Author Archives: Type Tasting

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About Type Tasting

Sarah Hyndman is a graphic designer, author and public speaker.

Typography is changing, are you ready?

Typography is changing. Two decades dominated by sans serif typefaces are coming to an end, which type designer Charles Nix describes as “the waning end of a supertrend”. Are you (and your team) ready for this new and exciting typographic landscape?

Find out about workshops / Arrange a 10-minute call

It’s an exciting time to explore how type reflects culture right now. I was delighted to run online workshops recently with the inspiring type designers at international type foundry Monotype. This was such a brilliant opportunity for all of us to compare notes as we explored the themes and trends we’ve been seeing and chatted about what we think is coming next.

“I loved the event. I know we are trying to make do with the pandemic situation, but I truly feel like this event was even more impactful and inspirational with this format than being with a bunch of people in an auditorium. Sarah was amazing.”

I think that looking at what’s changing typographically reveals the wider cultural themes of what people care about today. After a year when so much has changed, what things really matter to you today? What do you really value and/or what no longer seems important?

Are you and your team ready for the new typographic landscape and the fast-paced changes that are happening?

How to spot and decode typography trends

You can spot the trends and themes for yourself by keeping a visual diary and by following the people who are talking about what’s happening. This is a great way to future proof your typographic skills in a time of fast-paced change that trends, foresight and strategy company The Future Laboratory call “the great acceleration”.

  1. Think about what’s important to you, how might this have changed over the last year?
  2. When you look at what’s happening in the world, how are cultural attitudes changing?
  3. Take a look at the typographic landscape of the products and services you interact with today—can you see any styles or themes becoming prominent that you might not have seen a few years ago?
  4. When you think about these in context of changing cultural attitudes, do you think there are any links?
  5. Are there any companies or products that you think are doing this really well (or really badly)?
  6. How can you incorporated what you’ve observed into your own design process?

Want to find out faster?

You can book a highly interactive online workshop wherever you are in the world. Your team will be prepared for this exciting new typographic landscape with the tools they need to make effective typography choices.

Decoding Type Trends (Semiotics) Masterclass

From £800 (education discounts are available).
This is a live online workshop, which can be delivered anywhere in the world.
Availability is limited.

Discover how to decode the typography of everyday products. What does it reveal about changing moods and attitudes? How does it motivate your decisions? How can you future-proof your typographic choices? With a formula for making typographic choices that you can use today and into the future.

Ideal for designers, communications and marketing teams, students.

Find out more

Arrange a 10-minute call

Students do you wish you could study abroad this summer?

Join talented international students from USA, Canada, India and Australia who’ve had the unique experience of a virtual tour with Sarah Hyndman discovering the secrets hidden in London’s typography

Just because you can’t travel in person this year doesn’t mean that you can’t experience the culture, history and design inspiration that London has to offer. On a virtual Type Safari you’ll hear the stories behind the signs, discover the secrets hidden in the letters and you’ll find out what they reveal about centuries of London’s history.

Download a pdf brochure of live online sessions for colleges and universities.

Join Sarah Hyndman, author of the bestselling Why Fonts Matter for an immersive and creative tour of Dalston, a vibrant area in East London steeped in history.

•    You’ll learn about design history in the real world.
•    You’ll discover that typography is vibrant, exciting and it’s all around you (not just in academic books).
•    You’ll see how signage reflects changing cultural attitudes and what trends are popular today.

Private events from £600 (education discounts available).
Book a call to discuss your session.

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These are highly interactive sessions that take place live on Zoom. Participants are encouraged to engage with the virtual tour as they explore letterforms and the associations that have been baked into them. Type Safaris are suitable for all, no prior knowledge (or interest in) fonts is needed.

•    Compare East London with your local neighbourhood.
•    Spot the clues that tell you the history of the area.
•    Discover ornate signs previously hidden from view.
•    Find out whether you judge a shop by its sign.

Find out more.

 

Adobe MAX

Sarah took Adobe MAX delegates on a 20-minute virtual Type Safari through East London. 5,321 people watched the talk and gave Sarah a speaker score of 4.9/5).
Watch the talk on demand.

 

Sketchbook Type Safari

A Type Safari with a sketchbook challenge is available for colleges and universities, book a call to discuss your session.

Workshop clients

Sarah has created online workshops for students at Birmingham City University, Design Ventura, Design Museum London, Ecole Intuit Lab Mumbai & Kolkata, Elon University, North Carolina, Merrimack College, Massachusetts, Ravensbourne University London, Shillington UK & Australia.

She has created in person workshops for students at Arts University Bournemouth, Birmingham City University, California Polytechnic, CIS Abroad, Design Ventura, Design Museum London, EASD València, Ecole Intuit Lab Mumbai & Kolkata, Portland State University, RMIT Melbourne, Shillington UK, University of Bedfordshire, VIA University College Denmark, Wolverhampton University.

Sarah also taught Experimental Typography at the University of the Arts London for six years and has been a judge and jury president for the D&AD New Blood Awards.

Private events from £600 (education discounts available).
Book a call to discuss your session.

 

 

What do you call a collection of ampersands?

What’s the collective noun for ampersands?

I think that an ampersand is an invitation to imagine what will come next. It’s a continuation of an idea, a conversation or a story. The ampersand is sometimes considered to be the 27th letter of the Latin alphabet, originating from the letters ‘et’, Latin for ‘and’, which have been combined to create a single glyph. It’s a character that there is wide affection for and it gives a glimpse of the personality of a typeface without the commitment of being a particular letter.

I asked you what the collective noun might be to describe them, here are some of your inventive suggestions…

“An olding of ands…” Vinita Nawathe

“Admittedly, not a noun but an attribute: ampersandy” Bruno Maag @bruno_maag

“A ligature” Stuart Bannerman @stuartromsey

“A collaboration of ampersands” Julia Woollams @juliaw79

“A Flourish” Caroline Roberts @Copyright_RGD

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Come to a Typographic Swearing Workshop on Valentine’s Day

Would you like an alternative way to spend Valentine’s Day? Come along to an online Typographic Swearing Workshop and get creative.

THIS IS NOT A DATE—everybody’s welcome. This is an antidote to all the gooey cuteness of Valentine’s Day.

This is a typographically fun and rebelliously creative workshop where you can vent some frustration using fonts. Learn about rebellious typography through history. Explore the sounds that make swear words so satisfying. Subvert lettering to create your own typographic profanities. Suitable for all, no experience needed and you can join this virtual session from anywhere in the world.

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Professional development typography masterclasses

Professional development typography masterclasses—not just for designers!

Invest in the professional development of your company with effective Zoom workshops that are engaging and fun with plenty of “aha!” moments.

Typography is the voice of your brand and it’s important for everybody in a company to understand some basics, not just graphic designers.

This is a series of Zoom masterclasses hosted by author, researcher and Type Tasting founder Sarah Hyndman. Sarah’s an expert in making learning fun and is on a mission to make typography exciting for everybody. Each masterclass focuses on an experiential area of typography with enlightening activities, engaging demonstrations and useful how-to guides. These are currently available as live Zoom sessions, which means you can join a masterclass from anywhere in the world.

Ideal for departments across the whole company, not just designers
These are interesting, inspiring and fun workshops with clear and empowering takeaways for people from all roles in a company. They’re ideal as a team-building session or to reinforce the importance of coherent use of language and fonts for your brand.

You can arrange a private session for your group or organisation, or come along as an individual to a public event. Private sessions are modified to suit the participants.

“Such a fun, interesting and inspiring workshop with clear and empowering takeaways. It reinforced the importance of coherent presentation of our brand for colleagues from all parts of our company, in all types of roles.” Nicky Borowiec, Springer Nature

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Typographic mince pies

Which mince pie would you eat? Which one wouldn’t you eat?

What would they taste like?

 

Sanjay Mitra @shonlerock
“Would eat a) traditional looking font, Dickensian, fruity, icing sugar. c) trad. appeal, . d) no, looks fun, 70s, but don’t get feeling of quality, little filling. f) could go either way: cheap rubbish, or potentially high quality, large and deep filled. b and e no opinion.”

The Bookwise Owl @BookwiseOwl
“E. It’s unfussy and no-nonsense, much like mince pies!”

Claire @ClaireFPalmer (via Twitter)
“C Festive and full of posh booze”

Allyn @AllynGR
“E: It looks like it’s going to taste traditional but with a modern twist, perhaps stripped down to key flavours, or an interesting new one. I guess because the font is thin it looks like the pie is not going to be too stodgy. The other fonts all looked either to fat or too fussy”

 

Calling all freelancers, come to a Christmas creativity lunchtime party

Christmas letter making party

Join me for an online Christmas creativity lunchtime party

Lunchtime Christmas letter making
Painting with fonts (live interactive Zoom)

Join Sarah Hyndman author of the bestselling book Why Fonts Matter live to learn about decorative illuminated manuscript letters or Victorian ‘fishtail’ letters. Draw your own letters to send as Christmas cards or for future creative projects.

3 tickets for the price of 2, why not celebrate with freelance friends!

Secret Santa
You’ll get a gift of a mystery chapter from the book Why Fonts Matter (pdf) and your own lighthearted Christmas cracker fortune prediction!

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8 proven tips for creating brilliant online events

Since April 2020 I’ve created and hosted more than 50 online events and I’ve been joined by so many people from countries around the world. This has given me the opportunity to really find out what works and how to create a brilliant online event. Here are 8 proven tips you can use to transform your online event from average to “magnificent”*.

1. Make the decision to create an event and not a webinar.

Decide at the outset whether you’re creating an event or a webinar. A webinar is a passive experience for viewers as their cameras and microphones are off, whereas an event invites active participation.

2. Embrace the live event experience.

Imagine that you’re gathering a group of people together in real life. Make it clear from the outset that you’d like cameras on and explain that this is because it’s a social event and you’d like everybody to feel like they’re in the same room together.

3. Build interactivity into the event.

I invite people to respond in the chat box and, when appropriate, to turn on their microphones and talk. With a really large audience I find it’s amazing to see the stream of chat comments responding to what I’m saying, or with exclamations like “wow” and “haha”. This really connects me to the ripples of audience reactions so I can gauge the response as I would with an in-person audience.

4. Make the interactivity inclusive.

I think it’s important for everybody to feel seen and heard but not uncomfortable. I’m not a fan of cheesy games that make people feel silly or quizzes that feel more like an exam. I like my audience to feel smart and that they’ve learned something new during an event. For example, I might ask what kind of music a Gothic-style letter on a record cover suggests — everybody then gets to compare their answers with each other and to have fun discovering that there are lots of different associations.

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Online Christmas and New Year office parties

Are you looking for a refreshing virtual Christmas or New Year party for your company?

Are you fed up with Zoom quizzes and cheesy online games? Would you like a smart, fun and memorable office party that “captures peoples imagination and immerses everyone in the whole experience”?

Author Sarah Hyndman creates brilliant events for company Christmas parties & New Year socials, hosted live on Zoom for participants anywhere in the world. Office party events combine booze, storytelling, humour, history, labels, non-cheesy interaction, interesting and useless facts. The G&T event includes a multi-sensory demonstration based on Sarah’s published research.

You’ll get a BYO menu of easy-to-source items so you and your team can drink along together. Events are broadcast live from the Type Tasting studio in an old Victorian chocolate factory in East London.

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Fontosaur: When dinosaur fonts roamed the Earth, a Christmas gift idea for children inspired by then 12-year-old Eddie

My nephew Eddie loves fonts. Those of you joining me for the Sunday Painting with fonts Zoom sessions know him because he joins us most weeks. If you’ve been to my other Zoom events you will know his voice from the Typography Karaoke game.

Last Christmas Eddie had the brilliant idea to make the faces of animals like cat, dog, cow, pig and T-Rex out of the letters of their name.

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