Strizver Seeks Type Education Perspective

From educator and author Ilene Strizver of The Type Studio:

Attention all educators, students, and former students:

Do you teach typography and have any great type exercises or assignments you would like to share? Or have you taken a class and had any assignments that were particularly useful? I am working on the 2nd edition of my book, Type Rules! The designer's guide to professional typography, which will be published by Wiley & Sons, Inc., and include educational supplements this time around.

I am looking for your ideas and suggestions for assignments which effectively teach practical applications of type. My goal is to make this book an invaluable, informative, and instructional teaching tool. Credit will be given for all contributions.

Download the Type Rules! table of contents via FTP.

Email me at Ilene@thetypestudio.com if you have trouble with the download and I will send it to you directly.

Thanks so much,
Ilene Strizver

Posted by tamye | March 07, 2005 | LINK

Comments

Ilene,
Just want to thank you for your great book. I teach a Typography class here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and your book has been an immense part of the course. I look forward to your second edition. One thing I have my students do is to redo a whole paragraph in Black letter text all by hand. This makes them appreciate type and see how the scribes did it way back before type.
Thank you so much for your contribution.

josue menjivar | Mar 8, 2005 08:24 AM

I am not a teacher of typography, but teach "technical writing." A very basic exercise that non-typographically-aware students enjoy is learning to identify typefaces and column widths in their favorite magazines. Over the years, I've collected a great selection of magazines from around the world. I hand them out and students identify the type (or types) used in the heading and body of articles. By including "rock and roll," British society, engineering, and fashion magazines (as well as some off-the-wall collector's editions of cool publications), discussion can then revolve around why designers choose and use different fonts, and what the students would do differently. A quick homework assignment is to identify fonts and use of four magazines they have around the house.

Again, this is a beginner's exercise, but interesting and useful for getting students to look.

Howard | Mar 10, 2005 06:22 AM

Howard, this sounds great! Would you consider making a public website out of your material, maybe implementing a quiz of sorts, with grading?

hhp

Hrant | Mar 10, 2005 09:57 AM