Type design used to be, quite literally, a black art. Its practitioners worked with black ink, often in dark spaces, pursuing an impenetrable discipline with trade secrets, and printers’ assistants were even called ‘devils’. Luckily, those days are long past, and judging by the number of type design conferences, workshops and master courses available today, type design has emerged from the shadows and perhaps even become – dare we say it – trendy.
To be sure, type design is not and probably never will be as glamorous as graphic design or branding. Nevertheless, this increased interest is good news for everybody, since all of us encounter type in some way – not just on paper, posters and billboards, but on computer screens, TVs, phones, watches, service kiosks, road signs, T-shirts…
