Designing Specimens that Sell
with
Lucas Czarnecki
What makes some typefaces successful while others flop? Why do graphic, web, and other designers pick one typeface but not another? By analyzing users' purchasing and selection decisions, a few trends become clear. Setting aside a handful of staple typefaces, designers base their choices on several factors, the most important of which is how the typeface looks in use. New fonts have not been used yet, though, which creates a problem for designers: Who will be the first to demonstrate a typeface's potential?
In this three-hour workshop, we will take on the challenge ourselves. We will enter the mind of the customer, examine their desires, pick apart our typefaces, and create specimen concepts that better convince designers to buy.
Most type designers know that they need to make specimen graphics, but in this workshop, you will learn how to make specimen graphics.
Supply list
- A computer and a design program (Illustrator, PhotoShop, etc.)
About Lucas Czarnecki
Lucas Czarnecki does a bit of everything, so long as it has to do with type. After teaching the first-ever course on Typography and Graphic Design at the University of Virginia, Lucas began a letterpress printing apprenticeship at the Virginia Center of the Book. He then founded the Charlottesville Design Week—Virginia’s largest design festival—and Type365—a typography blog. While working under the name if it has words, Lucas presented at TypeCon, The Virginia Festival of the Book, Society of News Design, and TEDx. He then started working with Roger Black as managing editor of TYPE Magazine before joining Type Network as creative director. Lucas currently sits on the board of ATypI.