Figures with John Downer

A design festival for people who use type.

Typographics Festival

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Have you ever seen a poster, a sign, or an example of hand lettering, and noticed numbers that don’t seem to go with the letters?
What is it about the figures that make them appear incongruous?
When we design figures, why can’t we simply apply the same principles that we use for constructing Latin letters?
Over the course of his long career, sign painter and type designer, John Downer, has made a thorough study of letters and numbers. He has helped students “figure out” how & why the shapes and proportions must look a certain way to be read easily.
Quick recognition of individual figures is important. We read digits one-by-one ... and not as “word shapes.” This means that if even a single digit is indistinct, the reader will experience difficulty.
Avoiding ambiguity is the core objective. John will patiently guide the class through a series of exercises to overcome common pitfalls, and will show various tricks for making numerical characters read well at close range and at long range.
Required Materials
<UL>
<LI>no 2 pencil</LI>
<LI>kneaded eraser</LI>
<LI>pencil sharpener</LI>
<LI>ruler</LI>
<LI>sketch paper around 9" x 12" or bigger</LI>
<LI>some sheets of tracing paper 9" x 12" or bigger</LI>
<LI>black markers with various sized tips from very fine to wide</LI>
</UL>
Mr. Downer has been a journeyman sign painter since 1973, a freelance typeface designer since 1983, and a crusader for designers’ rights his entire adult life in the lettering game. He has written about type and type history for various publications, and he is widely known as a perceptive type critic. His typefaces have been published by <A HREF="http://www.bitstream.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Bitstream</A>, <A HREF="http://www.fontbureau.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Font Bureau</A>, <A HREF="http://www.emigre.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Emigre</A>, <A HREF="http://www.houseind.com/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">House Industries</A>, and Design Lab. Stylistically, his designs refer to various eras of history and means of letterform production: 19th- and 20th-century American sign painting and show card writing; 19th- and 20th-century American chromolithography and wood type; 18th-century European book types; 15th- and 16th-century Chancery cursive writing styles; 15th- and 16th-century Venetian printing; and 2nd-century Imperial Roman epigraphy.

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Figures with John Downer

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