Lecture: Capital Letters (Letras Capital)

Typeface design is endlessly fascinating for Dave Crossland because it combines visual culture, language, technology, capitalism, history – and despite being rather obscure as a design practice, is completely ubiquitous. Dave has been obsessed with a mission to liberate typography for over 15 years, and has commissioned thousands of libre fonts from hundreds of designers for dozens of writing systems.

He presented a perspective on libre fonts inspired by the ideas of Marshall McLuhan, improvised using the following links:

• https://fonts.google.com/about
• https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_Amiga_600
• https://fonts.google.com/
• https://fonts.google.com/noto
• https://fonts.google.com/knowledge
• https://fonts.google.com/?vfonly=true
• https://material.io/blog/roboto-serif
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtBS5wRpaHg
• https://material.io/blog/roboto-flex
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3IQSmKFokU
• https://www.recursive.design/
• https://fraunces.undercase.xyz/
• https://github.com/undercasetype/Fraunces/issues/260
• https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Nabla/tester?coloronly=true
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Medium_Is_the_Massage
• https://www.google.com/search?q=youtube+the+mother+of+all+demos
• https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/themediumisthemassage_marshallmcluhan_quentinfiore.pdf
  • p26-41 Definition of Media: “When these ratios change, men change.”
  • p74-75 “We look at the present through the rear view mirror.”
• https://simoncozens.github.io/colrv1-rocks/
  • https://simoncozens.github.io/manumit/
• https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/themediumisthemassage_marshallmcluhan_quentinfiore.pdf
  • p92 The importance of the amateur: “The 'expert' is the man who stays put.”
  • p110-111
  • p122-123 Copyright was based on an earlier media age
  • p76-78 “When information is brushed against information, the results are startling and effective.”
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman
• https://www.xerox.com/en-us/office/insights/laser-printers The apocryphal story of the origin of the libre software concept by Richard.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Free_Software_Definition was the eventual definition; brushing the information of the 18th century ideas of the Rights of Man against personal computing.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms This definition was a joke, of course.
• https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Nabla/tester?coloronly=true
• https://www.lexend.com/
• https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/themediumisthemassage_marshallmcluhan_quentinfiore.pdf
  • p6-7 “"The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur." — A. N. Whitehead”
  • p20 “"Come into my parlor," said the computer to the specialist.”
• https://twitter.com/nbashaw/status/1581675502279872517
• https://twitter.com/nbashaw/status/1582254425241882624
• https://twitter.com/Afinetheorem/status/1598081861259231232 Homework is over
• https://twitter.com/friedberg/status/1601295731297775617 one to many is over, super abundance creates many to many individualization
• https://twitter.com/davelab6/status/1603387261734641664 thread about AI and school
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3238058-we-live-in-capitalism-its-power-seems-inescapable-so-did “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.” ― Ursula Le Guin
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6875140-the-ultimate-hidden-truth-of-the-world-is-that-it “the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” ― David Graeber

Q&A links

• https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobreproducci%C3%B3n#Inevitabilidad:_Karl_Marx
• https://simoncozens.github.io/manumit/

Skipped web pages

• http://170.187.201.144/node/16620
• https://twitter.com/davelab6/status/622909734149091328/photo/1
• https://designopendata.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/themediumisthemassage_marshallmcluhan_quentinfiore.pdf
  • p18 “The 'child' was an invention of the seventeenth century; he did not exist in, say, Shakespeare's day.”
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto
• http://openconspiracy.org/
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/dvaraxistag_opsz
• https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/typography-issues/issues/983

Workshop: Introduction to Typeface Design (Introducción al diseño de tipos de letra)

Design your own fonts with libre software (FontForge). Bring loose paper, a pencil (must be soft, B3+), and your laptop. You will start by learning the secrets of fast and easy letter sketching, and leave with a clear idea of how to create your very own font, that you can install in your computer and share with your friends. You will even learn how to earn money with font design skills!

It is required to bring a personal laptop. The workshop is limited to 30 persons. It will be on Tuesday morning, a 4 hour block with a break in the middle, 9am to 1pm.

• https://fonts.google.com/about
• https://fontforge.org
• http://designwithfontforge.com
  • http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/Planning_Your_Project.html
  • http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/General_UI_Introduction.html
• https://www.fontself.com

About me

Dave Crossland is dedicated to liberating typography, and has commissioned libre fonts from typeface designers around the world. He lives in Denver, USA with his wife and two small children.

License

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