Over 25 years, Tobias Frere-Jones
has established himself as one of the world’s leading typeface designers,
creating some of the world’s most widely used typefaces, including Interstate,
Poynter Oldstyle, Whitney, Gotham, Surveyor, Tungsten and Retina.
Frere-Jones received a BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992. He joined the faculty of the Yale University School of Art in 1996 and has lectured throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. His work is in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2006, The Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague (KABK) awarded him the Gerrit Noordzij Prijs, for his contributions to typographic design, writing and education. In 2013 he received the AIGA Medal, in recognition of exceptional achievements in the field of design. Tobias launched his new type design practice, Frere-Jones Type, in January 2015.
Frere-Jones received a BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992. He joined the faculty of the Yale University School of Art in 1996 and has lectured throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. His work is in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2006, The Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague (KABK) awarded him the Gerrit Noordzij Prijs, for his contributions to typographic design, writing and education. In 2013 he received the AIGA Medal, in recognition of exceptional achievements in the field of design. Tobias launched his new type design practice, Frere-Jones Type, in January 2015.
Sessions
Typeface Mechanics
Thursday, May 7 • 3:00 – 3:45pm
Our eyes are stubbornly irrational, especially when reading type. We will see conflicts in letterforms where none should exist, and find noise in balance. Type design must therefore include a kind of stealth and stagecraft, where shapes are made different so we will believe they are equal. Tobias Frere-Jones will offer a crash course in this essential but undocumented aspect of the design process. In type, what you see is never what you think you see.
3 Main Take- Aways:
- Understand why logic and optics - what the type designer intends and what the reader sees - hardly ever agree
- Learn why letterforms must accommodate the eye’s constant misapprehension
- Learn how typefaces designers present one shape to suggest another
