Practice, theory, and history will be blended in the process of drawing and digitizing several versions of the sans serif roman capital letter. These will begin with examples from the second century bce and progress systematically to making twentieth and twenty-first century forms. Several different approaches to designing the letters will be taken in order to gain an understanding of underlying structures. Relative proportion and modularity, as well as variations in weight and width will be explored along with the subtle modifications in letter construction needed to make these variations work properly. Topics will include alphabetic forms as systems on both conceptual and practical levels including approaches to the harmonious integration of the design of capitals and lower case.

Materials list:

• Laptop computer running FontLab and InDesign or Quark Xpress or Pages
• 9″ × 12″ pad of layout paper
• 2H pencil
• Edged felt tip marker
• Ruler

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About Sumner Stone

Sumner Stone is a type designer, type founder, author, and teacher. From 1984–1989 he was Director of Typography for Adobe Systems where he conceived and implemented Adobe’s typographic program including the Adobe Originals. In 1990 he founded Stone Type Foundry Inc., now located in Rumsey, California. The Foundry designs and produces new typefaces and creates custom designs for a diverse range of clients including Hallmark Cards, Stanford University, The San Francisco Public Library, Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Greenwood Press, Arion Press, and Full Belly Farm. His type designs include the popular ITC Stone Sans and the prize-winning ITC Bodoni. His most recent type designs are Davanti, Sator, and Popvlvs.