Events
Type Etiquette 101
with Angie Wang
Deepen your understanding of the typographic niceties of setting text—from the letter to the page.
- Date
- Time
The text block is fundamental to creating any typographic system, whether on the page or on screen. But what typeface to use and at what size? How do we determine line length and leading? And what about readability and hierarchy?
Over the course of four Wednesday evenings (July 12 through August 2), this in-person workshop will examine typographic details and overarching principles, from the letter to the page. It will begin by considering the interdependence between type size, leading, line length, ragging, and justification and use resources, like Letterform Archive's library of historic type specimen books. After an introduction to traditional methods of shaping the page, students will set continuous text within the grids of a single-column and multicolumn page.
This workshop is for beginning typographers, or for anyone in need of a refresher on setting a well-behaved text block.
Learning Outcomes
- Learn to pay attention to the details of letterforms.
- Become mindful of the intervals of space between letters (kerning and tracking).
- Refine awareness of typographic grain, color, and density as well as the silhouette of the text block.
- Learn to establish hierarchy and organization in page layout.
- Practice type etiquette!
Required Materials
- A laptop with Adobe InDesign installed (Basic knowledge of InDesign is required.)
- Pencil
- Sketchbook
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.
Please note that we limit class size for this workshop, so everyone may receive one-on-one feedback from the instructor.
Angie Wang
Angie Wang is a designer and educator who specializes in typography and typographic systems. She is the Creative Director of Design is Play, the award-winning design and branding studio she founded with partner Mark Fox in 2007. Wang and Fox are co-authors of Symbols: A Handbook for Seeing, published by The Monacelli Press in 2016.
Wang’s work has been exhibited at the Design Museum, London, and the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. It is included in collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London; the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich; the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; the Poster Museum at Wilanów, Warsaw; the United States Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Her work is also represented in the collections of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) in Los Angeles and the Letterform Archive.
Wang is a Senior Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco where she has taught courses in typography since 2004. She is an alumna of UC Berkeley and California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC), and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
