Developing a custom typeface. From brief to sketch.
During the course of the workshop we will walk through the process of getting a request for a custom typeface from a client to creating a refined brief and sketching your first sketched proposals.
Topics to cover in the workshop:
- How to approach a custom typeface request
- Which information do you need before the start
- Briefing a custom typeface
- Typeface parameters and how to they make us perceive a typeface in a certain way
- Sketching a custom typeface proposal
Goals of the workshop:
- Learn what information you need to form a precise brief for a custom typeface
- Learn to be specific when talking about a typeface
- Learn to use sketching in your design process
- Learn how to make your client become part of the design process
Skills to strengthen:
- Working with client’s requests and refining them
- Typeface classification / typeface parameters
- Incorporating sketching in your daily design routine
Material required for the participant:
- Laptop with preinstalled graphic design software (Adobe, Figma or similar)
- White paper for sketching (ideally — marker paper, but plain while office paper will work)
- Black sharpies
- White out
- Scissors
- Small transparent tape (to hold together cut pieces of paper)
- White tracing paper (optional)
Maria Doreuli
Maria Doreuli is the founder of an independent studio Contrast Foundry, a type designer, creative director and educator. Originally from Moscow, she relocated to California and opened her second company in the US. Maria believes in the power of emotion and challenging yourself. Traditional and experimental, self initiated and commercial, her projects have been honored by many international awards—ADC, Communication Arts, Morisawa, Red Dot and Type Directors Club (New York) among others. In her free time Maria likes to go overlanding and bake sourdough bread.