Presentation
Handwriting is a primal act; while writing we can’t hide our personality. In this workshop we use our intimate, personal letters as a starting point for type design: your own handwriting as well as your signature. The signature is everybody’s most personal writing, everybody’s most individual expression through letters, and the result is almost asemic as they often drift away from legible letterforms.
The intention is not to digitalize your handwriting or signature 1:1, but to analyse its qualities & details and transform those into distinctive design concepts, studying the balance between asemic and semic, primal and subsequent.
Motto: “Cherish your quirky details & design flaws – avoiding making mistakes in order to preserve your image makes you extremely boring”
Objectives
he objective is to discuss, learn & try methods to achieve personal & distinctive touches to type design. Once you gain guts to touch the letters in your own style, your work will never be the same. As a side product you make your graphic design interesting for yourself.
Contents and Structure
Participants describe and discuss the characteristics of their own signatures, and take those descriptions to their design. First two days will be spend by sketching with pen and paper, with manual tools. Out of many sketched word shapes, each participant picks just one for further refinements. On the next two days we evolve our designs in a font editor and expand the character set to work properly as a display typeface. On the final day the participants apply & build a presentation of their typeface.
The days start with a short lecture on practical type design details & as well as with discussions, pointing out various methods of achieving personality in type design. Most of the day will be spend by sketching & drawing letters. And talking about details, in order to improve the designs. At the end of the workshop each participant goes home with a very own digital font – after presenting it for others, of course.
Sami Kortemäki is one of the founders of Underware. Left handed lettering artist, script face specialist and uncompromising craftsman. Strength: curves. Weakness: straight lines. Beard: long, red brown.
Underware is a rock-hard font foundry with a whole lot of feeling for real type. Stunning retail fonts, exclusive branding, custom type for demanding clients, own freaky design tools, you name it. Sweating & rocking in Den Haag, Helsinki and Amsterdam. Founded by Akiem Helmling, Sami Kortemäki and Bas Jacobs in 1999.
Who can apply
For graphic designers and type designers who want to expand their sandbox
Knowledge or experience required
For anyone who can read, write and type
Materials
Every participant needs a laptop with a font editor. If you don’t have a font editor, we can download a demo version during the workshop, Glyphs or RoboFont, for example.
The school will supply some materials such as paper, photocopier and b/w printer. Participants are free to bring their own materials.
