Type@Cooper 2013

An inside look at the Type@Cooper program via the class of 2013

[coopertype2013]

Geeking out over type in foreign scripts. The Design Lab at Holon Museum of Design hosts Oded Ezer's class from the Holon Institute of Technology in Holon, Israel. http://www.dmh.org.il/magazine/magazine.aspx?id=168&catId=-1

[coopertype2013]

After-class/term drinks at Cooper’s with some of the Type@Cooper crowd last week. Wish I had remembered to bust out the camera earlier so as to have gotten more people.

[coopertype2013]

Photos from Alexander Tochilovsky's April 1 lecture on Modular Modernism: Supertipo Veloz for the Herb Lubalin Lecture Series, one of the final lectures of the term. A lot of great eye candy and creative modular systems to analyze!

[lukewilhelmi]

A week ago, my classmates and I were setting up for a weekend of Python coding with the awesome and ever-patient Ben Kiel for the final workshop of Type@Cooper Term 2. It was a brain melter for sure, but I felt it got the Python foundation laid in my mind, and had me excited and relatively competent to dive into more Python craziness.

[lukewilhelmi]

Scenes from the Term 2 final critique with Chester Jenkins & Christian Schwartz! Thank you so much guys for your time and insight! The class took away the notes, ready to work on our original typefaces to prepare for term 3, where we’ll be respectively making italics and bold weights. It was interesting to see how far everyone in the class had gone with their typefaces. It was also funny to see the the common issues that came up with each of us (such as the wide Z’s (Zed) and tope heavy S’s) , and thinking about how much influence we have on each other and each other’s typefaces. Thankful to be with a talented and inspiring crowd!

[coopertype2013]

Classroom discussion on spacing issues as we were approaching the Term 2 final critique.

[kyleread]

Hello Tumblrsphere!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted with work strictly devoted to something I’ve worked on for so long, but this is long overdue, and I’d love to share my progress here. I’m posting the results of my second semester at the Type@Cooper program, where I started the creation of...

[coopertype2013]

Modular Modernism: Supertipo Veloz

The Lubalin Lecture Series continues this Monday with Alexander Tochilovsky's talk on Supertipo Veloz. Remember these lectures are free and open to the public, so join us! (April 1, 6:30p, Rose Auditorium @ 41 Cooper Sq) Register here.

[lukewilhelmi]

Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaciiiiiiiiiiiing!

[coopertype2013]

Tweaking & syncing for Tuesday's big critique.

[lukewilhelmi]

Here are some sketches of mine (in the negative, for a change of pace) from last weekend’s workshop at Type@Cooper with Sumner Stone.

[coopertype2013]

The Type@Cooper class took a break from our typeface projects this past weekend for a workshop with Sumner Stone. He gave talks on the historical context of roman capitals that included quite a few historical-gap-filling-insights by Sumner that were really quite fascinating. We also went through many sketching techniques that differed from previous workshop instructors, which gave the class a fresh view of how to approach a problem from a different angle.

While talking amongst ourselves, it was interesting to see, after going through many workshops with different instructors and their differing techniques, how many of my peers have found a style here of there that they feel more comfortable with. It's also interesting having these techniques at your disposal, so that you have an alternate route of approaching when a particular letter starts giving you trouble.

Anyway, for the main driving force of the workshop, we sketched a small set of letter forms, worked and reworked them into usable pieces that could be modularized and reset into a strict(ish) system (which kind of tied into the historical context of how some styles of the original body copy roman capitals were created). In one weekend, we each hashed out a complete title set, digitized & spaced it, and printed off proofs for a final critique at the end of Sunday.

We joke about the workshop being a 'break', but while quite the whirlwind experience, it was a nice release of energy to play with these new faces and have a little fun with the limitations in both time & construction.

[coopertype2013]

Here's a shot from Monday's public guest lecture by Jerry Kelly on Hermann Zapf's typefaces. A lot of great slides of sketches and stories. One thing that surprised me was Zapf's exploration into a Cherokee typeface with Chief Sequoya? I'll have to look into it further, looked fascinating. Be sure to mark your calendars for the next in the Herb Lubalin lecture series: March 18th, when Sumner Stone gives his talk The Tao of Hand and Eye: Exploring the dynamics of formal and informal letterforms. Also check out Jerry Kelly's book The Art of the Book in the Twentieth Century.

[coopertype2013]

Lubalin Lecture Series: Zapf's Alphabets

Our Monday classes are sometimes guest lectures that are free and open to the public as part of the Lubalin Lecture Series. So join us for class this Monday (March 4, 6:30p, Rose Auditorium @ 41 Cooper Sq) for Jerry Kelly's lecture on Hermann Zapf's alphabets. Register here.

[coopertype2013]

Week four! Before our one-on-one critiques, Jesse is showing us some slick new RoboFont tips & tricks (as well as many appreciated reminders). A lot of 'Ooooooh'ing and 'Aaaaaaah'ing coming from the class.

After class, a group went out for hummus and type talk with visiting first-year Type@Cooper alum Thomas Jockin.

[coopertype2013]

Monday's lecture class started with a visit from Dan Rhatigan (@ultrasparky) of Monotype, with a selection of yesteryear type-process material. Dan was great in explaining the role these different documents held in the development of some very famous typefaces (such as some great Gill Sans sketches). In this era of saving multiple backups every other edit, it was mind blowing seeing a single paper with the mechanical being used as reference for decades. I was also struck by how seemingly tiny details were scrutinized with much difficulty using analogue tools (such as the slight bowing of outer verticals to counteract the invariable twist of the metal during impact), while other large aspects were left completely open to interpretation by workers at the final stages, such as the diacritics. The pieces are from the Monotype UK archives, and should be part of a show soon if I remember correctly?

[coopertype2013]

Second week, table critiques. Refining our ideas for the typeface we will work on for the rest of the program. No pressure.

[coopertype2013]

Paul Shaw talking about Oswald Cooper on Monday, part of Type@Cooper's Herb Lubalin Lecture Series (free to the public! Check out the next one on March 4)