Typeface Design : Variable

Catalog description

There is a lot of expression in font files... The challenge is in getting the possibilities out. Relatively speaking, the tools used to craft, produce, and publish typographic forms have never been more plentiful nor more accessible. Computation has fused with form-making and generative processes creating limitless formal, practical, and conceptual potential. Kinetic and dynamic surfaces and screens abound alongside the continued stabilization of variable and color font formats. Unlike experimental font formats of the past, these emerging tools have seen ever-increasing community use, adoption, and advancement. We are in the midst of a (variable) typographic tidal wave. One which will have an unfathomable impact on *how* we communicate and *who* is able to communicate. This is a special topic studio elective on variable (and color!) fonts; from methodologies to visualize variable design spaces to the practical know-how needed to craft them. We will specifically explore variability in relation to the production of type, and curiously chart the number of ways in which the tools/programs of type production can be used (and mis-used) to animate forms (letters or otherwise) in endlessly generative ways. We will navigate the relationship between the history of code, and the history of font production, to find ourselves making within the current context of variable, and color, type technologies. Primarily a studio-centric 'off-road typography' making and prototyping environment, the course's critical dialogue will focus on the transformation of language and communication through these variable design processes.