51-389 Typeface Design : Variable
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
There is a lot of expression in font files... The challenge is in getting the possibilities out. Relatively speaking, the tools used to craft, produce, and publish typographic forms have never been more plentiful nor more accessible. Computation has fused with formmaking and generative processes creating limitless formal, practical, and conceptual potential. Kinetic and dynamic surfaces and screens abound alongside the continued stabilization of variable and color font formats. Unlike experimental font formats of the past, these emerging tools have seen everincreasing community use, adoption, and advancement. We are in the midst of a variable typographic tidal wave. One which will have an unfathomable impact on how we communicate and who is able to communicate. This is a special topic studio elective on variable and color fonts from methodologies to visualize variable design spaces to the practical knowhow needed to craft them. We will specifically explore variability in relation to the production of type, and curiously chart the number of ways in which the toolsprograms of type production can be used and misused to animate forms letters or otherwise in endlessly generative ways. We will navigate the relationship between the history of code, and the history of font production, to find ourselves making within the current context of variable, and color, type technologies. Primarily a studiocentric offroad typography making and prototyping environment, the courses critical dialogue will focus on the transformation of language and communication through these variable design processes.
Prerequisites: none listed
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