Author: Test User

Typography in textbooks, in Warsaw

OdAlaMaKota logo

The International Conference Od „Ala Ma Kota” Do E-Matury in Warsaw will bring together typographers, designers, publishers, entrepreneurs, teachers, and policy makers from different European countries, to explore the correlation of the design of educational materials and efficiency in education.The rapid-fire event (TED-style condensed presentations of 16 minutes each) will review the current thinking on paper textbook design, and question how to design for new technologies entering the classrooms, from primary to higher education. Gerry Leonidas will link conventional typography with the interactive, expansive, and global typography emerging in text-intensive publications. Bringing things full circle, Gerry first spoke of these trends in Warsaw: nearly five years ago, in the 1st Book Design Lectures by the STGU (English report by the Book Institute here) on “Book design in transition: a threat or an opportunity for designers?”

 

Interview in the Haaretz

Earlier in the year Reading alumnus Adi Stern, now the Head of the Visual Communication department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, invited Gerry Leonidas to give two lectures and work with students of the academy. One lecture was for a wide audience in the academy and visitors (entitled “Where is type now?”) and one for the annual staff meeting of the Academy, on the approach taken at Reading in integrating research and teaching in design. Haaretz reporter Yuval Saar interviewed Gerry during the trip, and the interview is now online (in Hebrew).

MATD project work in Instapaper

FF Tisa on a first generation iPad

The latest update to Instapaper (AppleStore link) includes six new typefaces, including two that started as MATD student projects: FF Tisa by Mitja Miklavčič (2006) and Elena by Nicole Dotin (2007). Instapaper, a 4+ rated app, allows the user to collect content for reading in a highly user-friendly environment on an iPhone, iPad, or a personal computer.  Extended commentary (and an image of Elena on the iPad) over at Typenotes.

Greek typography and typeface design in New York

GL critique 1 small

Five years after the first Greek Week-End in New York, Gerry Leonidas will return to the TDC. Already in 2007 Greek was becoming a central part of most large typeface projects, especially international branding applications. In the intervening years Greek has become a key aspect of professional designers’ skills, and a regular expectation in job postings. Just as importantly, Greek represents a particularly rewarding challenge for designers, combining a long and complex development with a relatively wide space for designers to experiment. The two-and-a-half day workshop will start with a hands-on research session, and include seminars on aspects of Greek typeface design, in-depth reviews of reference contemporary typefaces, and design critiques of work by the participants.

Gerry will also deliver a lecture at the TDC Salon on the deign of the forthcoming Greek-English Intermediate Lexicon, a major new publication by Cambridge University Press, now in its final stages. The Lexicon takes advantage of recent developments in typeface design, and offers insights into a particularly challenging typographic brief.

Typography goes to Buckingham Palace

Queen's Anniversary Prize group photo

We weren’t allowed to take photographs inside the Palace, so here are staff and students in the courtyard, still in a daze after the splendid ceremony and being presented to the Duke of Edinburgh (who, it can be revealed, likes his iPad because the type is big enough to read). From left to right: Edward Liu (MA Information Design), Pooja Saxena (MA Typeface Design), Eric Kindel, Paul Luna, Jeanne-Louise Moys (PhD student), Hannah Smith (BA Graphic Communication, Part 3), Sue Walker. Jake Giltsoff (BA Graphic Communication, Part 2) escaped before the picture was taken.

Reading alumni carve poems into the Yorkshire moors

Pip Hall and Wayne Hart carving letters on the Yorkshire moors

A series of seven poems by Simon Armitage are being carved into stones on the moors along the Pennine Watershed in Yorkshire by Reading Typography alumni Pip Hall and Wayne Hart. This short film shows Pip at work.

The Stanza Stones project is a collaboration between Mr Armitage, the Ilkley Literary Festival and imove, Yorkshire’s cultural project for the London 2012 Olympics.

The poems will be designed by lettercarver Pip Hall and carved by her and her apprentice, Wayne Hart, with some of the work taking place on location.

The first verses to be completed, on Pule Hill, were done on location and took a month to complete, with each of the 360 characters taking between seven and 10 minutes to carve.

Pip Hall carving

Pip Hall said: ‘It feels quite a responsibility to try and make something which I feel very happy with and something which is hopefully going to enhance the landscape and people’s enjoyment of those areas.’

Pip is training Wayne Hart with the support of a two-year Apprenticeship Scheme run by the Memorial Arts Charity.

Read more and watch the video at BBC Leeds & West Yorkshire. (Top picture: BBC; lower picture: Ilkley Literature Festival)

Wednesday seminar: Apsmart

Daniel Lewington

Daniel Lewington of Apsmart will be speaking to our MAs on Wednesday 22 February at 4pm. Daniel is Apsmart’s Head of Strategy and User Experience, and he previously worked at some of Europe’s leading agencies, including Dare, agency.com, Method, and The Brand Union in London, and Sinnerschrader in Hamburg. During that time he has occupied roles as Creative Director, User Experience Director, Managing Client Director, and Head of Digital.

Art/Typography talks (continued) …

Sara De Bondt & Antony Hudek | Occasional Papers
Wednesday 8 February 2012
Nike theatre, Agriculture  | 2–2.50pm

Founded in 2008 by graphic designer Sara De Bondt and art historian Antony Hudek, Occasional Papers is 
a non-profit publisher of affordable books devoted to the histories of art, design, and film. OP titles are distributed by Central Books in the UK, Motto in the EU and Textfield in the US and have included re-printings of texts and book works by artists such as Stephen Willlats, Lizzie Borden, John Latham, and Art in Ruins, alongside commentaries on the work of designers such as Ken Briggs. In 2009 they published The Form of the Book Book, a collection of essays on book design, following a conference organised by Sara De Bondt and Fraser Muggeridge at St Bride Library in London. Antony Hudek is currently a Mellon Research Fellow at University College London and Sara De Bondt runs her design studio, combining book and graphic design work with teaching at KASK in Ghent.

External links:
www.occasionalpapers.org
www.saradebondt.com