Testing in Type Design Education — Graham Bradley
Channel: TypeCon
Date: 02/07/2019

Recorded during TypeCon2018: Xx in Portland, Oregon

In my typeface design class at Type@Cooper West, I test my students. These tests evaluate the ability to systematically design type, gauging each student’s success at detecting errors in the drawing and spacing of letters. The questions mirror the actual type design process as accurately as possible in that they ask students to answer the questions in the same manner that they are taught to work on their typefaces. Python scripts were written to create the visuals, and performance is tracked over time.

The results of these weekly tests inform my teaching in many ways. They help to ensure that what the students are learning as they work on their projects is generalizable to other type styles. They inform the way I critique work, because I know which areas each student needs help in. Most importantly, they give both me and my students a sense of their progress and development as type designers.

In this presentation, I will discuss the goals that led to the implementation of testing, talk about the concepts that inform the structure of the test questions, show many examples, and draw conclusions about what teachers can (and cannot) learn from testing as part of type design education.