Typeface design education from Cooper Union
Principles Of Type Design 2021

Principles of Typeface Design
with Troy Leinster

Learning the skill of typeface design is not only a great addition to a graphic designer's skill set, but also a rewarding way to express yourself through the work you create. A hands-on experience will train your eye to see space, proportion, and weight—enhancing lettering projects, logo design, and custom type.


Join Troy Leinster for a ten-week exploration of the systems and processes of making a text or display typeface. During the course you will be introduced to different contrast models, idea generation techniques, sketching methods, and how to use a font editor to draw and space your font. Upon completing the course you will have a good understanding of the key elements of typeface design and be on your way to completing your first typeface. Bring your own font editor, or we'll provide you with a full one year license to RoboFont.


Your learning process will include:


  • Ten weekly 3-hour interactive online group sessions
  • Introduction to key concepts, work time, and live feedback
  • Explorative tasks and working through project specific reviews
  • One-on-one reviews with Troy

Beginners with a good knowledge of Bézier drawing tools are welcome, as are more experienced designers, and those interested in developing a type portfolio for application to further type design studies. This course is content rich and we recommend you allocate an additional 3 hours of project time per week to gain the most from your experience. Due to the interactive nature of the course, it will be limited to 14 students.


Prerequisites


  • Experience using Bézier drawing tools, ie: Adobe Illustrator

Required Materials


  • Black calligraphy ink
  • Pointed nib, and Broad nib (3mm)
  • Nib holder
  • Letter or Tabloid bleed-proof marker paper
  • Black Sharpie
  • White out correction pen

Calligraphy items listed above can be purchased online in the US here


Required Software


  • Mac OS X 10.10+
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Zoom & Slack

B&W laser printer is recommended for printing worksheets and templates.


All times are listed in US Eastern.


Please join our mailing list to receive updates and announcements about class offerings and our free lecture series.


Registration for this class will open on January 3, 2024.


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.

Registration is now closed

When:
Tue, January 30 – Tue, April 2, 2024

Number of sessions: 10

Where:
Online

About Troy Leinster

Troy Leinster2016
Troy Leinster is an Australian-born typeface designer. He holds a Master's Degree in Typeface Design from Type & Media program at The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague, the Netherlands, and is a graduate of the first Type@Cooper Condensed Program in New York. Through 2014-2021, Troy was a full-time typeface designer at the Hoefler&Co Type Foundry. His projects included retail typefaces such as the Ringside superfamily, Operator Mono, Peristyle, Isotope, Cesium, Parliament, and Decimal. In 2022 Troy launched his own type foundry, Leinster Type, debuting Brisbane, a contemporary humanists sans serif for use in wayfinding and text settings.