TypeCon2010: Babel

Get TypeCon discounts, Interrobang magazine, and help us support the type community!


 

Visit TypeCon on Flickr


Education Forum

2010 Type & Design Education Forum

Date: Thursday, August 19th
Time: 9:00 am – 5:30 pm
Location: Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles
Fee: $100

Whether you are new to teaching, still a student, or have been in the trenches for years, you will be right in the middle of some of the best typography educators in the country. Take advantage of exciting assignment, creative teaching methodologies presentations and workshops from educators like Peter Bain, Denise Gonzales Crisp, Michelle Bowers, Joerg Becker, and Hank Richardson. This is truly a one-of-a-kind opportunity for typography educators and students to learn, share, and network — you won’t want to miss it. Please join us for an ‘incredibabel’ experience!

Forum Agenda

9:00 - 9:15
Welcome & Announcements

9:15 - 9:45
Denise Gonzales Crisp
Refiguring Typography Pedagogy
Presentation: 15 minutes
Skype Q & A with class: 15 minutes

9:45 - 10:00
Jorg Becker
Assignment: Teaching Triviality?

10:00 - 10:15
Jimmy Luu
Assignment: Change is Not Pretty

10:15 - 10:30
Julie Spivey
Assignment: 25 Personal Business Cards: A Complete Introductory Level Typography Project

10:30 - 10:45
Barry Roseman
Assignment: Integrating Transportation Timetable Information into Typography Education

10:45 - 11:00
Coffee Break

11:00 - 11:15
Erin Hauber
Icebreaker: Always Be Able to Answer Why: Getting Students to Develop Typographic Concept

11:15 - 11:30
Steve Mehallo
Icebreaker: Tell Lies in the Classroom and Get Away With It

11:30 - 11:45
Cate Roman
Assignment: Typographic Culture

11:45 - 12:00
Juliet Shen
Icebreaker: Developing Typocular Vision

12:00 - 12:15
Milka Broukhim
Icebreaker: Experimentation With Type

12:15 - 12:30
Rose Newton
Assignment: Typography Spotter Cards

12:30 - 2:30
Lunch Break

2:30 - 3:00
Dr Shelley Gruendler
Christopher Swift
Michael Hernan
Innovative Programming at Langara College in Vancouver

3:00 - 3:15
Donald Tarallo
Assignment: Words in Time

3:15 - 3:30
Melissa Flicker
Assignment: And Per Se and Then…

3:30 - 3:45
Sharon Oiga & Guy Villa
Assignment: Learning From Vernacular Type

3:45 - 4:00
Laura Franz
Assignment: Weaving Traditional Knowledge into New Practices: Typographic Web Design

4:00 - 4:15
Coffee Break

4:15 - 5:45
Workshops
See below for descriptions

5:45 - 6:00
Hank Richardson & Albert Whitley
Wrap Up Presentation


Workshops

Joey Hannaford
Calligraphy
Creating historical letterforms by hand can create “Aha” moments for beginning typography and design students. As soon as students physically experience making letterforms themselves, they begin to absorb many abstract and non-abstract concepts of typography such as nomenclature, anatomy, spacing, stress, contrast, and historic evolution in ways that connect them to the details of the letterforms. This experience creates a very different learning environment than the one created by using a computer alone. This workshop will explore some simple ways to incorporate this into the classroom. The emphasis will not be on creating perfect letterforms (as this is a skill that must develop over a long period of time) but rather how to incorporate basic hand techniques to facilitate student understanding of typography. (Materials fee: $10)

Peter Bain
Blackletter Construction
This workshop will develop a lowercase blackletter alphabet using common lettering tools and paper. The model will be a textura, or straight-sided form, based on historic sources adapted to contemporary needs. Techniques taught will explore the kinesthetic and visual forces that influence the design of blackletter. Variations will also be derived from the basic model. Beyond gaining experience in executing an alphabet, the workshop will make comparative letterform analysis with other styles and introduce principles of broad-edge writing. (Materials fee: $10)

Ricardo Martins
Typestorm
When some students have to look at a white sheet of paper and create original type shapes, they freeze. This workshop allows people, even without typographic skills, to be able to generate spontaneous ideas and get new solutions to type design. It consists of using the technique of lateral thinking to force associations between seemingly unrelated keywords and the design of the letter “n”, low caps. So, the keywords trigger ideas and allow students to unfreeze. Then, after make several letters n, the student can choose one of them and then derive the other letters, such as m, u, p, b, d, q …

Ben Van Dyke & Michelle Bowers
Needle in a Haystack
A workshop on fostering design literacy by exposing hidden gems and rare resources inside the infinite veins of the interwebs. There’s a never-ending supply of new content and seems impossible to stay ahead of the curve. This problem plagues design faculty looking for inspiration and resources for the classroom. With the web being a vast, un-policed playground for typographers and designers, finding inspired, original design work is like striking gold. From the 1st year grads at the RCA to freshman designers in Beijing, this workshop will shed light on the dark corners of the design world and develop a web page, continuously updated for our group to rely on in the upcoming semester(s). Interwebsticles no more!