Adopt-a-Font Condensed — Nancy Bernardo
Channel: TypeCon
Date: 2022-06-30

Recorded during TypeCon2015: Condensed in Denver, Colorado

Restoring a wood typeface, making a type specimen on the letterpress and then creating a website featuring the typeface was the challenge given to my sophomore level Graphic Design majors. Interactive New Media is a class that introduces students to HTML and CSS while also keeping in mind design and typographic considerations and principles.

The project was meant to hone in on the students coding skills, incorporate a historical context and allow the students to make design decisions that would enhance a viewer’s knowledge of wood typefaces. It was also a way for students to integrate analog technologies of the late nineteenth century with 21st century digital technologies. This presentation will discuss the Adopt-a-Font program sponsored by the Cary Collection at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), show examples of the students’ processes and final website designs, and discuss the limitations of time as well as the surprising amount of work that was accomplished.