Get Your Fonts Ready for Retail
with Guido Ferreyra

Come learn the in and outs of font engineering with Type Network’s technology director Guido Ferreyra. Focusing on current standards and the best available tools will improve and ensure the technical quality of your retail fonts.

This workshop delves into the most crucial aspects of font technology in preparing fonts for retail release. The session will cover digital font engineering concepts, variable font specification, industry standards, common issues, troubleshooting techniques, essential tools, and useful tips and techniques.

Mon, June 10, 2024
10am–5pm
$275
Details and registration

Lecture: What is Realness? Freeing type from a fixed viewpoint
with Ben Kiel, Jesse Ragan, Silas Munro, Brian Johnson

Can a single typeface express diverse viewpoints through its own functionality? Partners from two design studios, Polymode and XYZ Type, discuss their collaboration to bring notions of expansive personal identity into typographic form. The unexpected road to their typeface Polymode Sans began by viewing a historical type revival through a queer lens, and led them to harness variable font technology as a form of cultural code-switching. Working on an abstract theoretical foundation, they created an entirely pragmatic tool: a typeface with both the versatile utility of a sans serif and the vigor of a decorative display face. This talk will follow their process through from initial idea to chameleonic applications, posing questions about collaboration, dialogue with history, and how designers express personal identity.

Mon, June 10, 2024
6:30–8:30pm
Free
Details and registration

Experience Collaborative Type Design with Fontra
with Gaëtan Baehr, Jérémie Hornus

Developing a Latin typeface is generally a long and linear process. A designer creates the original design, then, one after the other, can develop the glyph set, fine-tune the shapes, and repeat the same process again and again for each source of each variation axis. Fontra comes with a solution that allows real-time collaboration and multi-source editing. In this workshop, participants will learn how to easily create a variable font with multiple axes while maintaining consistent design, and how to do so through teamwork.

Tue, June 11, 2024
10am–5pm
$275
Details and registration

Drawings and Prints Collection at The Met
with Allison Rudnick , Liz Zanis

Join Allison Rudnick, Associate Curator and Collections Specialist Liz Zanis for an insiders tour of selected examples of visual culture and ephemera that are rarely on view.

Tue, June 11, 2024
10–11:30am

Details and registration

Radix Printing & Publishing Cooperative Printshop Tour!
with Nicholas Hurd

Take a behind the scenes look at New York’s only worker-owned and union print shop. On this tour you will get to see a wide range of print methods from antique letterpress to hot foil stamping and hi-tech digital printing! Location: 522 Bergen Street Brooklyn Read more about us here: radix.coop/about

Tue, June 11, 2024
2–4pm
Free
Details and registration

TOUR: A Typography Adventure of Chinese Vernacular Culture
with Jialun Wang, Shiqing Chen, Hongjie Chen

As an integral aspect of immigration culture, Chinese typography boasts a unique history and has found its place in the landscape of the United States. During this tour, we will explore the typography currently in use in Chinatown, while also delving into its historical roots through walks. Additionally, we’ll uncover examples of contemporary design inspired by the typography’s rich heritage. Gain knowledge and history of Chinese typography and learn the vernacular typography culture from traditions and contemporary landscape. Your guides will be offering you gifts including a brochure and a tote bag.

Tue, June 11, 2024
4–7pm
$37
Details and registration

Intro to Chinese Type Design and a Collaborative Process using Fontra
with Jérémie Hornus, Mark Zhu, Yuxin Li

Chinese type design is usually known for having large glyphsets to complete or complex character structures. But what are some methods that Chinese designers employ to tackle these challenges and improve efficiency? In this workshop, participants will learn about the basics of the Chinese script and type design, and work together in a collaborative workflow to create a simple Chinese typeface, using the font-editing platform Fontra. Workshop will include presentation, software demo, and hands-on practice.

Wed, June 12, 2024
10am–5pm
$275
Details and registration

Spatial Typography in Mixed Reality
with Jialun Wang

Unlock the potential of typography in the immersive realm of mixed reality with this cutting-edge workshop, tailored for designers, artists, and enthusiasts at any skill level. Immerse yourself in an innovative learning experience that blends the tactile charm of traditional typography with the boundless possibilities of digital creation. This beginner-friendly workshop offers a unique opportunity to explore, design, and craft typography within a mixed reality environment.

Wed, June 12, 2024
10am–5pm
$275
Details and registration

Radix Printing & Publishing Cooperative Printshop Tour
with Nick Hurd

Take a behind the scenes look at New York’s only worker-owned and union print shop. On this tour you will get to see a wide range of print methods from antique letterpress to hot foil stamping and hi-tech digital printing! Read more about us here: radix.coop/about Tour Leader: Nicholas Hurd

Wed, June 12, 2024
12–2pm
Free
Details and registration

Hieroglyphs at The Met
with Niv Allon

Join Associate Curator Niv Allon for an insider tour of the Egyptian Galleries. Learn how art, sign, and language interact from a premier specialist in ancient Egyptian texts and scripts.

Wed, June 12, 2024
3–4:30pm
$10.00
Details and registration

Studio Visit at Commercial Type
with Christian Schwartz, Paul Barnes, Greg Gazdowicz

Based in New York and London, Commercial Type is a joint venture between Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz, who have collaborated on commissioned typeface projects since 2004. The company publishes retail fonts developed by Barnes and Schwartz, their staff, and outside collaborators, and also represents the two and their team when they work together on type design projects. Schwartz, Barnes, and their colleague Greg Gazdowicz will welcome guests for an informal tour of Commercial Type’s New York studio in Chinatown, where they’ll share inspiration from their library, answer questions about the day to day of running a type foundry, and share archival specimens from the company’s history.

Wed, June 12, 2024
3–4pm
Free
Details and registration

Studio Visit at Commercial Type
with Paul Barnes, Christian Schwartz, Greg Gazdowicz

Based in New York and London, Commercial Type is a joint venture between Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz, who have collaborated on commissioned typeface projects since 2004. The company publishes retail fonts developed by Barnes and Schwartz, their staff, and outside collaborators, and also represents the two and their team when they work together on type design projects. Schwartz, Barnes, and their colleague Greg Gazdowicz will welcome guests for an informal tour of Commercial Type’s New York studio in Chinatown, where they’ll share inspiration from their library, answer questions about the day to day of running a type foundry, and share archival specimens from the company’s history.

Thu, June 13, 2024
3–4pm
Free
Details and registration

Type Design for Non-Type Designers
with Matteo Bologna, Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer

In this two-day class, you will learn the basics of designing and generating a variable font with the font-design software Glyphs (Mac only). Go beyond choosing the same typefaces from the type menu to creating your own!

On the first day, we will learn the basics of drawing a font, generate the font, and use it in an Adobe app or a web browser. In the afternoon, we will add additional letters to the font, learning how to space them, add diacritics and punctuation.

On the second day, we will add more letters, design a bold version of the same typeface, create a variable font—and make it animate in a web browser.

At the end of the class, you will probably not have a finished font, but a respectable start and a deep understanding about how fonts are made. And maybe you’ll become a type design addict. You have been warned.

Level and prerequisites: beginner, no prior knowledge necessary. Bring your MacBook.

Sun–Mon, June 16–17, 2024
10–6am
$625
Details and registration

Type on Grids
with June Shin

Love grids? Great. Hate them? Let me change your mind. Grids don’t have to be boring and rigid. Unlock their infinite potential by constructing your own to build a set of expressive letterforms! This workshop will briefly touch on the structure of the Latin alphabet and its conventions, explore ways to use modularity to achieve visual harmony even in eccentric styles, and guide you to craft a unique piece of lettering based on the custom grids that each of you will construct from scratch.

Sun, June 16, 2024
10am–5pm
$275
Details and registration

Walking Tour: Brooklyn Letters/Fort Greene
with Alexander Tochilovsky

Join Alexander Tochilovsky on a guided walking tour through one of the most lettering-dense parts of Brooklyn. The path winds through the Fort Greene neighborhood and ends in the adjacent Clinton Hill area. The area’s rich history can be traced through its signs. Along the way, you will encounter all sorts of attractive letters of all shapes and sizes. Each one with a unique story to tell.

Sun, June 16, 2024
5–7pm
Free
Details and registration

1970s Old School Lettering Skills
with Michael Doret, Norman Hathaway

A journey through the time tunnel back to the 1970s when proletariat lettering artists created their artwork using plastic circle templates, German cartridge pens, adjustable triangles, and razor blades. Contemporary designers are infatuated with lettering generated during the seventies but have had little access to how the designs were actually produced. Norman Hathaway will interrogate Doret about the training he received working under the great Ed Benguiat and how he established his technical processes. Type design went crazy during the 1970s due to the introduction of photo lettering technology, and Doret got his start during the hubbub of that time.

Mon, June 17, 2024
6:30–8:30pm
Free
Details and registration

Curator’s tour of the Herb Lubalin Study Center
with Alexander Tochilovsky

Cooper Union’s Herb Lubalin Study Center is a treasure-filled archive of graphic design ephemera by influential designers such as Herb Lubalin, Paul Rand, Massimo Vignelli, and many others. Join the Center’s curator Alexander Tochilovsky for a presentation of selected materials and a glimpse into the highlights of the collection. The event will give participants a rare opportunity to see and handle all of the ephemera as well as to learn about the important background details about the designers and their work.

Tue, June 18, 2024
6–8pm
$30
Details and registration