Two weeks ago I attended a virtual networking event as was suggested during class. I quite enjoy type specimens and while browsing for networking events to attend on Eventbrite I noticed one being hosted by cooper union.
The event was hosted by Cooper-Union and the speaker was well known typographer and type historian Paul Shaw. In this event he went over the long history, and various uses of type specimens within the design industry for designers, and their application for the layperson in the public. It was really interesting to see how type specimens were used for designers and the general public.
The zoom chat during the lecture was very lively, as everyone commented on the type specimens and some attendees elaborated on some of what Mr.Shaw was speaking about in his talk. The benefit of the talk being on zoom rather than in person was the ability for an international audience to partake in the event, and converse while the talk was happening.
One of the funny things about having someone like Mr.Shaw do one of these talks is that he’s very much out of the public eye except for the work and lectures that he does. He’s not active on any social media in any regular way, so it made it difficult to connect with him. That said, I did manage to connect to the host of the talk who is a curator, designer, and researcher at Cooper Union himself. I reached out via Linkedin the next morning, and despite a few days wait Alex Tochilovsky (the curator) accepted my connection request. I simply thanked him for hosting the talk in my message, and I’m sure it helped that it wasn’t just a cold connection. This is a tactic I will be taking with me into my next networking event, which is actually in person on March 6th.
