By Sarah Hyndman
Learn, socialise & create
Angels to Demons: Blackletter Workshop
Three hour workshop and talk
The workshop can be held at a venue of your choice, or up to 15 can be accommodated in the Type Tasting Studio, The Chocolate Factory, London N16 7SX.
Unknown Outcomes
Type got experimental at last week’s Letterform Live, with a fascinating set of talks from our crack line up of speakers. Theo Inglis reports for Grafik…
Last Wednesday night saw the third event in Grafik’s Letterform Live series of events, presented in partnership with Monotype and the ISTD, and hosted by Protein Studios in Shoreditch, East London. The audience enjoyed five different speakers, each giving a short but rich and image-filled presentation, kicking off with a single typographic letterform of their choice and spiralling outwards from there. Our chosen theme for the night was ‘Experimental’, something very much open to individual interpretation. As the American designer and theorist Buckminster Fuller once said “There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes”.
The theme of Grafik’s Letterform Live this week was ‘Experimental’, and it was an exciting evening to be a part of. My aim for the evening was to bring a bit of ‘bonkers and magic’ at a time of so much anxiety. We filled the bar with jellybeans and asked the 130 audience members to guess each flavour from the style of the typeface on the label. If you weren’t at the event you can still take part in this experiment here.
I spoke about how amazing the human brain is for the skilful way it creates a ‘sub-programme’ to perform the complex task of reading, which your subconscious performs automatically. Your eyes simply glance over a series of marks in a huge array of shapes and sizes and—as if by magic—stories, ideas, memories, songs, smells are conjured up right there in your mind.
In celebration of the official publication of Why Fonts Matter in the US today we’re looking back over articles and interviews that give a glimpse of the impression we’ve made on the world at large.
Jake Wallis Simons from CNN came to the Type Tasting studio and played a selection of Type Tasting Games. “As bizarre as it sounds, my job is to match up the bottles and fonts using only my sense of smell.”
CNN
What’s your type of lover? How fonts could help you find the perfect date
By Jake Wallis Simons
This year’s seasonal fun from Type Tasting invites recipients to play with one of the multi-sensory typography themes we’ve been experimenting with throughout the year. What smells would you think of as being quintessentially ‘Christmas’ and which typefaces would you match them with?
Posted on 23rd September 2015.
Typeface #3 was described as an “unstable wannabe with no style and a 50s moustache who, on a date, would take you for a hotdog at a bowling alley, all the while smelling of JOOP!”
If Futura Extra Bold was a person, what would they be like? Would you go on a date with them? And what does a typeface smell like? Sarah Hyndman’s Type Tasting games question our responses to fonts. Last weekend, she brought a pop-up version of her workshop to the V&A. Natalie Kelter described what happened for Creative Review.
“This brilliantly bizarre event seems like it could be plucked straight from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Uncover the personalities of your favourite fonts and learn more about your own through a series of multi-sensory games at the V&A.”
Type Tasting at #3 on Rockett St George’s Our Favourite Things to See and Do at This Years London Design Festival
Would you like to learn about type/fonts the Type Tasting way?
The Type Tasting approach takes the viewpoint of the type consumer and explores fonts through experiences and observations from everyday life. The e-learners will feature questions and challenges throughout and at the end there will be a short test which you can submit to have marked. Those who pass will receive a certificate and a virtual button to wear on their website or Facebook page with pride. These are aimed at curious font consumers, no prior typography experience is needed.
Titles in this series of e-learners are planned for later in the year. Each will guide you through learning about an area of type and you can vote for the first titles to be published. Choose which ones you would like when you register your interest*, and the most popular will be the first launched:
Sensory type: From a DIY Type Tasting.
History of type: Told through 10 record covers.
Type classification: From a Dalston Type Safari.
Type & perception: From font personality profiling.
Click here to register your interest in Type Tasting e-learners.
*There is no obligation to buy when you register your interest.
The London Design Festival guide is out, time to pick the events you’d like to go to. Plan your festival well in advance as there is so much to do and the venues are spread across London. The Type Tasting sessions of interactive games and demonstrations with type will take place at the V&A on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th September from 1-4pm each day. These are free to come along to and all are welcome, they’re not just for designers.
This is the Type Tasting top 6 type/lettering events at the London Design Festival 2015
1. Type Tasting games and demos at the V&A (of course we think we’re number 1!)
2. Extravaganza of signpainting old and new in Southwark
3. Watch the art of calligraphy live with Paul Antonio at the V&A
4. Search for and create letterforms at the Lively Letters workshop at the V&A
5. Dia Batal uses the art of Arabic calligraphy to transform text into objects in Earls Court
6. Accept & Proceed launch new typeface Framework in Haggerston
Would you like to volunteer to be on the Type Tasting team for the pop-up event at the V&A for the London Design Festival? I’m looking for a few more brilliant people to join us and to help to make this event a show-stopping one to remember.
Roles include helping to build the tasting booths/games in advance; to set up/clear the room on the Saturday and Sunday; somebody to live tweet the event; and enthusiastic people to man the booths/games.
If you are available for the weekend of Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th of September, and possibly a couple of days/evenings before the event then please get in touch with me (sarah-at-typetasting.com) and let me know why you would like to be a part of this event?
Type Tasting Blog 