Teaching a Love for Type

Typography and letterforms have always been intimidating but essential foundational aspects of a design education. For non-designers too, a basic appreciation of type opens up new eyes for the world around. With the global resurgence of interest in lettering and calligraphy over the last decade, skills have grown but so has the understanding gap— those that become limited in their approach early, miss out on the larger context and often hesitate to engage with it. Over 15 years of teaching design, various formats of workshops and conducting my own experiments, I’ve been developing methods to enable students to— what I’m known to call— ‘Make Friends with Type’. My approach is to simplify, introduce play, bodywork, humour and high energy assignments, yet to eventually lay a good foundation for further learning or specialisation. Perhaps even invite seasoned professionals to discover new approaches or collaborations. I will share the thought process and learnings from these sessions, images and behind-the-scenes of popular assignments like typerventions, water lettering and multi-lingual type walks in India, peppered with lots of hilarious and heartwarming moments that are bound to happen when a young class is having a blast with words! My presentation is as light and playful in its tone as my workshops, but its intent is also as serious— more conversation and collaboration with type teachers around the world on how to make the world of type accessible to really anyone at all.