Tag Archives: fonts

What’s it like to be a guest typography expert on live television?

“Welcome to Sunday Brunch Live, Sarah welcome back to the show…”

I love being the occasional typography expert for Sunday Brunch, Channel 4 Television’s live TV show here in the UK. It’s always an exciting opportunity to share my type-themed games and demonstrations with a mainstream audience, which is something I’ve specialised in since launching Type Tasting.

Knowing that well over half a million people watch each show really gets the adrenaline pumping while I’m sitting in the green room watching the time counting down. It’s a very surreal feeling. But the presenters are absolutely brilliant at making the guests feel relaxed—I think that’s their superpower. When my very first appearance was about to start, presenter Simon Rimmer leaned over and whispered “I love typography” to me with a big smile. This turned my nerves into enthusiasm, and you can tell that we were having fun when you watch.

Presenters Simon and Tim Lovejoy have joined me for font sniffing, to chat about how menus can influence your appreciation of a meal and I’ve analysed their personalities from their font choices. I’ve talked about type trends in popular culture and where they come from. There are always lots of props and visuals. It’s fun preparing the content because the graphics team at the production company get excited about creating the visuals for the segment. After all, it’s all about typography!

It’s fascinating to see behind the scenes of live television and to know just how much goes into creating a show. I was surprised to discover that the studio’s pretty small and not the spacious environment I used to imagine when I watched. The table for my interviews is right on the edge of the kitchen, so I wait very quietly for the cooking to end and hope my stomach doesn’t decide to growl from the smell of the food. Then I have to tiptoe quietly out of the studio as soon as my segment ends. The adrenaline shakes are setting in at that point so I have to be extra careful not to trip over cables and duck under lights carefully so I don’t knock them out of position. It’s interesting to see how different people calm their nerves in the green room beforehand, especially the really famous guests who must have done this so many times.

Thank you to my expert friends who help with the content. Especially beer writer Pete Brown for the beer label history and Pixel Press for loaning their stunning tray of “slab serif case number 7” letterpress wood type.

I look forward to popping up on television again soon, maybe on Sunday Brunch again.

Radio interviews

🔊Word of Mouth BBC Radio 4: Michael Rosen with Sarah Hyndman (28 mins)

🔊Saturday Live BBC Radio 4 with Sarah Hyndman (4 mins)

Christmas gifts for graphic designers

Are you looking for a unique gift for the graphic designer in your life? Or someone who loves typography? Are you searching for an unusual Secret Santa gift? Visit the Type Tasting Typography Emporium for a range of items created for font fans young and old. These are all designed by Sarah Hyndman and published by Type Tasting.

Vouchers • T-shirts • Cards • Books • Zines

(More items will be added over the next few weeks, get in touch if you have a request).

Typographic t-shirts

Exclusive Type Tasting t-shirts. Designs range from puns and ampersands to asterisk snowflakes and secret messages hidden in Letraset-inspired designs. The t-shirts are 100% organic cotton printed by Teemill in the UK in a renewable energy-powered factory. Worldwide shipping is available.

Check out the full range of t-shirts

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Typographic greetings cards

Send an exclusive typetastic card. The ampersand and asterisk cards are the current top sellers. Printed in the UK by Thortful with worldwide shipping on premium quality paper stock with a premium grey GF Smith embossed envelope. “Everything is lovely about them. Even the envelopes” Theo.

Go card shopping

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Typographic colouring books

Passive Aggressive Fonts
Typographic colouring book for adults
By Sarah Hyndman

Colour your fonting frustrations away. Vent your vexations colouring a confrontation of snarky fonts. Exorcise your exasperations as you creativity the heck out of an antagonism of tetchy typefaces. Scribble your way through a clamour of passive aggressive phrases. Including those classic fonts you love to hate.

Buy on Amazon.co.uk £4.99
Buy on Amazon.com $5.99
Also available on Amazon worldwide, choose your local territory

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Typography time machine gift vouchers
Draw & learn online workshop series
Series gift voucher £40 / £190

Curious to know why there are so many typefaces? Intrigued by where the different styles come from? Fonts are like magical time machines. They transport you to different times and places. They conjure up stories of decadence, revolutions, transformation and ingenuity.

Check out the series & buy a gift voucher

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Fontosaurs, when dinosaur fonts roamed the earth

T-shirts, birthday cards and colouring books for the young dinosaur fans in your life. They’ll learn to recognise the letters in each dinosaur’s name with fonts matched to the personality of the each prehistoric creature. Fontosaurs evolved from a typographic collaboration between Sarah and her then 12-year-old nephew Eddie.

Check out all the prehistoric items in the shop

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Books and zines

From the bestselling Why Fonts Matter, the Type Dating Card Game to zines that accompany published scientific studies.

Visit the Type Tasting Typograpy Emporium

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Typography Time Machine drawings shown (left to right, top to bottom). Terrific Tuscans drawings are by Olivia Krawczyk, @minarama, Sarah Wilson, Mina Bach, @stircreativenz and Kat Gaska. Book to Poster drawings are by Amy Muddle, @typographHer, @minarama, @jenna_b_design, @nicewriting, @thecreativeapes, @Jenna_b_design and @mycolourfullife.online. Sans (Serif) Seekers drawings are by Jenny Monds, Kat Gaska, @stonkingfidosetc, Olivia Krawczyk, Jitka Hrůzová.

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

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.

Continue reading →

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

Continue reading →

Learn in lockdown & meet people around the world

As another lockdown is about to begin here in England I’ve been thinking about ways I can help at a difficult time for so many. I’m creating new Learn in lockdown workshops on Sundays starting this coming weekend (scroll down to see the dates and topics). These are interactive and fun creative sessions, which are suitable for all levels and you can join in from anywhere in the world.

I know from the conversations I have with so many of you that there’s a shared feeling of loneliness and isolation during lockdowns. In response to this, my live Zoom workshops are packed with interactivity and you’re encouraged to keep your cameras on where possible so we all feel like we’re in the same room together.

There’s an option for a small group to join me for a chat after the event. I’ve been finding that this is a wonderful opportunity to talk about the event with people from around the world and to hear how so many of our experiences are shared.

Continue reading →

What’s your typographic superpower?

A meditation in typography for people with a fondness for fonts.

A fun game created by Adobe Fonts and Sarah Hyndman to showcase the new browse-by-tags feature that lets you help build the Adobe Fonts collection of tags. More fonts and tags will be added in the future.

The game was built by Oddbird with sound created by Rob Taliesin Owen.

Play the game here https://game.fonts.adobe.com/

Continue reading →

Scary letters & frightening fonts (Draw & learn online)



Get spooky creating your own scary words to haunt your social media or to frighten your friends and family.

Come on a chilling tour of frightening fonts—from Victorian book covers and ghostly fairground rides to childhood sweet wrappers and horror movie posters. Draw along and create letters inspired by sounds that will chill you to your core. Learn about fonts and discover the thing that will truly scare the graphic designer in your life.

This is an hour of truly terrifying typography? Do you dare to join in?

Join in live for an hour of spooky fun, with a unique-to-you link to the recording of that session for 24-hours so you can take part on catchup at a time that suits you.

Price per person £8 / £4 (those financially impacted by Covid-19).
Advance booking essential, the number per session is capped so don’t miss out.

** Book with friends, 20% discount for 3+ tickets (applies to full-price tickets) **

This workshop is designed for adults, older children are welcome to join in if they have an adult with them to help, each child’s ticket is £4.

This is a brand new event, I’d appreciate it if you would please click ‘interested’ on the Facebook page here.

Continue reading →

Why are there so many fonts?

Final weeks — book now or miss out! This is the most effective way to learn about fonts. Learn why there are so many different styles: from politics to pop-culture and where you’ll encounter them today.

No knowledge of typography is needed, just your curiosity. Draw along as you learn with a Spotify soundtrack.

Three x half-hour sessions are broadcast live on each topic then available to watch at a time that suits you. Recordings are only available for three weeks after the live broadcasts end.
£9.50 / £6 (students and those financially impacted by coronavirus).
Book here

 

Sunday Type Safari for The Design Museum

Take part in #FontSunday for The Design Museum

Every week The Design Museum hosts #FontSunday on Twitter. I’m excited that I’m hosting this event on Sunday. I’d love to see the wonderful fonts that represent your activities for the day. What eye-catching logos, packaging, labels or signs do you plan to interact with?

Post your photos on Twitter from 12 noon with #TypeSafari @DesignMuseum. I’ll be chatting and sharing photos throughout the afternoon and The Design Museum will be retweeting their favourites. Take part and you could have your photos shared by The Design Museum!

We’d love to see the beautiful fonts that represent your activities for the day. What labels, mastheads or wrappers reveal your Sunday rituals? Post your photos from noon on Sunday.