A lesson in looking

Earlier in the month we invited the Creative Director of type foundry, Dalton Maag to pop into Glorious HQ to explain his design process, inspiration and to discuss the latest developments of typographic technology with the design team.

Italian born, Brixton based Riccardo de Franceschi is the ultimate type guru. He revealed aspects of type design that can be mysterious even to designers who use typefaces every day. We discussed typography in global languages, variable type in digital environments and he explained how typography will need to adapt to the increasing use of virtual reality.

But more importantly for me was the reminder that design, and especially typography, is about looking and studying. Yes, this may seem blindingly obvious but sometimes it takes an extremely enthusiastic, fabulously bearded chap to jolt you into glancing up from the glow of a computer screen and properly observing the vernacular world of type around you.

Many a holiday or day trip has been interrupted, to the mild frustration and utter bewilderment of friends and family to snap a quick photo of an interesting piece of type. So many thanks to Riccardo for sharing some of his knowledge and for the reassurance that we’re not alone in our typographic geekery. Below a some recent spots from myself and Design Director, Tom Shaughnessy.