Type Design as a Team Sport — Karen Cheng

Recorded during TypeCon2016: Resound in Seattle, Washington Within the academic system, it can be difficult to take a full class of 20–24 students through the complete process of designing a typeface (a single weight and style, including upper and lower case letters, numbers and basic punctuation). A typical studio course meets for three hours twice a week, leaving approximately eight minutes for each student during a single class session. One way to make the teaching of type design more efficient is to organize the activity into groups. In theory, with increased manpower, groups could design more glyphs and more weights in comparison to a single student. Moreover, students in groups could have a stronger learning experience; they might become more aware of the factors that drive unity and variety within a typeface system due to the natural variation that occurs within a group effort. On the other hand, group dynamics and varied levels of interest and ability in type design present significant challenges when teaching “Type Design as a Team Sport.” This presentation will look at the process and outcomes of a series of group type design projects, and discuss what, how and why students learned (or did not learn) using this approach.