Events
The Hybrid Alphabet Workshop
with Yomar Augusto
Create your own alphabet, from analog to digital, inspired by vintage typography or hand-lettered signage.
- Date
- Time
Participants will select source material from old street typography or lettering, signs, façades, hand-painted letters, and other time-worn traces with strong character and history. Rather than refer to the usual contemporary branding and design, the goal is to be inspired by typography shaped by use, context, and age.
Once the source is chosen, participants will analyze each image typographically, defining a list of specific characteristics for each. These lists will act as profiles, identifying the key traits that will later be combined to form a hybrid alphabet.
With these characteristics defined, participants will move into hand-drawn exploration, using sketching techniques to build the initial alphabet. Emphasis will be placed on form, rhythm, and consistency, allowing the personality of the new typeface to emerge through drawing.
In the final phase, participants will translate their hand-drawn work into a digital format, creating a simple initial alphabet that can be used in their own design projects while preserving the character developed during the analog process.
Sign up before January 29th for a 10% discount!
Required Materials
- Sketchbook
- White paper / different sizes
- Pencils from 1B to 6B
- Ruler
- Computer (Mac preferred)
- Tracing paper
- Black markers
- Two (or more) photographs from OLD typefaces on signs, facades, and the like that can be found near their houses. Try to shoot these as straight-on/frontal as possible.
Diversity and Equity Scholarship
Diversity and Equity are important to all of us at Letterform Archive, and we are committed to increasing opportunities for underrepresented groups within the type and design communities.
We are offering one BIPOC/Equity scholarship seat in this workshop.
To apply for this scholarship, please complete and submit to us the short form linked here at least a week prior to the start of the workshop
Yomar Augusto
Yomar Augusto is a Brazilian-American multidisciplinary designer, typographer, educator and artist with an international presence. Raised in Rio de Janeiro, he trained as a graphic designer before expanding into photography at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He later earned a Master’s in Type Design at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands. Yomar has exhibited his work worldwide and collaborated with brands such as Absolut Vodka, Coca-Cola, MTV, and Adidas, developing a custom typeface for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He has worked in Brazil, Europe, and the U.S., balancing fine art and commercial projects. As an educator, he has taught typography, experimental calligraphy, and book arts at institutions including Otis College of Art and Design, SDSU, School of Visual Arts, Fashion of Institute of Technology, Danish Royal Academy, Bauhaus University and Willem de Kooning Academy in The Netherlands. He has also led workshops globally and spoken at the Type Directors Club in New York. After nearly a decade in the Netherlands, Yomar returned to New York before relocating to California, where he continues to explore the intersection of design, typography, and fine art.
