Typographics – TypeLab

TypeLab

sponsored by
Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography

The TypeLab at Typographics 2017 will host a series of hands-on work­shops, demos, inter­views, and experiments, June 15–18.

Keeping with its alternative roots, the TypeLab is a space for informal events to complement the main schedule of the Typographics conference – like a multi-day typographic hackathon.

Hours and access

Thu, June 15
11:30am–6pm
Free and open to the public
Fri, June 16
10am–6pm
Open to attendees of the Typographics conference (registration required)
Sat, June 17
10am–5pm
Open to attendees of the Typographics conference (registration required)
Sun, June 18
10am–4pm
Free and open to the public

The TypeLab will be held mostly in the Room LL101 at 41 Cooper Square, just across the street from where the main Typographics conference is held.

TypeLab’s schedule is curated by Petr van Blokland and will constantly evolve until the final event has ended, allowing for spontaneous alterations and additions as space and time allow. The schedule shown below is the current status of what is expected to happen but is subject to change at any time without notice. Other lectures and events may be added. Check on this page for updates and follow TypographicsNYC on Twitter for related announcements.

  • Typeday Thursday, June 15 (Open to the public)

    11:30am–12:00pm
    Ben Kiel, Jesse Ragan: Starting at the End of the Alphabet

    Launching an independent type foundry means making a lot of decisions. One of the biggest questions is what kind of typefaces to make and sell. The co-owners of the newly-formed XYZ Type discuss how they arrived at their initial offering of typefaces and their upcoming releases.

    12:00–1:00pm ...
    1:00–5:00pm Portfolio Reviews (type, typography or graphic design)

    For students and recent graduates. You want to apply for graduate school, an internship, a job or start your own studio?
    Tips and tricks from “the old guys & gals”. If you feel like it, you can let us know in advance your special requests of topic and people. If not, there’s many people around to talk with.

    1:00–1:30pm
    Frank Martinez: Intellectual Property
    1:30–2:00pm
    Jean-Baptiste Levée: Designing text typefaces for screen
    2:00–2:30pm
    David Jonathan Ross: Fit & other projects
    2:30–3:00pm
    Gloria Kondrup: Type and the Written Word, the rebirth of the Chapbook
    3:00–5:00pm
    Jean-Baptiste Levée, Petr van Blokland, Riley Cran, and others: Type Critiques

    Or any other design work that you want to show and discuss.

    3:00–3:30pm
    Petr van Blokland: Design of TYPETR type

    Some insight in TYPETR, sketching, design, scripting & coding, modeling and experiments. Educating the process.

    3:30–6:00pm
    Tânia Raposo, Amy Papaelias, Bianca Berning, Indra Kupferschmid: Alphabettes

    Alphabettes is back again with live commentary, short interviews, and a few other surprises up their collective sleeve.

  • Typographyday Friday, June 16 (Conference registration required)

    10:00–10:30am ...

    Main program Natasha Jen: “Type is a Canvas”

    10:30–11:00am ...

    Main program Silas Munro: “Abject Typography”

    11:00am–12:00pm
    Juliette Cezzar: Career/future advice booth

    Inspiration is great, but what are you going to do? Answer some questions for five minutes about what you’ve done and what you want to do, get five minutes of ideas about possible futures. No portfolio necessary.

    11:00–11:30am
    Ryan Bugden: Bézier Game

    This talk aims to demystify the Bézier curves we use for letter drawing by reviewing their origin and outlining best practices. After the talk, visitors will be invited to compete against each other in a fast-paced drawing game.
    Main program Martin Venezky: “Designing a Process for Design”

    11:30am–12:00pm
    Petr van Blokland: PageBot, sneak preview of the workshop

    What would typography (and type design, and graphic design) be like, if scriptable by Python with the quality of InDesign?
    The lecture gives a sneak preview on PageBot, open source library for DrawBotApp. Further introduced in the workshop on June 19-22, some high lights will be shown.
    Main program Hilary Greenbaum “It’s not Helvetica, and other facts about designing for the Whitney”

    12:00–3:00pm
    John Downer: Brush Lettering

    [Demo]

    12:00–12:30pm ...

    Main program Ilya Ruderman “Type Today”

    12:30–1:00pm
    Kate Widdows: Electric Letterland: Building animated neon gifs

    A walk through the process of making custom-lettered neon gifs, from pencil sketch to upload, with the Neon Queen.

    1:00–2:00pm
    Jeffrey Zeldman: Saving the News

    Democracy may die in darkness, but the journalism we deserve is under severe threefold threat from the fake news ecosystem and those who profit by it; advertising’s race to the bottom; and the centralization of content in response to the mobile ecosystem. Can design help save the news? And what role in saving news will be played by the two huge contrary currents in contemporary web and interaction design—homogenization, or “sameness,” and exploration or “difference” (from new layouts to new interaction paradigms)?

    2:00–3:00pm
    Gloria Kondrup, Ty Drake: “Wordism [derogatory resist]”

    A presentation and discussion by Gloria Kondrup (Executive Director, HMCT), and Ty Drake (Designer and Associate Professor at ArtCenter College of Design) examining the increase in the use of derogatory words and lack of communication etiquette in popular culture. Can words be provocative, without being harmful or inflammatory? Can we reclaim our responsibility for the standards that are set by the language — spoken and visual — that we choose for discourse?

    3:00–3:30pm
    Ringo R. Seeber: Productivity in design

    A lecture on how designers and studios can improve productivity by organizing files and folders.
    Main program Forest Young “Type in Stereo”

    4:00–5:30pm Type Critiques (or any other design work you want to show).

    Ask any of the TypeLab speakers to comment on your work if they are available in the Lab. There is a good chance that they will. Also, you better can ask while they are there, because not all people will be present in all 4 days. TypeLab is an informal platform for designers, typographers, type designers, students, celebrities, managers, educators, programmers, historians and all other type related nerdy profession.
    Remember: there are no stupid questions. There is only… etc.

    4:00–5:00pm
    Juan Villanueva: Typographic “Life Drawing”

    [Demo]

    4:00–4:30pm
    Jon Grizzle: Scripting for InDesign for beginners

    Main program Jonathan Hoefler “Uncharacteristic Characters”

    4:00–4:30pm
    Aleksandra Samulenkova, Petr van Blokland: Design of Bitcount Cyrillic

    [Working demo by the designers in the main hall]

    4:30–5:00pm
    Aleksandra Samulenkova: Diacritics

    [Demo upon request in the main hall]
    Main program Astrid Stavro “Type Led by Ideas”

    4:30–5:00pm
    Spencer Charles, Kelly Thorn: iLetter: Using Your iPhone and iPad for sketching Calligraphic Letterforms

    Nothing will beat the classic pen and paper when it comes to drawing letters. But what about those times you forget your sketchbook or writing tool? In this demo, Spencer Charles & Kelly Thorn will walk you through the hidden potential in your iPhone or iPad for sketching dazzling letters.

    5:00–5:30pm Find Your Voice Through Letterforms: Stories from TypeThursday

    TypeThursday is the meeting place for people who love letterforms. Karolina Lach Aaron Sage and Anselm Dästner are attendees of TypeThursday. They all cultivated a unique voice with letterforms. 
    TypeThursday invites you to a conversation with these three attendees on how to discover your unique aesthetic through practice, discussion, and development. You will leave this conversation inspired to develop your voice through letterforms.
    Main program Agnieszka Gasparska “Handwriting: Our Personal Typography”

    5:30–6:00pm
    Kelcey Towell: Lettermaker Stencil
  • Toolday Saturday, June 17 (Conference registration required)

    10:00–10:30am ...

    Main program Marlene McCarty “Resist Typography”

    10:30–11:00am ...

    Main program Hansje van Halem “Trial and Error”

    11:00am–3:00pm
    John Downer: Brush Lettering

    [Demo]

    11:00–11:30am
    Lynne Yun: The Anatomy of Flourishing

    Flourishes are carefully designed compositions that are constructed of modular elements. We will examine historical models of flourishes, break down their construction, view them critically, and discuss designing flourishes that appeal to modern eyes.
    Main program Shiva Nallaperumal “Typographic Labyrinth”

    12:00–12:30pm
    Erik van Blokland: Super and Inter

    Main program Ellen Lupton, Kara Haupt, Elana Schlenker, Ryan Essmaker “Designer as Publisher: Indie Magazines”

    12:00–12:30pm
    Ethan Cohen: Blackletter Calligraphy

    In this demo/mini-workshop we will cover the basic principles of gothic (a.k.a. “blackletter”) calligraphy, differences between the various blackletter hands, methods for learning and practicing blackletter, and how writing tools can (and often must) be manipulated to suit the needs of blackletter.

    12:30pm
    Petr van Blokland, Just van Rossum: Variable Fonts UI

    In Variable Fonts, 1, 2 and 3 axes can be intuitively represented by line, plane and cube. Such a spacial representation is already beyond the common simplified metaphor of sliders, one for each axis.
    But what is the designer UI for fonts with 4, 5, 10 or even 50 axes? How will users ever be able to walk through this n-dimensional space.
    New method of selection and visualization are needed. The lecture gives an overview on sketches and prototypes.

    1:00–1:30pm
    Thomas Phinney: FontLab
    1:30–2:00pm
    Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer, Georg Seifert: Glyphs
    2:00–2:30pm
    Frederik Berlaen: RoboFont
    2:30–3:00pm
    Dave Crossland: Free font editors:  FontForge TruFont,  Metapolator
    3:00–5:30pm All tool demos in TypeLab, no lectures

    Main program Kris Sowersby “Untitled”
    Main program Jonathan Key “Designing to Amplify”
    Main program Stefanie Weigler, David Heasty “Harmony+Tension”
    Main program Lara Captan “Arabic Type Design – Beirut: The Story”
    Main program Helen Yentus “Type first: The rebirth of big type and lettering in contemporary book cover design”

    3:00–5:00pm
    Thomas Phinney: FontLab

    Demo sessions.

    3:00–5:00pm
    Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer, Georg Seifert: Glyphs

    Demo sessions.

    3:00–5:00pm
    Frederik Berlaen: RoboFont

    Demo sessions.

    3:00–5:00pm Writing & calligraphy

    Demo sessions.

    4:00–5:30pm Independent plugins

    Demo sessions.

    4:00–5:00pm
    Just van Rossum, Petr van Blokland: PageBot & DrawBot

    Demo sessions.

    4:00–5:00pm
    Jill Pichotta: TypeNetwork QA

    Demo sessions.

  • Gameday Sunday, June 18 (Open to the public)

    10:00–11:00am
    Petr van Blokland: Design Game Startup

    If more than 60 show up, the first will be submitted.
    If you signed up, make sure to be there on time.
    If less than 25 people show up, the game won’t run.

    Bring your physical drawing tools, you are designers in this game.

    11:00am–3:00pm
    Petr van Blokland: The Design Game

    Playtime: 4 rounds.

    3:00–3:30pm
    Petr van Blokland: Design Game Wrapping up

    Identifying the winning teams.

    3:30–4:00pm
    Petr van Blokland: In retrospection: From Simulation via Design Theory to Algorithms

    What you carry home.

Schedule specifics are subject to change. For updates and announce­ments, join the Typographics mailing list and follow @TypographicsNYC on Twitter.

The 2017 TypeLab typeface is Bitcount from TYPETR.

Registration is now open for the main Typographics conference, with educational and bundle discounts available.

Stay Updated

Get the latest news and announce­ments in your inbox or feed.

Join the mailing list