Sign Painting with John Downer

This class will focus on rendering a few particular styles of capital letters that were commonly used in American sign painting during the 20th century. Script lettering will be addressed in the final day and a half.

Grids & Grits with Tânia Raposo

In this workshop we will go through the history of the different grid methods, we will be using pencil and tracing paper to analyse in-use grids from magazines and books, and you will learn how to create grids and how to keep your text aligned to it in Adobe InDesign.

Introduction to Hand Lettering with James Edmondson

In this 4 day workshop, students will learn from the ground up how to sketch letters, make refinements, and produce a finished analog or digital piece. Standard drawing tools will be used to test ideas and push various parameters, though no art or design background is required. This course covers the fundamentals for whichever styles students care to pursue, as well as techniques for harmonious compositions, and eye-catching effects.

Integrating Letter and Image with Michael Doret

Have you ever designed a headline that needed an image, or worked on an illustration that needed a headline—but thought creating and putting the two together could be problematic? It can be pretty disappointing when letter and image come from two different sources—and are just slapped one over the other! This workshop will help you uncover ways that your work can actually be stronger when you discover how to successfully integrate these forms with each other—as they are two sides of the same coin. The purpose of this four-day workshop is to demonstrate how the rules governing letter and image can be bent and how the two can be fused to create new hybrid forms.

Participants will select and work on at least two of several assignment options, and receive constructive feedback at various stages during the workshop. These stages can include research, rough pencil thumbnails, development sketches, and refinement and execution of final artwork. This work may take the form of finished drawings, be brought into the digital realm, or completed using traditional media. By the end of the class students should have a better understanding of—and the ability to take advantage of—the complex relationship between letterforms and imagery.

Type Selector with Tânia Raposo

In this 1-day workshop you will learn how to look at typefaces up close to analyse their details and why they matter, how to pick the best typeface for your project and how pair it with others. You will have a better insight about language support, legibility studies, different kinds of typeface financing and logistics.

Micro Typography with Tânia Raposo

In this 1 day workshop you will acquire typographic skills on the micro level — how to solve intricate typographic hierarchies, and how to fine-tune long passages of text. You will learn how and when to use various kinds of dashes, get acquainted with OpenType features and get to know all the strange characters in your glyph palette.

Type Design for Non-Type Designers with Matteo Bologna

Get a crash course in designing type from Matteo Bologna, Creative Director of award-winning studio Mucca Design. The workshop will introduce you to the basic skills necessary for the wild journey into the super fun world of type design and you will learn the basics of designing and generating a typeface.

TypeCooker with Erik van Blokland

TypeCooker takes sketching to the next level. Using randomly generated recipes you’ll discover new techniques and become a typographic troubleshooter. The one-day workshop includes several rounds of drawing with a critique at the end of each. Suitable for all.

The Design Game with Petr van Blokland

52 designers, 12 studios, 4 customers, 17 tables, 60 chairs, 48 designs, 4 rounds and your drawing tools

Did you ever wonder what clients were trying to say to you? Or why designers never have enough time? Why are design processes so non-linear even when design thinking is? How can designers work better as teams? Can you balance on the wrong foot? Why should you never participate in pitches? You will get amazing insight these matters. Never to forget.

Bring Your Own Problem: A Scripting Workshop for Pros with Frederik Berlaen, Andy Clymer

In this one day workshop, participants have a unique opportunity to have their own RoboFont production and workflow problems solved by way of a live coding demonstration by Frederik Berlaen, with assistance by Andy Clymer. While Python programming knowledge is helpful for the workshop, it isn’t required of the participants. But, abstract thinking is a must. Wondering how to make variable fonts? Problems with getting started with a project? Workflow feels like it needs optimizing? Wonder what you could really be doing with Python? Bring a problem!

Drawing for Interpolation with Erik van Blokland

If you’re thinking of building a variable font or have plans to make a large family, you’ll need to draw for interpolation. And glyph outlines aren’t what they used to be. In this one-day workshop we’ll look at different outline constructions, extrapolation and designspace planning. We’ll use Superpolator and RoboFont, and maybe also a bit of python. Basic digital drawing skills required.

Spencerian Lettering with Ken Barber

Not to be confused with the handwriting of the 1800s, Spencerian Lettering is a unique style of hand-drawn script innovated during the latter half of the 20th century. Its lively forms, embellished strokes and distinctive styling make Spencerian Lettering especially well-suited for posters, labels, book jackets, editorial work and advertisements. In this workshop students will learn how to create and implement Spencerian Lettering for various design applications.

Python Programming with DrawBot for Beginners with Just van Rossum

This two day workshop is for everyone who wants to get a taste of creating designs programmatically with the Python programming language. You’ll work with DrawBot, a free and friendly environment that will give you instant visual feedback. The basics of Python will be covered, and you will learn how to use Python to create high quality vector-based output. No previous Python experience is necessary.

Whispering Type with Frederik Berlaen

In this 3 day workshop, students approach the practice of typeface design by looking at type and the shapes within. Through research and analysis of shapes you will learn the language of letter forms both on a visual and on a narrative level. By sketching and drawing digitally an alphabet will be completed. At the end participants will have an ‘unfinished’ typeface with lowercase or uppercase letters. But each one will be forced to draw something different than they are used to.

How to Code All Your Graphic Design: PageBot with Petr van Blokland

Did you ever wonder why existing design tools make you do so much repetitive work? Why is it difficult to get back to sketching once your design tools take over? This workshop is intended for designers who want to code and for developers who want to design. Even if you decide that coding your designs isn’t what you want to do yourself, you will learn how to talk to developers.

Brush Lettering with Ken Barber

This two-day workshop will provide a basic overview of freehand brush lettering. Referencing various tools, techniques and models, participants will hone their drawing skills as they take a wordmark from concept to completion. Comprehensive slide presentations, demonstrations, skill-building exercises and personal critiques will provide further guidance as students acquire a practical foundation for drawing and implementing brush lettering in various design contexts.

Programming Animations with DrawBot with Just van Rossum

Learn to program generative animations with Python in DrawBot in this two day workshop. We will dive into programming time based behavior and motion, creating perfect loops. Abstract patterns, letters, geometric shapes, icons: you name it and we will make it move. The results will be short animated loops in the form of animated gifs ready for the web, or video output suitable for post-production.