David Březina is a type designer and typographer, writer and lecturer, co-founder of the multi-script type foundry Rosetta, and the impresario of the TypeTalks conference. You may know him as a designer of the award-winning type family Skolar. So far, he has designed typefaces for Cyrillic, Greek, Gujarati, Devanagari, and various extensions of Latin.
Workshops at Central St Martins and MATD
The last week in April I spent in London and Reading (rhymes with leading) giving lectures and feedback to students of the Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London) and MA Typeface Design (University of Reading). At CSM I presented a lecture ‘Specifying type consistency’ describing the fundamental principles in type design. One could say it is like the 8 Faces poster packed in a lecture. The first day in Reading was bit more experimental with a workshop (or discussions) on concepts for originality in type design. You can read a little more about it in an article from Ben Mitchell’s keyboard. There are some bright students at both schools, some more graphic-y some more type-y. It was a pleasure to meet you all, your great teachers and to catch up with old friends.
A period of uncontrolled media excitement
First, let me say that the funny picture with a marker was made by my former student Matěj Hanauer. I should be giving him more credit for that, because it makes anything I say seem less serious and that is a good thing.
Second, in India, I have given lectures in Delhi, Ahmedabad (NID), and Mumbai (IIT) and visited quite a few designers in order to promote Rosetta and get in touch with Indian design reality. The trip was already rolling when Kalapi Gajjar Bordawekar invited us to Baroda which was quite off our road by then. “Hey it is Gujarat we have to go and pay him a visit!” And so we did and we had a great time. And somehow he planned a lecture for me to give (small one I thought originally), and it was in a Taj hotel, and under the Association of British Scholars, and even the press got invited. What happened because of this unplanned visit is best described with words ‘frenzy’ and ‘vortex’ and this list:
- Article in Times of India (English, scan)
- Article in Divya Bhaskar (Gujarati, scan)
- Article in Gujarat Samachar (Gujarati, s.)
- Article at iHNed news portal* (Czech)
- Article in Baroda Times* (English, scan)
- Interview in Czech TV (Czech, start 53:11)
- Interview in ČR 7 Radio Prague (English)
*) Take with a pinch of salt. Particularly the remarks about my modeling attitude.
The last one is the best imho. I am very honoured for all of them, though. And if there is any moral behind, it should read: sometimes it is better to visit friends than work hard on your PR. Now, back to drawing letters… but seriously, how cool is that? Such an exposure for Gujarati type design!
India 2012
During February and March, I have been traveling around India as a tourist and as a lecturer (see Rosetta typobites for more info). Here are some selected instagrammed pictures to give you a hint of how I perceived the trip. During the two months we have visited seven Indian states, three main medieval cities and travelled about 4400 km within the country, most of it by train. And indeed we have seen lots of letterings, cowshit, temples, fine patterns, and yes — people. Thank you India for such a great time!
Písmo s Respektem
This article is available only in Czech.
Nedávno vyšel v Respektu č. 47 (21.–27. listopad 2011) článek Lucie Kavanové nazvaný Písmo s charakterem. Typografové, grafičtí designeři a především písmaři by měli nejspíš jásat, že se písmo a jeho tvorba dostává do širšího povědomí, že je „trendy“. Člověk věci znalý však musí povzdechnout nad špatně odvedenou novinářskou prací. Není přece žádný důvod, aby byl obecně napsaný článek také nepřesný a zavádějící.