Category → Series

Jigsaw Nightmare

“Shall I bring Jigsaws? I might be able to fit two in my backpack.”, she asked.
“Perfect, I have some as well. We can exchange!”, I replied.

Little did I know that this naive message exchange would turn out to be one of my worst nightmares. It was mid-June and the measures had relaxed ever so slightly, when my friend Elena texted me to say that she was going on an allowed bike ride. She suggested exchanging puzzles, and so it happened. I got to see her from a distance — mask included — for some limited, yet very much needed, human interaction. We traded puzzles, disinfected them, and parted ways. Continue reading →

Bette(r) together

The quarantine came quickly and forced us to stay home, isolated, away from the social contact we are used to. You might think that typeface designers were already stuck in caves before the pandemic anyway, but as I mentioned in an email exchange with one of my great teachers, Rubén Fontana, it’s one thing to choose solitude and another to have it imposed on you. In his own words, “It seems that humans cannot accept anything being imposed on us, not even for our own convenience”. So the question arises, is it possible to transform a situation that is imposed from the outside, into the protagonist of opportunity? Continue reading →

Pet views

Illustration: a cat’s silhouette in a window

My husband and I live in a fourth floor apartment, with roughly 20 meters separating us from the row of apartment buildings in front of us. During the uneventful days of the confinement—which in Spain meant you could not leave your apartment except for necessary errands—every small thing became an event. Looking at the same scenery day after day one starts noticing details one hadn’t noticed before—the type of plants someone grows, the color of the brick of a certain building, and, the surprising number of pets inhabiting those buildings. Continue reading →

Bette(r) Birds

2020 has been a bit of a grind, to say the least. Every morning we wake up to devastating news about the decline of our planet, the various threats to our health, racial injustice, inequality, police brutality, politics, wars, the economy, J. K. Rowling being an idiot. But against all odds, there are some things that keep us going even when everything around us starts to come crashing down.

And it appears that when it comes to self preservation my natural instinct is to go out and look at birds.

Illustration of a coot with annotations and a speech bubble saying 'coot'

Coots actually have way larger feet than this.

Continue reading →

A website for Alphacrit & the next crit

Website for Alphacrit

We are excited to announce a new website dedicated to Alphacrit, an initiative of the Alphabettes that organizes critique sessions. Since its beginning in 2018, we’ve held nine sessions over 2 years. 26 participants received expert feedback on their lettering projects or WIP typefaces with many more attending the livestreams. Another 20 or so got their questions about font production or OpenType features answered in special Q&A editions of Alphacrit. The new website brings all the information under one roof.

The next Alphacrit, the first to be announced on the new site, features María Montes and Isabel Urbina Peña who will review lettering projects on August 20. Read more about both our guests, the application process, and more when you visit our new website!

Alphacrit: June 19, 2020

We’re at it again! This time we’ve got a special Alphacrit session with Sahar Afshar and Naïma Ben Ayed focusing on Arabic type design. Sahar and Naïma will offer constructive feedback to four participants on their in-progress typefaces via Zoom. Sol Matas will host the session to keep everything running smoothly. Keep reading to learn more.

Join us!
Alphacrit will be livestreamed as a part of Typographics TypeLabs on June 19 at 18:00 pm BST (17:00 pm UTC).

Follow @TypographicsNYC for the link or keep checking their website until details are available.

Continue reading →

Alphacrit: April 17, 2020

Each Alphacrit is planned many months in advance. Little did we know then what was in store for our future selves. Would we have continued planning, knowing our psyches would be full of just about everything but type design? In the midst of it all, I’ve found some small comfort in sticking to a few daily routines and exploring areas of interest I couldn’t before. If that resonates, we’re running this Alphacrit for you.

First, what is Alphacrit? It’s a virtual type design critique for four lucky participants picked at random. They’ll receive feedback on their in-progress typefaces by two seasoned type designers — Sara Soskolne of Hoefler & Co and Nicole Dotin of Process Type Foundry. Sol Matas will host the session to keep everything running smoothly.

Sara Soskolne and Nicole Dotin

Continue reading →

Alphacrit: January 17, 2020

Welcome to a brand new year and a brand new Q&A edition of Alphacrit. Instead of reviewing in-progress work during this session, Ulrike Rausch and Lila Symons will answer questions on a topic that is central to font life for type designers and type users alike—OpenType features.

Ulrike and Lila both have extensive experience in type design and font production. What’s more, they both specialize in developing script typefaces that are beautiful, experimental, utilitarian—or all of the above. Since writing OT features can be a tricky part of font production, Ulrike and Lila are the perfect pair to tackle some of the thornier questions type designers face.

Puzzled by positional alternates? Confounded by contextual alternates? Or struggling to understand what OpenType features can do for your font? We’ve all been there! During this live video conference, Ulrike and Lila will field questions submitted by you on OT features. There will naturally be an emphasis on script typefaces, but questions about writing OT features for non-script fonts are also welcome and encouraged. Everyone who wants to join this session will be accepted—registration is required, but it’s free, and it’s easy. Simply fill out the application (see below) and you’re on your way.

Want to know more about these OT feature experts? Read their bios below to learn about their backgrounds.

Lila Symons, left, and Ulrike Rausch, right.

Continue reading →

Alphacrit: 12 de julio 2019

Para que el Alphacrit pueda llegar y ayudar a más personas, la próxima sesión de Alphacrit será totalmente en español. Si necesitas de retroalimentación sobre tu trabajo de lettering ahora tendrás una excelente oportunidad. Las invitadas especiales de esta sesión son Nubia Navarro y Marova. Sol Matas será la moderadora. Sigue leyendo para descubrir más.

Nubia Navarro mejor conocida en redes sociales como Nubikini, es diseñadora gráfica de profesión. Nubia se especializa en la creación de letras digitales y manuales y trabaja en agencias de publicidad hace 6 años. Algunos de sus clientes son Adidas, Tiffany & Co., Sprite, Flowers of Colombia, Chocoramo y Adobe. Le encanta jugar con comida y fusionarla con las letras, la tipografía experimental es una de sus grandes pasiones.

Nubia Navarro

Nubia Navarro

Marova es una diseñadora gráfica y editorial dominicana especializada en el dibujo de letras y en la Caligrafía con Brush. Se inició profesionalmente trabajando en agencias de publicidad nacionales y multinacionales, y desde el 2013 que trabaja de manera independiente desde Marova Studio. Como Lettering Artist ha trabajado para marcas y empresas mediante la personalización de productos, desarrollo de líneas gráficas, identidad y la implementación en piezas de diseño y murales. Disfruta mucho trabajar tanto de manera análoga mediante papeles, pinturas, marcadores y gises, y también de manera digital.

Marova Studio

Marova Studio

Qué esperar: Cuatro personas van a presentar su proyecto o su trabajo en progreso. Cada persona recibe aproximadamente 10 minutos de crítica por parte de Nubia y Soy. La sesión completa va a durar alrededor de una hora. Cada participante se podrá beneficiar de presenciar las críticas realizadas a las otras participantes. El trabajo de lettering enviado para revisión podrá ser: palabras sueltas, logotipos o tapas de libros.

Por favor, envía solamente una pieza de lettering con cierta complejidad o 5-10 piezas más pequeñas para charlar sobre tu experiencia en general. Los ejemplos de trabajo tienen que estar listos una semana antes de la sesión, por eso, te rogamos que planifiques con tiempo.

Cuándo y dónde: viernes 12 de Julio, 12pm (GMT-5), a través de una videoconferencia.

Quién puede participar: La sesión estará abierta a cualquier persona. Dependiendo de la demanda, vamos a dar preferencia a grupos con baja representación y personas que no hayan participado antes. Grupos con baja representación incluyen, pero no están limitados, a: mujeres, personas de color, personas con discapacidad e individuos de la comunidad LGBTQ+.

Los cuatro lugares serán sorteados al azar.

Cómo participar: Completa este formulario https://forms.gle/AR3STZ7tz7JmuFGq6

Participa hasta: 5 de Julio

Preguntas: ¿tienes aún dudas? Envía un email: crit@alphabettes.org.

This Alphacrit is with the wonderful Nubia Navarro, aka Nubikini and Marova of Marova Studio. The critique will be held entirely in Spanish.