ArtistFont: Objects & Alphabets with Dimitry Saïd Chamy

Led by artist-designer Dimitry Saïd Chamy, participants will collectively construct an ornamental alphabet using their own drawings and everyday objects. This process celebrates the alphabet as a social art form that creates culture and discourse.

In this workshop, you'll create a personal symbol library using Sharpies on transparency sheets, by drawing and tracing images from objects brought in or borrowed from The Things Lab. You’ll learn to use your cellphone as a mini light table and share larger light tables as you make glyphs alongside fellow participants. With a custom app, you’ll be able to document and transform your own creations and impromptu collaborations as digital posters and images for immediate sharing and use in future works. All participants will select which items and objects they want to contribute to the crafting of letters for the ArtistFont alphabet which will be created collectively letter-by-letter and archived. The letters will be later digitally vectorized and encoded into a font, with each participant credited and provided with a personal copy of the typeface which will be utilized in future ArtistFont projects and exhibitions.

No artistic experience is required—just bring your imagination!

Dimitry Saïd Chamy is a transdisciplinary artist, designer, and cultural producer whose work utilizes hybrid generative systems to inspire collaboration, creativity, and play. Grounded in his diasporic journey as a queer Haitian-Lebanese immigrant, Chamy explores themes of loss, connection, and potential futures, drawing from his love of nature, science, and storytelling. He has exhibited internationally at venues including Locust Projects and New York Fashion Week. In 2022, he served as assistant curator for The BluPrnt Show, which showcased 395 artists and garnered recognition from The New York Times. Chamy earned an MFA in graphic design from Yale, has taught at six universities, and held roles as an Erasmus+ Scholar and Honorary Chair in Latvia. He is a Co-Founder and Resident Artist at the Ratcliffe Art & Design Incubator at Florida International University in Miami, where he maintains his studio.

The Things Lab is supported in part by Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.

Host or Publisher The Things Lab