Mentorship showcase party recording

A few weeks ago, in February 2021, we celebrated the achievements of the over 200 participants in the Alphabettes Mentorship Program.

10 selected Mentees presented their projects that they had developed, advanced and critiqued within their mentorship in 2020. They included research and design of the Sharada script, guidance on structuring research material, exploring the personal lettering style, help navigating the business side of type, experimenting with the Gujurati script, digitising and preserving old Columbian metal street signs, turning intricate lettering into a typeface, reviewing a personal typeface, and developing a typeface inspired by Mexican price label cards found in food markets.

For those who missed these awesome Mentees and their work, you can view them all in this video.

Thank you to all Mentees and their fantstic Mentors whitout whose incredible commitment and time these wonderful results would not have been possible!

More results and projects to come soon.

The Alphabettes Mentorship Team
Eleni, Liron, Katy, Shani, and Veronika

24-Hour Hangout for International Women’s Day 2021

In a year that’s felt like one giant 24-hour online meeting, it’s been difficult to collectively motivate ourselves to organize our 3rd annual 24-Hour Hangout for International Women’s Day. One year ago, socializing on a virtual call with friends and strangers from across the globe for a ridiculous amount of time sounded exciting, even sort of quaint. Now? Well, the novelty has worn off. But, this is Alphabettes! We don’t throw in the towel on crazy! We roll up our sleeves and embrace the chaos.

Care to join us?

Here’s how it works:

From 12am (0:00) EST to 11:59pm (23:59) EST on March 8, stop by for conversations on type, design, the universe, what’s in that dreaded ‘desktop’ folder on our desktop, whatever! Some times may be more spontaneous and chatty, other hours might be filled with activities and presentations.

Some fun plans throughout the day:

10am EST: Ulrike chats with Elena Albertoni about The Pre-Vinylettes
11am EST: Type Education Chat
12pm EST: Handwriting fun with Eleni B.
4pm EST: Dina Benbrahim + Lisa Maione talk about design education
5pm EST: La Hora Spanish!
6pm EST: Typecooker (ESP, ENG)
9pm EST: Mónica Munguía chats about her foundry, Momutype, and TypeThursday México City
10pm EST: Chatting about type event organization

and more! Surprises! Fun! Chats!

Who can attend:

You! All are welcome* to stop by when you can and leave when you need. Video is possible but just audio is fine, too. Or, just help the chat stay aflame. Keep an eye on this post, Twitter, and Instagram for any updates and help us spread the word! WOMEN = FUN.

* Participants must follow our code of conduct.

WOMEN = FUN

Celebrating Mentees & Mentors

Five years after the Alphabettes Mentorship Program’s (AMP) initiation, we thought it’s time to throw a (online) party! The achievements of the many wonderful people are certainly worth celebrating!

We’d love to present all projects, but the roughly 200 are simply too many for one evening. So we decided to select a bunch of mentees from various backgrounds with different goals and challenges.

The projects are developed, advanced and critiqued within their mentorship in 2020. Each of the mentees will have a short presentation to showcase their work and discuss their learnings, experiences and next steps. We very much look forward sharing these stories with you!

Additionally the opening dates for the 2021 AMP season will be announced and we keenly welcome feedback and new ideas for the program.

Come and join us for the presentations on Zoom and then for socialising on Wonder. The party will take place on 21 Feb at 16:00 GMT. You can check starting time for your timezone.

Please register at Eventbrite for details.

We look forward to welcome you on the 21 February,
Eleni, Katy, Liron, Shani and Veronika

The end

When Bianca Berning suggested creating this series, I found it hard to join. What could be the little thing that made me get through this horrible year? A year that has put us so much outside our comfort zone that we forgot there was such comfort once; a year that has shown us vulnerable; a year that has polarised our feelings so deeply that we made mistakes, we were angry, we fucked up.

Nevertheless, I added my name to the list. I wanted so badly to find the one thing that made me get through, but I couldn’t find it. Because there wasn’t one. Just one. Instead, I have memories of the days we made pizza at home (some Pinterest some Pinstrosity!), or when my new flatmate Juana made piña coladas, the hours I spent sorting out the jigsaw pieces (yes, sorting by size, form and colour! So soothing), or the excitement when the post arrived after two or three weeks (in the UK this is unheard of). There was the happiness of the day I found flour in one shop during the flour shortage and the healing bike journeys in and out of a deserted London. I remember the moments staring at the neighbours’ cats and then, when we were able to access their back garden, the time spent watching the wrens, the robin and the blackbirds, or suffering together with the blackbird when her nest was gruesomely attacked by a magpie. There was the time when I tried to save the sick laurel by washing meticulously each leaf and the excitement when the dried ferns came back to life after some watering.

2020 mix and match
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