Class got out on time (amazing!) last night at 9.30pm; home is a fifteen minute walk, so I got back to the apartment around 9.45, at which point I had only the energy to reply to a couple messages and promptly pass out.

The day is a bit tough to condense (ha!) in my head, but some quick thoughts:

• If you’re at all jetlagged, 12 straight hours of type is most definitely a cure.
• This class is the United Nations of typography: designers from China, Holland, England, Spain, Argentina, Australia, and Canada.
• I’m definitely “that guy” with the camera. I’m in yer face, takin’ yer pics.
• Gonna have to lay off the coffee I think – doesn’t help the drawing.
• Sumner Stone’s love for historical type is infectious – he truly has a passion for it.
• I’ve figured out that drawing type – for me – means slowing down my breathing and heart rate.
• The skeleton forms of the Roman inscriptional sans are refreshingly modern.
• Between Jonathan Hoefler and Sara Soskolne, I think H&FJ has the market cornered when it comes to designers with the most mispronounced last names (Heff-ler and Soss-kal-nee, by the way).
• Reviewing FontLab can indeed be an enjoyable experience.
• Get a bunch of type nerds in a room and start talking about TrueType & PostScript – see what happens.

As we drew some Roman type for exercises yesterday, I also began to formulate what it is that I ultimately want to have done by the end of the month:

• A full set of roman weights. So that’ll probably mean drawing a light and a bold, then interpolate to get my intermediates.
• Start drawing as much of an italic as I can (time will definitely be scarce, but I’ll give it a go)
• Either neo-grotesque or perhaps Scotch Roman forms; I haven’t decided, yet. Or it could be neither of those, for all I know.

On the one had I want to allow the process that we go through to help inform and guide my decision as to what I would like to draw – I don’t want to jump to any kind of conclusions too hastily. On the other hand, however, time is of the essence – the sooner I choose a direction, the sooner I can get to drawing and getting feedback on it. Finding a balance will be a challenge.

The next five weeks will be exhaustingly productive. I can’t wait to see what we all put together.

Don’t forget to keep in touch.