I agree. There should be something offered stateside. Like a week long intro course. Maybe more, if there is enough demand. Full days. I spent 2 semesters at pcad in letterform design, and I still feel like a need more. Of course, east coast / west coast folks would be the lucky ones.

As a side note, if Jonothan Hoefler would take me on, I’d clean his house and sleep on the door step. I might need some crackers and water. But I’m good for it...

http://typophile.com/node/13190 ... Hmm... Wink Wink.

You can get Federal Student Loans to study in Britain. The University of Reading seems to have the best course (the one year MA Type Design program) in type design around…

There is another program in the Hague. That is about it for real [post-graduate] education in Type Design.

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www.typeoff.de

The in deep knowlege of type design was from the beginnig till today a secret & mystic thing. Dont underestimate the mystic part for the outsiders - the customers.

—astype.de—

>>You can get Federal Student Loans to study in Britain. The University of Reading seems to have the best course (the one year MA Type Design program) in type design around…

How do you do that Dan? I was thinking of doing this, but couldn’t find any affordable ways to do so. I went up to the school in April because I was thinking of applying for a fellowship there.

What also of those who already have Master’s Degrees?

How do you do that Dan?
I went to Germany instead of Britain for graduate study. So I don’t know the details. But all the Brit-catalogs that I saw made it sound like a total paperwork thing. Many had a specific page for American students. I think that Grad. Students can take ouy $7,500/year in subsidized loans, and up to $18,500 in subsidized + unsubsidized. Britain is very expensive for students who are American citizens.

What also of those who already have Master’s Degrees?
I don’t have any graduate degrees. But one can always get another Master’s Degree ;-)

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www.typeoff.de

>Britain is very expensive for students who are American citizens.
You can say that again. When I was in London a couple of months on a sort of type related vacation (yes, I’m that big of a nerd) I discovered how difficult and expensive studying abroad could actually be for Americans.

>But one can always get another Master’s Degree ;-)
Indeed. :)

Not sure why I’m part of the incantation of this item’s title, but hey — I’ll give it a shot!

>it seems to me that type design is like 007. top secret

Annoying, isn’t it? I suspect this is because typefounding has its roots in the guild tradition, in which master craftsmen were deeply reluctant to share their trade secrets. (There’s an anecdote about young Joseph Jackson, apprenticed to William Caslon, learning his trade by boring a hole through the master’s wall; this sums it up.) Christopher Plantin’s “Dialogues,” which purport to explain type design to the lay public, are riddled with intentional errors (though the book is still a good read), and Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises” is similarly oblique by design.

There are a lot of personal monographs about lettering, even more about typefounding, but only occasional writings about typeface design that are really on point. I really like Fred Smeijers books, “Counterpunch” especially (it’s a farrago of ideas, every bit as thoughtful, inventive and thorough as Fred himself), but it’s not really a manual about how to design fonts. Gerrit Noordzij’s books are also great, of which “Letterletter” may be the one that’s of greatest practical use to someone wanting to learn how to design typefaces. You can generally find Dwiggins’ things through inter-library loan, and both “WAD to RR: A letter about designing type” and “Layout in Advertising” (ignore the misleading title) offer some genuine insights.

> is there a chance that you and other type designers
> will develop a deep course about type design

A lot of type designers do teach courses on type design. Tobias Frere-Jones and Matthew Carter co-teach an excellent class in the Yale MFA program, and I’m always impressed by the students’ output: more than just drawing good letters, they really learn to develop the kind of clarity of purpose that makes a good typeface. Cyrus Highsmith teaches a type design class at RISD, Erik van Blokland teaches at KABK in The Hague, and Gerry Leonidas runs an outstanding program in Reading — we’ve hired type designers out of all of these programs. If you’re interested in type design and thinking about going back to school, I’d really encourage you to talk to one of these folks about their programs.

A lot of type designers also participate in workshops. Jean-François Porchez leads workshops in a variety of places, and the guys from Underware host a travelling workshop that looks every bit as exciting as their fonts are. Most accessibly, many type conferences have a parallel “hands-on” track in which accomplished type designers teach their specialties. (