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Typeface design made in Belgium

From 10 September until 2 October 2011, students of the Expert class Type design (EcTd) 2010–2011 at the Plantin Institute for Typography will show their work at the famous Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp, Belgium.

The EcTd course also takes place at the Museum Plantin-Moretus. It spans ten teaching days spread over roughly eight months. In between the lessons the students have to work at home on their projects. As one can read on the Plantin Society website:
“The Expert class Type Design given by the Plantin Institute of Typography examines the ‘secrets’ of contemporary representations of the Latin script (capital, roman and cursive) in detail. The underlying harmonic, proportional and rhythmic structures of characters and the typographical conventions and rules derived from them are analyzed and dissected.”

Ann Bessemans

Stijn Cremers
The type designs may be shaped in Antwerp, yet not all students come from Belgium (although the majority does). Some students hail from the Netherlands, and there was one Danish and one English student this year. Their backgrounds differ from bachelor to master educations in the graphic ﬁeld. Some of the students already had experience in type design and used the course to reﬁne their skills and to enhance their insight. Another student used the course to make a thorough start with a typeface, which is part of a PhD research at Leiden University. Some of the students are lecturing themselves at graphic courses. Above all, all students share a deeply rooted passion for type.

Henrik Kubel 

Jan Neyens
During the course the students investigated the nature and origin of typographic conventions. Partly they did this empirically in the best tradition of Edward Johnston and Gerrit Noordzij, i.e. with pen and ink. Furthermore they explored to which extent writing was responsible for the shaping of movable type and which other factors played a role.

Mario Schellingerhout 

Peter Van Lancker
Participating in the exhibition De magie van het letterontwerpen | Van schets tot digitale letter (The magic of type design | From sketch to digital type) is quite demanding and not every graduating student is taking part. The students who exhibit are (in alphabetical order):
• Ann Bessemans 
• Stijn Cremers
• Henrik Kubel 
• Peter Van Lancker
 • Jan Neyens
 • Mario Schellingerhout 
• Anne Verlent 
• Jeroen Visser 
Of course, it is a unique opportunity to exhibit one’s work at the Museum Plantin-Moretus, as normally only the work of dead people is put on display in this sacred place for typography. The students’ work will be shown in the same building as where one can ﬁnd the ﬁnest work of Gutenberg, Griffo and Garamond.

Anne Verlent 

Jeroen Visser 
Lecturer Frank E. Blokland:
“I will not state here that the Belgian students’ work is the ﬁrst milestone in Belgian type design since the contributions by Van den Keere and Rosart, but it is at least a signiﬁcant one.”

The new EcTd course for 2011–2012 starts on 16 November 2011.

De magie van het letterontwerpen | Van schets tot digitale letter
The magic of type design | From sketch to digital type

September 10, 2011 – October 2, 2011
Opening | Saturday September 10, 2011 – 12:00

Museum Plantin-Moretus / Prentenkabinet
Vrijdagmarkt 22–23 · 2000 Antwerpen
tel. +32 3 221 14 50
email

07.09.2011 - 16.30.06

Posted by Unzipper 4 comments Share on Facebook/Twitter

Comments

Most recent post

Definitely going!

08.09.2011 - 15.12.33

Posted by Thomas

Hey Yves: I hope you can come to the opening ;)

08.09.2011 - 19.17.23

Posted by Peter Van Lancker

Writing this post has secured my attendance. ;-)

08.09.2011 - 19.46.34

Posted by Yves Peters a.k.a. Unzipper

Good Plantin Institute offers a module in type design! It's tought by Frank Blokland. And selected results of those ten classes were shown at Plantin - as simple as that. What does 'Expert Class' stand for? You can't become an expert in ten lessons; so, with all due respect, let's call things what they are.

16.10.2011 - 08.12.01

Posted by Thomas

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