The Right Type of Education
The Right Type of Education
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Last year Mathieu Christe and Berton Hasebe wrote a very thorough article detailing the general day to day of the Type and Media masters program. With this article we hope to outline an historical overview of the course and provide a brief look at the final project typefaces from the 08/09 class. Type Design at KABK The Type and Media masters program has a long history at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague. The roots of the program can be traced back to Gerrit Noordzijs Letter Programme within the graphic design department at KABK during the 1970s. Some of Noordzijs students during that time were Petr van Blokland, Erik van Blokland, Frank Blokland, Jelle Bosma, Luc(as) de Groot, Christoph Noordzij, Peter Matthias Noordzij, Albert-Jan Pool, Just van Rossum and Peter Verheul. The course that began as a foundation in type design evolved by the early 1990s into the Postgraduate Course in Typography and Type Design. Alumni of that era include Akiem Helmling, Bas Jacobs and Sami Kortemki (collectively known as Underware), Paul van der Laan, Eyal Holtzman, Albert Pinggera, Corina Cotorobai, Jarno Lukkarila and Pieter van Rosmalen. In 2002, the Type and Media program officially started in its present incarnation. Currently, the ten-month course is divided into two distinct parts, and limited to eleven students a year. The first five months comprise eight different weekly classes that expose students to numerous fundamental aspects of the type design process. The second half of the course is focused mainly on the development of individual final projects. One of the aspects of the course that is most well known is the tradition of calligraphy classes as a foundational component of the course. Three types of writing are explored: pointed pen with Erik van Blokland, broad nib with Frank Blokland, and brush calligraphy with Peter Verheul. The primary focus of the calligraphy classes is to learn the basic rules of contrast, the structure of the letter, and to attain a sensitivity towards spacing. This part of the course is based around the legacy and teaching method of Gerrit Noordzij, and while many of the current teachers were at one point students of Noordzij, each teacher has a unique view on the application of Noordzijs theories.
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The program aims at a rounded approach, mixing both theory and practice components. The present curriculum also includes studies in stone carving, multilingual type, Python programming and RoboFab scripting, Typecooker exercises, designing type for different media and screen, and historical revivals. The practical side of type design and production is taught through various type design projects, with students becoming acquainted with programs like Superpolator, Prepolator, UFOstretch, and Metrics Machine. Ten of the thirteen teachers are practicing type designers and they convey their experiences in everything from multilingual support to hinting for the screen.
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The teachers for the 08/09 year were Franoise Beserik, Peter Bi ak, Petr van
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Blokland, Erik van Blokland, Frank Blokland, Paul van der Laan, Christoph Noordzij, Just van Rossum, Fred Smeijers, Jan Willem Stas, Gerard Unger, and Peter Verheul. Type and Media alumni include type designers such as Frederik Berlaen, Kai Bernau, Susana Carvalho, Andy Clymer (at H&FJ), Nikola Djurek, Gustavo Ferreira, Laura Meseguer, Ian Party, Ilya Ruderman, Artur Schmal, Ludwig bele, and Pascal Zoghbi. For a more detailed account of the history of type design teaching in The Hague the book Dutch Type by Jan Middendorp is an unmatched resource (pages 175 to 232). Type and Media Flickr group. Type and Media official site. Typefaces, Type & Media 08/09 In September of 2008, eleven of us gathered in The Hague to start the Type and Media MA program at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten; a mixed group from Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Slovakia. The experience level was equally variedsome had already released typefaces, while four of us had not even used FontLab prior to the course. The gestation of the final project is undertaken in Peter Bi aks classes, where we present rough ideas for thesis projects and discuss them as a class. Alongside lectures dealing with multilingual type design and typography, Peter Bi ak guides us through formulating unique type families with different approaches dependent upon the constraints of the brief. In the second half of the course we focus on our final project typeface, and attend history and theory classes with guest lecturers such as Fred Smeijers and Gerard Unger. The final project development is primarily guided by Erik van Blokland, Peter Verheul, Paul van der Laan and Christoph Noordzij, whom we meet with on a regular basis, in addition to periodic presentations to all the faculty. During the development of the project, instructors constantly stress the need to think about the constraints of the brief for a typefacethe variables derived from typefaces intended functionrather than focus on stylistic detailing. We learned to concentrate on the importance of structuring a type family around specific usage scenarios in order to provide a finely tuned tool for typography. The following section contains small samples and descriptions of the final project typefaces (sorted alphabetically by typeface name). For more information and samples of the types, visit the group specimen site at typemedia09.com (or click an image to open up that section of the site). Acon
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Holger Knigsdrfer Augsburg, Germany While conceptualizing his proposal for his final project, Holger noted that the majority of text typefaces used in contemporary book typography are typefaces that are based on the translation (broad nib) contrast. With Acon he sought to develop a pointed pen typeface that is optimized for book
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typography. The sharp features of Acon lend the texture a crispness that complements the openness of the proportions. The serious character of the family makes it a very capable book typeface. Alice
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Alice began as an exploration of size-specific styles in type design, a harking back to the metal type era with individual cuts for each point size. Alice is intended for magazine typography where a functional editorial typeface is often paired with more expressive typefaces for headlines, with size-specific styles Alice seeks to fill both these needs. The text weight of Alice has a reserved and functional nature while the bold exhibits a more expressive character. Arek
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Khajag Apelian Bierut, Lebanon Khajag hails from Lebanon and is of Armenian decent. With his knowledge of the Armenian script he decided to design a typeface which addresses legibility issues with current typefaces used in school textbooks. Khajag saw that many current Armenian typefaces had overly systematized proportions (generally the same width and heights) and he researched the writing found in old Armenian manuscripts in order to reference the roots of the writing system. Rather than designing a sloped version of the upright as a secondary typeface, Khajag broke with tradition, experimenting with a true cursive. Arietta
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Abi Huynh Vancouver, Canada Rooted in a fascination with detail typography, Arietta began with a thesis proposal that centred on the integration of multiple companion scripts within one family. Intended for non-fiction texts, Arietta roman required a serious and reserved character. The roman was developed by drawing the
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The Right Type of Education | I love typography, the typography and fonts blog
basic counter shapes first and wrapping the outer contours in order to attain a vertical stress for the counters. The multiple italics were conceived as a way to provide degrees of contrast from the primary text, the three italic companions each produce a distinct character and textural density. BAT
Charles Maz
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The Right Type of Education | I love typography, the typography and fonts blog
Angers, France BAT was a special case amongst the typefaces this year as the BAT family was specifically commissioned by the new independent French publisher Books, Art & Texts (BAT). Charles was tasked to create a typeface with the dual purpose of being used for the books as well as the identity of BAT. Initially he chose to develop the text face with a Didot-esque structure, partially due to the particularly French nature of a Didot, but also because of the prevalent use of pointed pen (Modern) typefaces for scientific and nonfiction texts. Buendia
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Csar Puertas Bogot, Colombia Csar began the final project by looking at the relationships between serif and sans-serif counterparts within one type family. He was interested in a family that, in contrast to other larger sans and serif families, would provide many different voices but still retain a compact family plan. The text weights of the family are serif fonts while the extreme weights (light and black) are sansserif. Csar focused on a transitional contrast incorporating rotational elements in the structure, making for a friendly and soft sans-serif with a warm serif text companion. Callie
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Sueh Li Tan Penang, Malaysia Starting with an affinity towards broad nib calligraphy, Sueh Li created a display calligraphy typeface as the primary starting point for her family. From this calligraphic base she derived a bold by further sharpening and formalizing the features and details. This process of reduction and
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formalization fed into the development of the regular weight which is intended for book and magazine use. Doko
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With his roots and interest in cartoons, lettering and illustration, Ondrej sought to create a family that was heavily influenced by those styles. Doko began with an expressive and lively italic, and those forms were used in a more subdued fashion to develop the roman. The roman is intended to be a warm, expressive text face for magazine use. Doko has a unique personality that lends itself for use in display circumstances. Malaussne
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Laure Afchain Toulouse, France Laures type family Malaussne is a novel take on the concept of a superfamily; it set out to include both a translation (broad nib) roman and an expansion (pointed pen) roman as well as a sans-serif variant. Taking into account the limited time frame of the course, she decided to establish the extremes of the family in order to show the range of weights and styles. As a family, Malaussne contains both text and display fonts in order to cover a wide range of usage scenarios. Preto
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Jn Filpek Bratislava, Slovakia Preto was undertaken as an experiment in creating a family that explores the role of serifs in a text typeface. During the development of Preto, Jn looked at the spacing in both sans and serif typefaces and how a semi-serif could be a mixture that addresses spacing issues. The resulting family comprises a clean sans-serif plus a distinctive serif companion. The semi-serif takes stylistic cues from each end of the spectrum. Tasman
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Dan Milne Melbourne, Australia Tasman began with the intent to create a newspaper text face with a crisp tone and a serious personality that would be ideal for the complex typography of information and editorial design. Dan researched past approaches to newspaper type and designed a sturdy, economical type family.
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THANKS Many many many thanks to our dedicated teachers: Franoise Beserik, Peter Biak, Petr van Blokland, Erik van Blokland, Frank Blokland, Paul van der Laan, Christoph Noordzij, Just van Rossum, Fred Smeijers, Jan Willem Stas, Gerard Unger and Peter Verheul. Thanks to our many guest lecturers and visitors: Paul Barnes, Kai Bernau, Susana Carvalho, Franois Chastanet, Tobias Frere-Jones, Jan de Jong, Robin Kinross, Mathieu Lommen, Rich Roat, Piet Schreuders, Christian Schwartz, Erik Spiekermann, Rickey Tax, Johan de Zoete and Pascal Zoghbi. Thanks to Gerry Leonidas, Fiona Ross and Michael Twyman for the lectures during our Reading visit. Special thanks to: Francesca Bolognini, Emanuela Conidi, Liz Cox, Berton Hasebe, Thomas Klaui, Coline Sunier, Ariaan van Walsum and our colleagues in the University of Reading MA Typeface Design 2009 class. Thanks to Underware for providing their typeface Auto for the Arek description text. For student versions of essential software: Frederik Berlaen (UFO Stretch), Erik van Blokland (Superpolator) and Tal Leming (Prepolator, Metrics Machine). Lastly, thanks to our hard working studio printer, the HP Laserjet 5000 series, and our indispensable foosball table.
Tags: calligraphy
education
KABK
type design
Underware
JG
Great article. Im wondering if the author (or anyone else) could describe the application process. I am particularly interested in what the school expects in a portfolio as you mentioned in the article that your class was varied in skill level. Thanks!
NOV 20, 2009
ondrej
thank you abi and john for putting the article together so nicely. i wish a great future for all the typefaces and my fellow schoolmates. good luck guys and marta and suehli and l!
NOV 20, 2009
Mark Kenny
I dont usually post gushing responses to blog posts, but theres some beautiful typefaces on display here. After a night ranting (drinking) with the boys about the death of
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The Right Type of Education | I love typography, the typography and fonts blog
Jonathan Hoefler
Thank you for taking the time to write this, John, and congratulations to everyone at KABK on your extraordinary work. Your program represents some of the very best typography of today!
NOV 20, 2009
Victor Zuniga
I love Buendia I wonder if Cesar got inspired by reading Hundred Years of Solitude
NOV 20, 2009
laura meseguer
thanks abi, great article!
NOV 20, 2009
David Bezina
Well done Abi! Simple and to the point. I like your style of writing.
NOV 20, 2009
Luke Jones
Great work. The Armenian typeface looks amazing.
NOV 20, 2009
Alec
Wow. Intimidatingly inspirational.
NOV 20, 2009
Mundir
Nice article. Buendia is very nice. Thank you for taking the time to write this down. The other typefaces are very inspiring too.
NOV 20, 2009
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NOV 21, 2009
matt
Intimidating indeed. I would love to learn about the application process. Bat turned me off on first sight because of its similarity to Didot, but now Im drooling over Bat Fat. Such Yummy Lines!
NOV 21, 2009
Paco Calles
Genial, gracias por compartir. Me encant el trabajo de nuestro querido colega Csar Puertas. Felicitaciones! Saludos desde Mxico Paco Calles
NOV 21, 2009
Constantine Georgiadis
I have a problem with this pointed-pen nomenclature. I can understand it as a way of thinking about certain kinds of type within the confines of a calligraphy-based program, yet it poses great dangers for a foggy interpretation of type history.. ( Otherwise, great work all around.. )
NOV 21, 2009
Abi Huynh
JG & matt: For information regarding the application process for Type and Media it is best to email the course coordinator: http://new.typemedia.org/info/HomePage/ Constantine Georgiadis: The use of the term pointed pen is a general reference to the construction and the type on contrast of those particular student projects. Each project has specific historical references and inspirations that deserved more space to explicate than I could afford in this short reflection on process. For example, Holgers primary inspiration for Acon is what he refers to as a static antiqua model, while Charles BAT was inspired by French Didone types from the early 19th century. My use of the term pointed pen was merely to relay the common contrast characteristics of the projects and not intended to ignore/omit the specific historical circumstances and attributes of each model. My apologies if this led to any confusion, if you are interested in the historical research undertaken for each project I encourage you to contact the student for their thesis materials.
NOV 21, 2009
Jamal Ahmad
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Constantine Georgiadis
Abi Huynh, Thank you very much for addressing this. I completely understand the usefulness of the term within the course and/or article, as discrete from notions of historical lineage and developments. However, with many people amassing their information from tidbits online, I wanted to make sure everyone else did too!
NOV 22, 2009
thomas klaui
Nice work abi!
NOV 23, 2009
Matthew
The course sounds amazing and the typography is fantastic. Really excellent work. Thank you very much for sharing such a great article.
NOV 23, 2009
Ricardo
Gorgeous typefaces. They left me drooling.
NOV 27, 2009
Typecreatives
Very good article. I love those specimen books
NOV 29, 2009
Ryan
Another great article at ILT. Loving Doko, something really special about it.
NOV 29, 2009
Ilya Ruderman
Nice article, Abi!
NOV 30, 2009
matt
thanks abi, great article!
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The Right Type of Education | I love typography, the typography and fonts blog
I hope the best for all of you in the future, thank you..
DEC 4, 2009
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