E-motional type with world-renowned typographers and designers
Posted on: 13 Mar 2012
Written by: Ngaire Ackerley
How often is it that you get to meet someone that inspired your design and typography career from the early days of your design education?
Last week this is exactly what I had the pleasure of doing. The British Library in London hosted an event about E-motional Type as part of their Spring Festival. It was here that I heard mini-lectures from the likes of Neville Brody, Jon Wozencroft, Adrian Shaughnessy, Jonathan Barnbrook and Teal Triggs.
Each speaker was given roughly 10 minutes to talk about their opinions on the role of type and visual language, with discussions about typography and graphic design following that. It was an interesting mix of lectures and discussions. Neville Brody spoke of his work with Fuse magazine and his thoughts relating to illegible and organic type. Jon Wozencroft went on to talk about his ideas for the future of type design and where it could be going.
Following on, Jonathan Barnbrook and Teal Triggs brought up some interesting projects that they’ve worked on. Jonathan showed how influential our surroundings can be on type design. His Northern Ireland Font Project proposed a new font that he had created and suggested new typography for some of the Belfast murals. Teal Triggs showed how her feminist type character keeps making a come back and how influential type can be in the political eye. Adrian Shaughnessy did not disappoint either, being both a great host with a sense of humour throughout the evening and discussing his research work relating to designer, Herb Lubalin.
The evening was a great success. I even got to shake the hand of someone who was a true inspiration during my design and typography education, Neville Brody. I believe it is events like this that can provide the encouragement needed to fuel creativity and take more notice of the things that surround us, that could influence our design. I’d like to thank the British Library for putting on such a great event and hope to see similar ones in the future.
Below, are some photographs I snapped from the E-motional Type evening.
