1. The personal display typefaces are due next week. Many of you are making real progress, and successfully resolving details of proportion and contrast in your work. Chaska’s hand-embroidered script is impressive! I’m excited to see everyone’s final typefaces.

    Few things to keep in mind:

    - Sketch by hand! (not on the computer)

    - Work on a grid. Look at the previous post “Anatomy of Type” to see how to set up a grid.

    - Once the final typeface is finished, how will you photograph the final piece? Will you digitize your typeface?

    - Remember to document your progress and efforts!

    Thanks to Jamie for the in-class documentation photos!

  2. What’s Your Type Reading List: Doyald Young, Art of the Letter

    Doyald youngDoyald Young is recognized as one of the modern masters of the lettering arts. Since the mid-1950s, Young has designed logotypes, corporate alphabets and typefaces all by hand lettering. Young still begins each job in the same manner he learned from his mentor, Joe Gibbey—with an HB pencil on trac­ing paper. “Depending on how long the logo is, I usually make a rough sketch about 1½- to 2-inches wide, sometimes smaller,” says Young.“I draw the letters in skeleton form to see how the word looks. Often, I’ll explore different character shapes and propor­tions and try to make the logo a distinctive shape.”

    While draw­ing letters with a pencil first—rather than constructing them on screen—may seem old school to many young designers, the process allows Young to quickly try many solutions to the design problem. “A rough sketch of a logo takes only a minute or so to do,” he says, although he cautions that in-depth knowledge of different type styles is critical to the process.

    In 2009 AIGA awarded Young the prestigious AIGA Medal for “for demonstrating the power of a lifelong love of the craft of calligraphy, type and graphic design, for his contributions as an author and for his dedication as an educator.”

    Doyald youngDoyald young



    To learn more about him, here a some of the best articles I found online:

    STEP: Doyald Young, Master of Dangerous Curves
    By Allan Haley
    The master lettering artist’s path to prominence leads to Dangerous Curves.

    AIGA 2009: Medalist Doyald Young
    By Marian Bantjes
    How do you get to be one of the greats of graphic design? If Doyald Young is the example, start with a well-rounded education in life, study with the masters, pay homage to your mentors, work hard, work long and, practice, man, practice.

    Letter Cult Interview with Doyald Young
    If Matthew Carter is the greatest living type designer, and Hermann Zapf the greatest living calligrapher, Young completes the trinity as the greatest living designer of logotypes.

    Doyald Young official website

    Purchase Doyald Young books