Every year the highly esteemed International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) creates briefs for graphic design students from all around the world. The best of these works then go up for international assessment in order to foster quality in typographic education and practice. This very special studio has been set up to offer budding typographers an opportunity to respond to these international briefs, rigorously exploring typographic research and design.

This studio course is not just about typographic craft, it is about typographic thinking. The studio require students to undertake research around a chosen ISTD brief, leading to a deep understanding of the topic. Each week we hold stimulating discussions on aspects of typography, design and how it effects the wider world. 

The focus of the studio is the relationship between typographic research, thinking and its final execution, translating research and strategy into finely crafted typographic form. Your chosen brief will require you to consider the target audience, appropriate outcomes and considerable design development. These will be discussed with both your tutor/s and in class discussions.

In this studio you will have a choice from three ISTD briefs – Type Specimen (A project in partnership with Monotype); Milestones (Exploring markers of significance) or Fleurons (the world of the botanical). Your selected brief will be researched, conceptualised and given typographic form throughout the 12 weeks of this course. This studio offers a great deal of creative freedom – for example, there is no set format as this will emerge from research, strategy and design development. It does however have to highly considered, crafted and take physical form. Evidence of process, such as developmental drawings, reference material and technical specifications, will be required.

There will be three assessment tasks, aligning with the parts of the ISTD brief –

1 Research & Strategy
2 Design Development and Final form.
3 SKO worth 30%.

Note: Your RMIT assessment has no bearing on the ISTD assessment should you be chosen to enter.

https://www.istd.org.uk

ISTD: Through its highly acclaimed Assessment scheme, the ISTD engages with universities and institutions across the globe to raise the profile of typography in design education. Our goal is to give both tutors and students the opportunity to explore and develop typography as an inherent part of the design process and thus bring the typographic gesture to the forefront of their design education. Our practice is based upon the printed word but now embraces the gamut of media and technologies that we communicate with. Accordingly, we have progressively written our student project briefs for interpretation through a range of media. How and where we use the written word brings new issues, and also new opportunities to test our skills. First and foremost we are communicators skilfully utilising design to inform, persuade and delight. This makes each project a more demanding yet stimulating exercise.