this online acquaintance, ‘It’s all Greek to me’ will never sound the same again!
Thu, June 23,
2022
10–11am
Details and registration