Poster
Inspiring regional design students to engage with typography
Iridescent: Icograda Journal of Design Research, Vol.29 April 2011
agIdeas International Design Research Lab, 2011 (Melbourne, Australia, 03-May-2011–05-May-2011)
2011
Icograda, International Council of Graphic Design Associations
2011
Abstract
This poster discusses inspirational pedagogical moments that reflect upon creative typographic experiences for regional design students from the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). The student's experiences are drawn from a 2-day letterpress workshop at Design College Australia's (DCA) Letterpress studio held during Icograda Design Week Brisbane 2010, and a 4-day typographic workshop with International Designer, Ken Cato. The workshops provided for students an understanding of typography's evocative communicative power and how letterforms can independently standalone purely on their aesthetic value. Throughout their degree USC students learn orthodox ways of using typography. They are provided with a condensed history, learn to choose typefaces, are given an overview of the taxonomy of typographic forms, layout and grids and they learn to create a typeface. However, students are given little opportunity to investigate and experiment with the expressive potential of typography. This includes the manipulation of typographic systems as a critical element of visual communication. USC's Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences play an active role in supporting workshops in which design students are able to explore experiential typographical concepts, including the opportunity to experience the craft of letterpress. It is important to expose students to a breadth of typographic practise, to seek alternative solutions beyond the technical and theoretical. The content and activities were based around typographic design by reworking the parts of a system-the alphabet. The workshops heighten the student's creative and analytical process and are as much iterative as they are inspirational. They helped advance critical thinking and by including experiential play with handcraft letterforms allowed them to think beyond the computer screen. Students who completed the workshops now design more effectively with type due to a new understanding of its intrinsic properties learnt from their practical experiences. They can now begin to master how type properties can be manipulated, and how that manipulation affects the properties of type in return. This poster focuses on the process, the mastery, and the outcomes of extra curricula undergraduate creative typographic workshops for design students.
Details
- Title
- Inspiring regional design students to engage with typography
- Authors
- Debra Livingston (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
- Publication details
- Iridescent: Icograda Journal of Design Research, Vol.29 April 2011; 3
- Conference details
- 2011
- Event details
- agIdeas International Design Research Lab, 2011 (Melbourne, Australia, 03-May-2011–05-May-2011)
- Format
- Photography - analogue
- Publisher
- Icograda, International Council of Graphic Design Associations
- Date published
- 2011
- ISSN
- 1923-5003; 1923-5003
- Organisation Unit
- School of Creative Industries - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449602002621
- Output Type
- Poster
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