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The Small Foundry Fund for Type West at Letterform Archive
Introducing a new community-driven funding initiative devoted to expanding access to our Type West program.
We are excited to announce a meaningful way to support Type West students through accessible and high-impact giving. What’s Type West? Type West is a yearlong, postgraduate certificate program in type design available in person in San Francisco or online to students worldwide. We are exceedingly proud of this program, which is now celebrating its tenth year!
How can you support the future of type design through historically grounded, accessible education? Consider joining the Small Foundry Fund.
The Small Foundry Fund is a collective giving initiative powered by smaller, independent type foundries. Through pooled contributions, the Fund supports Type West, with a focus on providing scholarships, opening the program to young and emerging type designers from all over the globe who might not otherwise have access.
By coming together, participating foundries invest in the future of type — preserving the program for years to come, ensuring world class, personalized, small-group instruction, amplifying new voices, expanding the field, making certain that the next generation of designers reflects the diversity and creativity of the communities they serve.
The Fund requires a minimum three-year commitment of $500 with additional tiered giving at $1,000, $2,500 and $5,000 for a range of foundry sizes. In order to support the Type West admission schedule, we ask that annual contributions be received by October 1 each year.
If interested, Fund members also have an opportunity for further engagement with the program. They can:
- Serve as a class critic. Attend a class session to review student work and provide feedback and advice.
- Serve as a portfolio reviewer. Assist in the assessment of applications to determine eligibility for admission to Type West.
- Host a lecture about your foundry. Talk about your foundry as a business, typefaces you create and the influences that led to them, and your professional journey as a typeface designer.
The Small Foundry Fund was initiated by a generous multi-year donation from David Jonathan Ross. Here’s what David has to say about the Fund:
During my 18 years in the type industry, I feel like I’ve been watching the craft of type design begin to blossom. It no longer feels like the closed-off, tucked-away, mystical practice that it once did. The industry feels more open than I have ever seen it—open to sharing knowledge and open to including new and diverse voices in the typographic conversation. It cannot be overstated what a big part Type West and programs like it have played in this change, and I hope that what I’ve seen is just the start.
As a small, one-person foundry, I’ve wondered what I can do to help remove financial hardship as a barrier to entry in our field… simply attending Type West is already rigorous enough without having to worry about how to pay for it! By pooling my small contribution with those from other foundries like mine, I hope we can make a real dent, and support not only budding type designers but also the incredible efforts of the faculty and staff at Type West. — David Jonathan Ross
For more information, to join the Fund as a donor, or to learn about donor acknowledgement, email Lisa Coscino, Associate Director of Membership and Philanthropy.