A few weeks back I had the privilege of attending Work & Turn‘s Crafting Type; a 5 day intensive workshop all about typeface design. As soon as I heard about the program, I jumped at the chance to attend. For years I have been waiting for an opportunity to attend a type design workshop. I would longingly read reviews about the Type@cooper program in NYC, knowing full-well that I would never be able to afford the time away from work or family to attend such a self-indulgent nerdfest. Then out of the blue, a type design workshop pops up in Edmonton (EDMONTON?) of all places. My old stomping grounds! I could even crash at my parents place, borrow my dad’s car (Update: sorry about that photo radar ticket, Dad!), if I was lucky, maybe Mom would pack me a lunch (and she did).

Sure, it wasn’t the rigorous 5-week intensive condensed program in typeface design at the Cooper Union, but Crafting Type was no slouch. Kyle and Jeff (Work & Turn) brought in type heavyweights to do it right, three graduates of the MA Typeface design at the University of Reading; Dave Crossland (UK), Eben Sorkin (USA), and Octavio Pardo (Spain). Three guys that love all things letters, fantastic instructors that complemented each other well, and they each brought a distinct and well-balanced approach to type design.

The 37 participants started off by drawing individual letters (curse you letter “o”) and learning the proper technique for sketching letterforms. We also gained insight into understanding how and why letters are formed the way they are, and how type is related to, yet different from handwriting. At the end of the day I was amazed at how much I had learned, and it was only day 1.

After a full day of pencil drawing (my poor clawed hand), Dave introduced us to FontForge; an open source type design program, which happens to be free. At first I was skeptical, but after working with Fontforge for 5 days, I’m a convert. I will be utilizing FontForge for the majority of production on my next typeface project.

The remainder of the week focused on massaging glyphs in order to get them to relate to each other, mixed with lectures about letter spacing and kerning, multiple weights, italics, diacritics, ligatures, open type functions, and hinting. After day 5 most of us had only completed a handful of letterforms, but we were well on our way to developing new industry standard fonts. It was tough work and a whirlwind of knowledge, but there was plenty of lively discussion about fonts, tote bags filled with typography books and typographic freebies, coffee & cupcakes, and a great after-party to wrap the whole week up.

At the end of it all Crafting Type was 12 hour days fully immersed in drawing letters and focusing on creating a system of glyphs that work as a cohesive unit. I loved every moment.

Sorting through the collection of sign photos from my trip to New York City (or I should say Manhattan), it became apparent just how much the street level typography helps define the character of particular neighbourhoods. Even with all the urban renewal steamrolling through the city, obvious attempts have been made to hold onto existing treasures or recreate quintessential typographic elements. Retail giants dominate the advertising and storefronts, and the slick art gallery system and entertainment industry that permeates the city obviously lends a certain polish, but there is a visible amount of hand-crafted work that nicely offsets the corporate gloss. NYC presents a wonderful variety of signs, for all levels of communications. Inspiration is on every street corner. In addition to these, here are some more signs that caught my attention while meandering through the city.

New York City is a visual treat. The City that Never Sleeps has something to offer everyone, and on my recent visit, it offered up a dizzying array of letterforms and signage that I found just as interesting as the characters that inhabit the five boroughs. It felt like there was construction on every block, with an increase of slick, sterile, pre-fabricated letters dominating the streets. However, with urban density dominating Manhattan, typographic gems were everywhere, old & new. Hand lettering is alive and well in New York. Neon lighting is everywhere, thankfully not just in Times Square. Here are a few of my favourites, from the over-the-top visual noise pollution of Times Square, to the over-the-top paranoia of Fallout Shelters.