Typography Dojo

Rachel Elnar @ TypeEd•typographydojo.com

Typography Dojo is the place where we explore the traditions and techniques in the practice of type and typography with lessons and insights from visual design masters. Join me to learn more about typesetting, readability, hand lettering, editorial design, type design, Calligraphy, logo design and how they improve graphic communication.

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Episodes

011. Steven Bonner: Typography of Whisky

Having built a career as a design every man, Steven Bonner nurtures a flexible approach that works across all creative disciplines. He takes a blank canvas approach to each brief that has helped him develop a varied skillset over years, leading to a portfolio with a unique mix of design, illustration, and lettering. This versatility has allowed him to work across advertising, editorial, publishing, and packaging – earning a reputation for high-quality work and reliability along the way. Steven i...

Oct 29, 2017•47 min•Ep. 11

010. Martina Flor: Wondermaking

This original interview with Martina was recorded on June 8, 2016. Martina Flor combines her talents as both a designer and an illustrator in the drawing of beautiful letters. Based in Berlin, she has worked in the creative industry for over 12 years with an emphasis on type design, lettering, and illustration. Working by hand as well as digitally, she has developed a wonderfully elegant style with a love for detail and flourishes. Martina combines her talents as designer and illustrator in the ...

Aug 17, 2017•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 10

009. Chank Diesel: Fun Fonts

The original interview was recorded on May 26, 2017. Font designer Chank Diesel was born Charles Anderson, but neighbors called him "Chanky," after Spanky from the Little Rascals. He has been running his Minneapolis-based type house and art studio, Chank Fonts since 1992. Clients who have used Chank’s custom font services include Ben & Jerry's, Cartoon Network, Indian Motorcycle, PBS Kids, Scholastic Books, Simon & Schuster, Target, Walt Disney, and much more. In this podcast episode, we...

Jul 01, 2017•57 min

008. Angela Southern: Bespoke Lettering

Angela Southern is a bespoke lettering artist and illustrator who learned her craft on the job as a sign artist at Trader Joe’s from other professional lettering artists at the company. She became good at cranking out lots of artwork under deadline and is now doing work for Time Out, Cooking Light Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Hudson Valley Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and more.In the typography talk segment I ask Aspacia Kusulas about calligraphy; why it's so important to learn for a typogra...

Jun 17, 2017•42 min

007. Terrance Weinzierl: Adventures In Kerning & Curiosity

In this episode, Terrance reveals how he came to specialize in type, and show some development milestones along the way. Besides type design, he touches on calligraphy, lettering, and real-world applications like food packaging. He talks about some of his greatest hits like the custom font family for Domino’s, Joanna Sans Nova, and Kairos. I met Terrance at TypeCon in Washington D.C. and enjoyed his talk that he gave about observations in food packaging, and have been watching his work ever sinc...

Jun 06, 2017•52 min

006. Paul Mendoza: The Hollywood Font

Paul was a former script coordinator in network TV for close to a decade before shifting to the world of design. Select credits include Friday Night Lights (NBC), Switched at Birth (ABC Family/Freeform), and Mercy (NBC). Paul and I chat about Courier as the linchpin behind the scenes of Los Angeles typography. As the standard face for all motion picture and television screenplays, Courier's monospaced letterforms built the City of Angels into the entertainment capital of the world. While other b...

May 30, 2017•54 min

005. Gemma O’Brien: The Future Of Typography Is Human

What is the future of typography, as our lives are becoming more digital? Gemma O'Brien is on the show from her studio in Sydney, Australia , and she will explore this question while we have a conversation about her philosophy behind the trend of authenticity in design and why she thinks the future of typography is human. In this discussion, Gemma and I invited the live audience to contribute with ideas about the future of typography and where they feel it’s going. Michael’s typography lesson is...

May 21, 2017•40 min

004. Steve Rachwal: Phototypesetting & Cold Type

In this episode, I chat with designer Steve Rachwal who used to work as a typesetter at EllaType on Sunset Boulevard from 1985 to 1988 on the Berthold phototypesetting computer system. EllaType was strictly a Berthold shop, which featured the best cut fonts in the world. Steve helped to typeset nearly the entire Motown music collection as they converted the LPs to CDs, including lots of liner notes and song lists. He also did a lot of typesetting work for Los Angeles-area design greats Sussman/P...

May 14, 2017•40 min

003. Rod Cavazos: Playful Perspectives on Type Design

In this session we get a rare peek at some of the type projects and mindset Rod and his team work on in their San Francisco design office, PSY/OPS . Rod also serves as Adjunct Professor of Type Design at California College of the Arts; and Instructional Lead at (The) Alphabetic Order . His passion for type and teaching are boundless, and he can usually be found experimenting with letters in some form, on screen or off. Towards the end, Michael Stinson and I discuss why typography is so essential...

Apr 30, 2017•32 min

002. Nikki Villagomez: Culture + Typography

Nikki Villagomez is Graphic Designer and Creative Studio Manager at Dixon Hughes Goodman. She is also an avid letterhunter and the author of Culture + Typography : How Culture Affects Typography. She’s been scouring the nation seeking clues that communicate the culture of a city through the typography of the city surroundings, evident in historical signage, ghost signs, manhole covers, and more. Nikki gathers images from the city’s designers, puts them together and gives the inhabitants back a v...

Apr 26, 2017•29 min

001. Talking About Type

In the dojo, we'll talk about aspects of visual design influenced by type and typography with a designer or two in every episode. In the first episode of Typography Dojo, Rachel Elnar gives you a sneak peek of what you can expect in our upcoming sessions. Previews of discussions are revealed with Australian mural lettering artist Gemma O'Brien, San Francisco-based hand letterer Joseph Alessio, Berlin-based type designer and letterer Martina Flor, PSY/OPS type designer Rod Cavazos from San Franci...

Apr 24, 2017•18 min

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