Type design is a visual expression of language that changes and adapts through time at the pace of technology. In this course, we’ll explore the tools available to us today to shape and design the language of the present.

We’ll learn methods of creating, editing, and remixing fonts. Participants will choose a stylistic direction (sans, serif, display, experimental, etc.) and use it as a jumping off point for their own exploration. Different forms require different techniques, so a variety of features in the software will be covered, and as a group we will learn from each other’s methods.

Participants will need a paid version of either Glyphs 3, Glyphs 2, or Glyphs Mini 2 (Mac only).

• Create a font in the Glyphs software
• Learn the user interface and other aspects of the software
• Explore the potential of fonts and the program they are designed within

Week 1 — Soft Cover

We will look at a preexisting typeface in order to better understand the type design software and learn path editing.

Week 2 — Writing Ways

A primer on typographic genres and anatomy. Before beginning our independent projects, we will discuss the underlying techniques that go into our desired forms.

Week 3 — Caps

A demonstration on metrics, bearings, kerning, and corner components followed by an in-class work session.

Week 4 — Medial

Continuing our work from the previous week, students will receive feedback and help in the creation of their typeface.

Week 5 — Spiral Binding

An in-class work session and time for troubleshooting. Learn more about exporting fonts and a portion of what can be done with type on computer.

Week 6 — Appendix

We will share our specimens as a group and collect our thoughts and methods into a sharable document.

“Typography, in the Newtonian view, is nothing very interesting or mysterious; it is simply mechanized writing. Now that the silicon chip has joined the wheel, the lever and the inclined plane, typography is also computerized, digitized writing: more complex than it was, but no more profound, and perhaps increasingly subject to fashion”

— Robert Bringhurst

“Immaculate typography is certainly the most brittle of all the arts. To create a whole from many petrified, disconnected and given parts, to make this whole appear alive and of a piece — only sculpture in stone approaches the unyielding stiffness of perfect typography.”

— Jan Tschichold

“I do not give a flying FUCK about Fonts… Weirdo shit.

The fact that I learned about the existence of Fn ‘Font Nerds’ today has been too much for me. I’m done.”

— ICE T @FINALLEVEL

The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design by Jan Tschichold

Detail in Typography by Jost Hoschuli

The Shape of the Stroke by Gerrit Noordzij

Shoplifters Issue 8: New Type Design/Issue 10: New Type Design Vol. 2. Published by Actual Source Books

Ian Griffin is a communications designer from Pennsylvania. As a self-taught type designer since 2018, they create typefaces for commercial, public, and personal use.

Index scholarships are designed to benefit underrepresented groups, BIPOC members of our community, and those for whom the class price is not accessible. These need-based scholarships will go to the candidates who best demonstrate why they should be chosen for the free spot to our class based on the following criteria:

• Belong to groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the graphic design and creative industries
• Do not have jobs that would pay for these courses as professional development
• Cannot independently afford the class at list price
• Share our value of intentional community

The number of selected applicants chosen is subject to the discretion of Index and the instructor, but every course will select at least one. Apply for a scholarship here. Applications close June 30th.

We get that things come up, but we rely on headcounts in our programs to survive as a business. If you request a refund...

More than 4 weeks before class begins → 100% refund

More than 2 weeks before class begins → 50% refund

Fewer than 2 weeks before class begins → No refund

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