The Nuts and Bolts of Text Typography In-Person Workshop

The text block is fundamental to creating any typographic system, whether on the page or on screen. But what typeface to use and at what size? How do we determine line length and leading? And what about readability and hierarchy?

Over the course of two days, we will examine typographic details as well as overarching principles from the letter to the page. We will begin by considering the interdependence between type size, leading, line length, ragging, and justification. And after an introduction to traditional methods of shaping the page, we will set continuous text within the grids of a single-column and multicolumn page.

We will be drawing from the extraordinary resources available to us at the Letterform Archive, in particular their library of historic type specimen books.

This two-day in-person workshop is for anyone in need of a refresher on setting a well-behaved text block. Basic knowledge of InDesign is required.

Learning Outcomes

• Learn to pay attention to the details of letterforms.
• Become mindful of the intervals of space between letters (kerning and tracking).
• Refine awareness of typographic grain, color, and density as well as the silhouette of the text block.
• Understand how to establish hierarchy and organization in page layout.
• Set type well—and with more confidence!

Angie Wang is a designer and educator who specializes in typography and typographic systems. She is the Creative Director of Design is Play, the award-winning design and branding studio she founded with partner Mark Fox in 2007. Wang and Fox are co-authors of Symbols: A Handbook for Seeing, published by The Monacelli Press in 2016.

Wang’s work has been exhibited at the Design Museum, London, and the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. It is included in collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London; the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich; the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; the Poster Museum at Wilanów, Warsaw; the United States Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Her work is also represented in the collections of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) in Los Angeles and the Letterform Archive.

Wang is a Senior Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco where she has taught courses in typography since 2004. She is an alumna of UC Berkeley and California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC), and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Host or Publisher Letterform Archive