We’ve seen what happens when our Digital Design students let loose their motion graphics mojo on the subject of Typography. But what about the Print Designers?
“Generally, Digital Design students are given assets to work with to make a small book,” says Print Design and Typography Instructor Robin Mitchell. “In the past, we have worked with local award-winning publisher Simply Read Books. Simply Read Books has allowed us to use professionally prepared images and text for children’s books.”
“[This class] did a special version of the project,” she says: The ABCs of Typography.
The “special version of the project” spanned classes and even terms – the students created the basic assets of The ABCs of Typography in Typography class, and in the next term’s Print Design class, they all drew from that pool of assets to create the books, which were printed at school and bound professionally.
The results are simply stunning. In Robin’s words, they “did an exceptional job of sharing ideas and assets and produced a great array of well-designed books.”
“I think the most important lesson was that we can always learn from each other,” says former student – now grad – Andrea de Mattos Quaresma, “And different styles can always make you see your work in a different way.”
The challenge of housing such a diverse set of designs is one that most designers will face at some point, and the students tackled it head-on. “It wasn’t easy to find a way to relate such variety of styles in one single book,” says Andrea, “But it was fun to find solutions for each page and see how we could make them work together.”
And the students did have some room to breathe. According to Andrea’s classmate Everardo Iñiguez, “We had the option of changing aspects of each other’s work as long as the core concept remained.”
“My book was titled Typographique Abecedarium,” he says of his project, which became part of his semi-finalist entry in this year’s Adobe Design Achievement Awards. “[It] was designed so it could fit every asset without overshadowing the visual importance of each piece, but giving you enough information and a cohesive sense of collection.”
So, what did the students ultimately take away from this term-bridging project, apart from some really beautiful books?
Our post about Helvetica: The Movie has touched off a fascinating debate between Digital Design mentors Dougal Muir and Mark Busse in the comments. Mr. Busse also happens to be the President of the BC Chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, which put on the Vancouver Helvetica screening. Mr. Muir, meanwhile, calls the movie “one of the most dangerous pieces of propaganda that has happened to typographic design in years.” The post-screening panel that Mark alludes to in his comment was moderated by Digital Design print design instructor Robin Mitchell, and you can read her roundup of the event here. Got an opinion on Helvetica, the movie or the font? Chime in! Edit: Now with rebuttal with Helvetica director Gary Hustwit!
Friday, July 20th was Digital Design‘s first-ever 30-Second Commercial Slam Day, a flat-out design sprint, in which students across terms were divided into teams and given an assignment first thing in the morning – and a deadline of 5pm the very same day. It was an enormously fun challenge, so we tagged along as teams hurried to the finish line. Here’s our fly-on-the-wall account of the day as it happened:
Helvetica Re-Re-Revisited
30-Second Slam Day
