Typography as received by conventional wisdom is an art and craft that takes many years to learn let alone perfect. This may well be true but how do we then instigate a sense of entitlement, adventure and engagement in type for those who need to start using it with confidence and won’t be waiting around until they know everything before getting stuck in. Second year BA Graphic Design Communication students at Chelsea College of Arts have just finished their Bold Type project: a challenge to create a working display face in just a few weeks using Typetool/Fontlab Studio and Illustrator. Taking inspiration from the spirit of Jon Wozencroft and Neville Brody’s FUSE series and by the promise of communication through the (digital) craft of type design and in the visible resurgence of bespoke typography the students created a series of Bold adventures into the world of type design. Tutors including Bhav Mistry introduced the students to the context of type design and it’s history and set the challenge as part of the Unit Exploring the Professional Brief, the result is a series of typographic specimen sheets and printed samples which can be seen online at boldtype-gdc.tumblr.com (2015/16) and bold-type.tumblr.com (2014/15).
The results of some of this years work can also be viewed in the Chelsea Canteen space during January.
