Week 01 — Arrival

September 20, 2015

From my arrival until yesterday, it’s been pretty rainy in Vairano. The weather app predicted a 100% certainty of rain over a period of five days and that is exactly what happened. Unlike other places I’ve been and visited before, rain here seems to be somewhat more intensive and wet. I’ve used the indoor time to settle in, prepared a little desk in front of a window (overlooking an always impressive lake Maggiore) and (re-)considered my project proposal to the Sasso Residency.

I have studied graphic design, yet my interest in letters took roots in an sign-maker apprenticeship I did beforehand. During my studies and up to many years later, becoming a type designer has never occurred to my as an option of profession. Reflecting on it now, it’s mostly due the fact that I’ve experienced type design always with a conation of the upmost possible set of rules and dogmatisms.

I have proposed a project that could be loosely described as an abstract introduction to type design. Aiming for a little guidance, helping to look at forms and it’s relations within a typographic system in order to understand and develop a (visual) sense to its rather basic shapes and their relations — without false dogmatisms and how-to lectures.

Once, somebody claimed that a trained type designer is able to see a difference of up to 1µ in a curve or a form. That’s one micro inch or one millionth of a millimeter. I doubt this is true. However, find above a simple example of mathematical vs. optical curves and stay tuned for more.