All posts by Prof. Mary Brown

Class 1 – Introduction & Letterforms

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to typography, it’s principals, terminology and it’s relationship to the world of graphic design.

During the first class we discussed the history of the letterform and the evolution of the alphabet. You may download the slides from that presentation here.

If you need to replace your syllabus for the semester, you may download a new one at any time from here.

In Class Exercise

As an exercise in using type as a way visualizing words, students were asked to pair up and interview each other. From the information they learned  about their classmate, they created a biographical name tag. The name should be lettered in such a way that it served as a visual description of the person interviewed.

name tags
A few of the name tags done in class.

 

Homework Assignment
  • Take at least 20 photos of typography or lettering in your neighbor.
  • Write a one page paper (typed and double-spaced) on what that typography tells you about your neighborhood,  and add it to your Journal.
  • Save the photos for a later project.
Additional Resources

Origins of the Alphabet