Principles of Typeface Design

Thursday nights for 8 weeks
Commencing Thursday 22 March 2018
Weeks 1-4 : 22 March to 12 April  | 1-week break  |  Weeks 5-8: 26 April to 17 May
6.00pm–9.00pm

Cost $880.00 including GST

This eight week course is for anyone who wants to design their own typeface.
We will show you the primary techniques and tools required to make a font that you can type on your own keyboard. The course will start with drawing letters, learning about the principles of proportion and legibility along the way. You will move on to digitising your letters using Adobe Illustrator, and then to constructing a working typeface using font-editing software. Participants will graduate with a deep understanding of type behaviour, aesthetics and legibility, and the ability to create commercial-quality fonts of their own. The course incorporates production time allowing your tutor to give personal supervision and guidance.

Who should attend?
Both beginners and experienced participants are welcome. Experience in creating vector outlines using the Pen tool in Adobe Illustrator will be an advantage. Generally, this course is suitable for professional designers and design students who want gain a deeper understanding of typography, how fonts work, and how to make them.

What you need to provide:
Participants are required to BYO laptop with Adobe Illustrator software installed and active, and basic to intermediate grasp of Illustrator’s pen tool. Temporary licenses for fontediting software can be provided.

About your tutor:
Wayne is owner and Director of Australian Type Foundry. Wayne’s experience includes type families for Holden, O’Brien Glass, Animal Logic, Lego and Officeworks. His most recent project was the ABCSans type family, designed to help unify the digital presence of the ABC across multiple platforms. Wayne is also an experienced lecturer who has taught in university and TAFE design programs, as well as running the popular Type by Hand series of handlettering workshops across Australia and New Zealand. See Wayne’s typeface work here or Watch a video about his design process for the ABC project here.

How to register:
You can register and pay direct with the venue – Pumphouse School of Design, by emailing info@pumphouseschool.com.au or phone them on 02 4962 4985.

TOPICS WILL INCLUDE:
• General principles of stroke weight and proportion
• Instruction on which letters to start with
• Character sets in digital fonts
• Ligatures and special characters
• Vectoring for efficiency and smoothness
• Introduction to font editing software
• Spacing methods and sidebearings
• Kerning
• Naming, generating, installing and testing

OUTCOMES:
• Be able to design and create your own working fonts
• Understand principles of proportion
• Understand principles of legibility
• Aim to be comfortable using font editing software
• Understand basic kerning and spacing principles