The department of visual communication made type design one of the components of its research strategy on the regional, national and international level.Within this framework, Typographer is the extension of the former project Corporate Typeface (“We make font”, Ecal, 2006) which lead to the creation of the Calligrapher software and opened a prospect towards the development of computer tools for the creation of fonts.The main goal of Typographer project was the creation of the prototype of a teachware integrating the specific components of type design into a digital drawing tool.

This prototype is different from the existing digital type design tools by the fact that it associates:  

-  the possibility of setting fundamental parameters of the key curves which define the letters 

-  with the possibility of generating, from those, the whole set of the glyphs of a font.

The project contributes to develop a common culture between the fields of design and computer sciences, centered on type design and well-adapted to the new professional practices of graphic and type designers.

Main applicant

Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL)
François Rappo (project leader)

Jürg Lehni 

Assistants and students of  the department of visual communication

Partners

David Keshavjee et Julien Tavelli : Creating Tools – Using Tools
Dimitri Bruni, Erik Spiekermann, Peter Bilak : interviews (collected by Jürg Lehni) 
Frédéric Berlaen, Clément Gallet, François Rappo, Jürh Lehni, Ludovic Varone : workshops

Publication

Typeface as Program, Le caractère typographique comme programme, ECAL, 2009.
ISBN: 978-3-03764-072-2

Period

2007 – 2009

Funded by the HES-SO (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland)