This workshop will make you familiar with the Cyrillic script. You will learn what is common between Cyrillic and Latin and what is not. All the Cyrillic letters and their peculiarities will be discussed: possible shape variations, proportions in relation to other letters, contrast axis, placement of terminals, serifs etc. We will study uppercase and lowercase, as well as upright, italic, and the distinct handwritten constructions. In addition to that, we will look at local variants of certain Cyrillic letters. I will give a brief overview of the history of the Cyrillic script and will show examples of relevant contemporary Cyrillic type design.

We will spend the second half of the day sketching Cyrillic and reviewing your work.

This workshop will help you to avoid the common “non-native” pitfalls when designing a Cyrillic typeface. Besides that, I will provide directions for further studies and a list of sources on Cyrillic.