Win a Free Class!

Join our email list for a chance to win

18-Hour Workshop

Typography

Most people think typography is just about fonts, picking one out from the pre-selected assortment on your computer. Typography is much more than that. It is expressing language through type, the way it is placed on the page, the way it looks, the way it makes you feel. Typography is about all the tiny variables that go into that one LOOK. It is very easy to distinguish the amateurs from the professionals and with this course you can go from amateur to semi-pro.

Through the structure of studio lectures, in-class assignments, discussions, comprehensive projects and critiques we will explore the function and meaning behind typography. We will cover the history of typography and apply it to real world design assignments. Within these assignments we will discuss letterform anatomy and function; we will discuss how to choose an appropriate typeface and how to use this typeface effectively through the heirarchy of size and with leading, kerning and paragraph structure.

The assignments are designed to allow you to explore and apply the concepts discussed in each class. Each assignment is creative yet simple: we will repeatedly use letterforms in different ways to create a variety of printed matter.

It is imperative that you take notes and learn to apply the techniques we discuss in class to your every day design assignments. The instructor will always be available for help and will often provide extra material for reference outside the classroom.

Objectives

  1. Understand typographic concepts and the application of these ideas towards real world print and screen design.
  2. Learn how to make appropriate typographic decisions.
  3. Develop skills that will take you from amateur designer to typographic professional.
  4. Practice presenting and critiquing work in a group setting.

Structure of Each Class

  1. Homework presentation and critique
  2. Slideshow lecture and discussion
    • Class 1: History of Typography and Printing
    • Class 2: Old Style letter forms
    • Class 3: Transitional letterforms
    • Class 4: Modern and Egyptian letterforms
    • Class 5: Sans Serif
    • Class 6: Deconstruction and collage
  3. In-class assignments applicable to each week’s letter form and discussed technique
  4. Assignment of homework with a slide show of examples

    5. Tuesday night assigments are designed to be completed in a few hours. Thursday night assignments are designed to be completed in a few days.

Projects

Homework projects will include (subject to change):

  1. Logo design
  2. Invitation and program design
  3. Bill of Rights redesign
  4. Typographic calendar
  5. Blue Note record cover

For this class students should have a solid working knowledge of InDesign. All projects will need to be completed outside of class. Each assignment must be printed in color at actual size, and trimmed for presentation before class. Projects will not be critiqued on screen. Throughout the course the instructor will be available for hands on instruction and will provide reference materials.

About the Instructor

Kristi Norgaard has been the Senior Designer at Yolanda Cuomo Design for over fifteen years. During this time she has spent countless hours arranging letters on pages to make beautiful, informative, graphic and legible books, magazines, exhibition graphics, logos, posters and infographics. She is also an adjunct instructor in the Photography Department at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where she teaches book design and typography classes.

Price: $750

Register Now

What You’ll Learn

Session 1

  • A brief slide show of the history of typography and printing. Where did letter forms come from? How have they evolved through time? How does history and technology affect they way letter forms are used and how they look?
  • The Anatomy of Type: What is a serif? What is sans serif? What is a stem? stroke? loop? bowl? ball terminal? We will explore the differences between both forms of type and all their idiosyncrasies plus discuss why choosing the right typeface is necessary for good communication.
  • In-class work: Typographic specimen sheets. Each student will be assigned a typeface and instructed on how to create a specimen sheet. These posters must be completed in class.
  • HOMEWORK: Logo design for a fictional company using one typeface in two different ways. Also, students must bring in a book or some other printed object that has type design that they like and are inspired by.

Session 2

  • Old Style Typefaces: Brief lecture on “old style” typefaces such as Garamond and Jenson
  • What is LEADING? What is KERNING? What is POINT SIZE? We go over these details and use InDesign to explore how amounts of space between letters, between lines, the size of letters and position can affect the content of a body of text.
  • In-class work: Students are given a poem and we work on illustrating the poem using only one typeface but multiple point sizes, letter spacing, leading, etc.
  • HOMEWORK: Invitation and program to a classical music performance.

Session 3

  • Transitional typefaces: Brief lecture on “transitional” typefaces such as Caslon and Baskerville.
  • What are INDENTS? What are PARAGRAPH BREAKS? What is JUSTIFICATION? Through in-class exercises we will explore the ways paragraphs can be structured.
  • How to rag copy. We will explore what a “good rag” is. How to use hard returns and soft returns and what both mean.
  • In-class work: students will be given a series of amendments from the Bill of Rights. Students have to redesign these amendments using all that we’ve learned so far: point size, leading, kerning, paragraph rules, indents, and justification.
  • HOMEWORK: Students will be given another series of amendments from the Bill of Rights and must design these in a completely different way than what they produced in class.

Session 4

  • Modern and Egyptian (slab serif) typefaces: Brief lecture on typefaces such as Bodoni, Didot, and slab serif typefaces.
  • THE RULES for designing with body copy: How to deal with punctuation, widows and orphans, wrapping copy, drop caps and end dots.
  • Display copy vs. body copy. As an in-class exercise each student will be given text and a headline directly from The New York Times and we will work to design the texts in a graphic way using specific typefaces for the headlines and specific typefaces for the body copy.
  • Typographic calendars. Using two of the typefaces we talk about in class students must design an entire calendar year. This means coming up with a structure that repeats every month but also uses color and other typographic elements to differentiate one month from another.
  • HOMEWORK: Continue to work on calendars, bring finished versions to the next class.

Session 5

  • Sans Serif: A lecture on what a sans serif typeface is and how sans serif typefaces are used.
  • Typographic heirarchy. In this exercise we will design boxing posters using type in a variety of ways to show the heirarchy of information within the poster.
  • Helvetica vs. Arial
  • HOMEWORK: Blue Note Record cover: Using Franklin Gothic and/or Clarendon students must design a record cover for a Blue Note recording artist.

Session 6

  • Typography Test: A test will be given on everything discussed in the past 5 classes.
  • Type collage: The instructor will show a brief slide show of fantastic typographic collages then we will work to create our own. We will work on layering information, creating patterns and using type as a texture to create a typographic manifesto.