In this 10-week online course students will create their own original typefaces as they gain an understanding of the methodologies and software used to produce high-quality digital type.

The primary goal of this course is to show how to think about type systematically and successfully structure the type design process. The course will focus on techniques and best practices for designing and spacing type, but will also introduce students to the conceptual foundations of type design, proofing and testing your work, and the structure of type families. Students will work in Glyphs App throughout the week and upload homework before the class for review. During class, students will learn various lessons about type, practice sketching, and get feedback on their type projects.

This course is suitable for designers just starting to think about type and for designers with some type design experience hoping to develop their skills and processes. Some experience with drawing Bézier curves (in Adobe Illustrator, for instance) and with typography is recommended but not required. This is a great course for anyone interested in applying to the Type West Postgraduate Certificate Program in Type Design.

Students will work on their own laptops, which must be running Mac OS X 10.10 or higher. (We recognize that this is a barrier to entry. While we don't have a solution currently, we want to hear from you if you would take this class but cannot because of the computer requirement.)

A free temporary license for Glyphs App will be made available to all participants. The class is capped at fifteen students to allow for more one-on-one instruction.

Kel Troughton is a freelance type designer and lettering artist who gets an equal amount of inspiration from mid-century advertising and Bay Area graffiti. He graduated from the Type@Cooper West program in 2018, was the teaching assistant for Type West in 2019, and worked at Monotype. Kel is one of the co-teachers in the year-long Type West at Letterform Archive certificate program.

You can find him in the East Bay drawing and photographing letters and you can find his typeface Oaks on Future Fonts. You can also follow him on Instagram and Twitter.