Greek Typeface Design
with
Irene Vlachou
The objective of this course is for anyone interested in type design to expand their knowledge to an alphabetic writing system further than Latin by developing a design methodology, and learning its potential application in real situations. More specifically to gain some basic knowledge on Greek script, its history, the current state of affairs and how to approach it and complement another script.
The course contains hands-on exercises, study of primary and secondary sources of Greek typography and finally one main project. Thought these exercises the participants will experiment and examine the possibilities of the Greek script and learn through practice. The main project will be an opportunity for each participant to design their own new Greek typeface and apply their gained knowledge into practice or expand an existing font project. Finally some basic historical information will be given in a form of lectures.
Participants are required to work in between sessions. In the start of the course the participants will be given a suggested work schedule with achievable milestones for the main project. Every session will be consisted by short informal lectures on historical matters to today's practices and divided equally to the participants for individual feedback sessions.
Required Materials
- stable internet connection
- Zoom app
- Mac min req.
- Robofont/Glyphs app (free student licence is provided)
- Sketching materials
- Any graphic design app for final presentation specimens.
Registration for fall classes opens on Wednesday, August 28.
Please join our mailing list to receive updates and announcements about class offerings and our free lecture series.
All times are listed in US Eastern.
A recurring Zoom meeting link will be sent to you a day or two before the start of this class.
About Irene Vlachou
Irene Vlachou is a type designer based in Athens. She holds an MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading. She has collaborated with international type foundries and corporations, working as a type designer and a consultant for Greek typefaces. From 2013–19, she was a senior designer and variable font expert at TypeTogether. She currently works full time as a freelancer type designer, specialising in OEM system fonts. On behalf of the Greek Open Source Community (GFOSS), she is a mentor on the expansion of Greek libre fonts for the GSOC (Google Summer of Code) program. During spring semester 2022, she was an artist-in-residency at La Becque and a visiting professor on the Master Type Design programme at ECAL, Lausanne. Since January 2023 she is participating in the ILoveTypography Academy, with the online class “Intro to Greek Type Design”.
Her work includes: Colvert Greek (2012, Typographies fr), Alverata Greek (2013, Gerard Unger/TypeTogether), Parmigiano Greek (2014, Typotheque), SamsungOne Greek (2016, Brody Associates), LL Bradford Greek–identity for Documenta14– (2016, Laurenz Brunner), LL Unica77 Greek (2017, Lineto), Stratos Greek (2018, Production Type), FauxFoundry and FauxGreek parametric font (2019), SauberScript Greek (2020, Typejockeys), Amstelvar (2020-, FontBureau), redesign of Roboto, Roboto Flex and Noto Greek fonts (2021, Google Fonts), Atlas Font Family (2021, Commercial Type), HBO Street Greek (2021, Carvalho Bernau and Letterror).