From twenty six shapes to infinity this studio asks you explore the beauty and the power of letterforms in their infinite variety and their infinite possibilities. These twenty six shapes have over 2,000 years communicated concepts both profound and banal, have sustained cultures, have clarified complexities and have made human beings laugh and cry, find joy and express deep sadness. They are such a brilliant design; they can be beautiful and ugly, cool and hot. They are fundamental to Communication Design. Often their use is presented as almost a science, called 'typography' which is undoubtedly very important, but the use of letterforms can also be understood as an art, where their forms, rhythm and patterns, play an essential role in developing communication strategies.

In this studio we are emphasising the art of the use of letterforms as they relate to conceptual and strategic communication, we are focussing on the beauty of the forms and how they interplay with conceptual development and we are highlighting the role intuition plays in the development of typographic solutions to communication design challenges. You will learn to love letters and their role in our lives, this studio is like a love letter, straight from our hearts.  

As designers our role is to engage our audiences, to entice them to take notice of our message. 
Of the many ways this can be done, the use of letterforms is fundamental. The use of letterforms is as ubiquitous in our daily lives as food. Like food they are fundamental to our existence, unlike food which is essential to our physical well being, letterforms are essential to our ability to reason and objectivity; they are essential to our intellectual well being. Almost everyone uses these letterforms to read and write, designers however, take the use of letterforms from a personal usage to a more sophisticated level through the use of typefaces. As designers engage their audiences through words expressed in type they move abstract concepts into a visual reality. By using intuition, designers can enhance a concept; just as chefs work to the highest level to create beautiful food, designers work to the highest typographic levels to achieve exquisite communication design. 
To this end in this studio you will build on your understanding of the nature of our letterforms you will discover the rich and intriguing  history of these letterforms and their subsequent development into type and its various manifestations, including the the mysteries and myths of typography. Through experimentation and exploration you will learn to love letters as if they have come straight from your heart. 

Throughout this semester you will explore unique approaches to letterforms and typography. You will be asked to experiment, take risks, challenge accepted ideas and embrace mistakes. We will investigate the history of the Roman alphabet and we will briefly look at other traditions of the visual forms of the written word. We know that having a knowledge of what has gone before will provide you with the background and give you confidence in developing your individual approach to letterforms and typography.

We will investigate numerous approaches to the use of letterforms and type from fine art practices to the individual approaches of various design gods. We will launch you onto your own design god status by learning to love letters. AND we will teach you to 'antfuck'.

In this studio you will be expected to:
Experiment
Delve
Destruct / Construct
Make mistakes and own them
Use your intuition
Take risks
Be brave
And create, astonishingly creative typographic solutions communication design challenges.

This studio has 3 interwoven assessment tasks/projects that inform one another:
Brief 1. Big Type: display
Brief 2. Little Type: close up
Brief 3. Organised Type: guidelines to narrative

Some of the things we recommend 
and will refer to within our studio are: 
The Art of Looking Sideways: Alan Fletcher 
Paul Rand: Steven Heller 
How To: Michael Beirut 
Beautiful Evidence: Edward Tufte
Type for Type: Victionary