FAA - Quick Assignment 3 – Part One
author: Jana Nikolić

Translation into English: Ivan Milenković

As part of the course Calligraphy & Typeface Design, third year students of Applied Graphics are met with the task of making sketches for a typeface which will be subsequently digitized in the next year (provided they have Typeface Design in the program of their choosing). Since during the first two years students went through a serious study of calligraphic writing (of numerous historical scripts), they have continued familiarizing themselves with the history of letters and typography through third year lectures. During that time assignments, collectively named Applied Calligraphy, are used to show them a direct link between the theory they learned and real life designer challenges. Even though every generation and every class have an unique interaction, pre-knowledge, interests, some things are common. One of them is the confusion with assignment in which they need to draw sketches for a text typeface. Where to begin from, what new can be done here, is an existing font to be used as a starting point, how to do that even? I advise them that the basic guideline on text typeface is the readability on the 9 pt. size. I show them existing bookfonts averting their attention on details that make them actual, contemporary.

The second challenge is to make a display typeface. No matter how hard it is to make a text typeface, in accord to historical norms and typographical demands which are to be fulfilled, often the students get even more confused when facing a demand to make sketches for a display typeface and getting the information it could be everything. That the starting point can be anything: calligraphy, drawn letters, collages, photography... really anything. Here I thought that concrete help is more than welcome: a task as simple as this surely can be more effectively and easily explained through one of the possible processes.

For starters it was necessary to make the words ODŽIBVEJ, NAVAHO i ČIROKI by using a few punctuation marks. The matrix which was already known by this class, in which the students felt somewhat comfortable, had a different objective this time. They weren't making portraits but words. Equally interesting were the implementations of Cyrillic and Latin letters and once more I was convinced that a clearly defined goal yields results worthy of attention in both of these alphabets. There is no religious, nationalistic or any other than a personal tone and a clearly expressed experimental spirit. Some were satisfied by making a single glyph repeat itself on each place a particular letter was called for and by doing that achieving an impression similar to that of a display font. Others tried using the same elements to make a variety of fonts, even making a special one for each word. No matter how much playfulness was present in the sketcheseverything was unusually readable, and most importantly there were no errors here, no bad solutions. That which is on paper mirrors the momentary condition, mood, inspiration, general interests and the way of thinking of the individual. The thing that every observant student must soak up in college is a way of independent advancement, continuos growth in which work evolves with the environment modifying itself by passing through personal filters which we have recognized in ourselves and learned to handle. We learn to master “the self” and allow it to surprise ourselves sometimes. Pleasantly and unpleasantly. All of that is our self.