I'm on a design high, buzzing with the thick, intoxicating beauty of the letter form...
I attended a AIGA free event at RIT last night, I went on a whim and I'm so glad I did!
more info on the event here
The Speaker was Richard Kegler, senior partner and founder of P22 Type Foundry.
He spoke about the history of P22, his inspirations and what drove him to start P22, and of course all things typefaces. there was a list of things I found intriguing. First was the early floppy disc packaging of fonts, and their marketing of them. Second was the inspiration of the fonts them selves derived from found letter forms, such as Leonardo Da Vinci's hand writing, or the hand lettering of John Cage. with the hand lettering of John cage came a composition on CD he had written called 4 1/2 minuets ... at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was called, my notes weren't to clear.
I loved that with many of the fonts they sold came a special little "gift" varying form mugs to a musical CD. The variety of fonts that P22 offers makes it one of my favorite places to go and look at typefaces. (that and Veer.. hehe)
I never realized how intriguing history is and the art of something that already exist. its romantic in a way to find something with so much history and make it available for others to use as inspiration for great design. For example a student taking a type face that was originally designed in Buffalo NY ( one of the only ones before P22) and making it into a wooden type set. all of his work is documented here.
The last thing that he talked about was a project they are working on, concerning the actual construction of a metal typeface, it will be documented in a film to be released this spring, watch the teaser here.
The best part of all of this is the refection I had on myself as a designer and how I use typefaces.
Wedding Invitations are very heavy in typography as an informational printed piece. I extremely enjoy the letter form and have a new appreciation for the tools I use. I have a new wish list of typefaces to purchase and as Mr Kegler said... "good tools are worth paying for"
:)
