Art Talks: Revival Type | Paul Shaw, Tracy Ma, Sara Soskolne | Design and Style Series Event

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There are over 200,000 typefaces (fonts) available today. This has led many people to ask why we need new ones. Moreover, why do we need new versions of older typefaces? The notion of reviving past typefaces began in the Victorian era and took permanent root when William Morris looked to 15th century Venice as a source for his Kelmscott Press types. Since then revivals of classic types—an often-debated term—has become a routine activity for type foundries, even in the face of modernists who have called for new typefaces to express the spirit of the times. Today, there are not only type revivals of classic designs but of obscure and odd types from the past, and of letterforms (from inscriptions, manuscripts, graffiti and other sources) that never previously existed as type.

Join Paul Shaw, the author of the new book Revival Type: Digital Typefaces, type designer Sara Soskolne, and  graphic designer Tracy Ma for a discussion and debate about what type revivals are and whether or not we need them.

In Revival Type, Paul Shaw and his collaborator Abby Goldstein provide a visually rich exploration of many of the new font designs based on revivals of typefaces, letterforms, inscriptions, calligraphic manuals, posters, and book jackets from the pre-digital past.

The book deftly introduces these fonts, many of which are widely used on computers and mobile devices, and engagingly tells their stories. Handsomely illustrated with annotated examples, archival material depicting classic designs, and character sets of modern typefaces, Revival Type is a fascinating tour through typographic history. 

Among the typefaces profiled are variations on classic designs by Claude Garamont, William Caslon, John Baskerville, and Giambattista Bodoni, as well as typefaces inspired by less familiar designers such as Richard Austin, Isaac Moore, and Eudald Pradell. There are also updates and revisions of twentieth-century classics such as Palatino, Gill Sans, and Neue Haas Grotesk (Helvetica).

Copies of Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the Past (Yale University Press, 2017) are available for purchase and signing at the end of the event.

Paul Shaw is a graphic designer and design historian. He teaches typography at Parsons School of Design and the history of type at the School of Visual Arts and at California Rare Book School. His many publications include Helvetica and the New York City Subway System (2009), The Eternal Letter: Two Millennia of the Classical Roman Capital (2014), and Blackletter: Type and National Identity (1998). The American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Type Directors Club, and the Art Directors Club have honored his design work. He is the designer or co-designer of eighteen typefaces.

Tracy Ma is a Hong Kong-born, Canadian graphic designer now living in New York where she runs her own studio. She graduated from York University (Toronto) in 2010. Between 2011 and 2016 she worked for Bloomberg Businessweek, first as a guest designer and eventually as Deputy Creative Director. After that she worked for the experimental and short-lived Matter Studios, a spin-off from Medium. She is considered to be one of the best young graphic designers working today and has already garnered awards from the Type Directors Club, Print magazine, the Society of Print Designers and other professional organizations.

Sara Soskolne is senior typeface designer at Hoefler & Co. Though originally a graphic designer in Toronto, her increasing fascination with typeforms eventually led her to study typeface design at the University of Reading. Her master’s dissertation on the evolution of sans serif typefaces in the 19th century sparked a research project that is continuing today. Since joining H&Co in 2005, Sara has contributed to the design of numerous families including the historically-inspired Verlag, Chronicle, Gotham, Sentinel, and Ringside; and Quarto, a revival of a 16th-century typeface by Henrik van den Keere.

Conceived and organized by Arezoo Moseni and in its sixth year, Design and Style is a series of events featuring discussions and presentations by leading professionals in the various design fields.

The event is free and advanced registration is recommended. 

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