Principles of Typeface Design: Essentials and Techniques
with
Gen Ramírez
Are you ready to embark on the journey of type design? This course provides a comprehensive overview of the essential elements and methodologies involved in designing typefaces. It is suitable for beginners with a basic understanding of Bézier drawing tools, as well as designers looking to improve their type design skills.
What You’ll Learn:
- Fundamental principles of type design
- Sketching techniques
- Creating your typeface design workflow
- Basic use of type design software
- Planning a type family
- Proofing, testing, and ensuring quality and consistency
- Drawing for interpolation and creating a basic variable font
- Developing a critical eye for shapes, spacing, rhythm, and contrast
Your Learning Experience:
- Ten weekly 3-hour interactive online group sessions
- Each class will include an introductory lecture, dedicated work time, and live feedback
- Explorative tasks and project-specific reviews
- One-on-one reviews
Course Outcome:
By the end of the course, you will have at least a fully functional typeface with a basic Latin character set.
Prerequisites:
- Experience using Bézier drawing tools, such as Adobe Illustrator
- No prior type design experience required
Required Materials:
- Black gouache ink
- Pointed nib, and Broad nib (3mm)
- Nib holder
- 1/2 inch flat brush
- Letter or tabloid marker paper
- Fine, medium, and wide black Sharpies
- White out correction pen
- General drawing tools: pencils, eraser, rulers, etc.
Required Software:
- Mac OS X 10.12+
- Adobe InDesign
- Zoom & Slack
Optional Requirements:
- iPad with Procreate
Registration for fall classes opens on Wednesday, August 28.
This class will be meeting online using Zoom and sharing resources using a Slack group. Class meets once a week for 10 weeks, skipping October 24 and the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 28.
Please join our mailing list to receive updates and announcements about upcoming workshops and free lectures.
About Gen Ramírez
Gen Ramírez is a typeface designer, sign painter, calligrapher and educator from Guadalajara, Mexico. He co-founded Dual Type, a Mexican–Croatian studio specializing in type, editorial, branding, and digital design. Through the studio, he recently released two font families: Yumex at Ohno Type and Luska at Future Fonts.
Having inherited the craft of sign painting, he is committed to preserving and promoting it from both professional and cultural perspectives. Gen studied at TypeMedia at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, as well as completing the Type@Cooper Extended program in San Francisco and the Condensed program in New York. His multidisciplinary background fuels his lifelong exploration of letterforms and their expression. In addition to teaching type design and calligraphy, he has played a key role in building and diversifying a type-focused community in Mexico, which led to his talk on the subject at Typographics. Gen is also a co-organizer of Letrástica, an international biennial type conference in Guadalajara.