Lecturer in Typography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd [Lecturing Post]
ARTICLE
TYPOGRAPHY BASICS COURSE IN THE PRODUCT DESIGN PROGRAM
Years after earning my diploma from the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Schwäbisch Gmünd, I returned to teach Typography in the second semester of the Product Design program. One challenge I faced from the outset was the students’ skepticism about design in a 2D context. This attitude was familiar to me from my own studies: »2D is lame, 3D is lit.«
This suspicion was quickly confirmed, so I decided to condense the theoretical foundations of type design—covering the invention, historical development, classification of typefaces and basic terminology for describing letter parts. This knowledge was assessed through a small test, providing students with the necessary incentive to engage with the content.
For the second part of the course, we moved from theory to practice. The students were tasked with designing a record cover for a song by their favorite band or creating T-shirts with inspirational quotes. Here, they were encouraged to experiment with compositions of letter parts.
For the final part of the course, students received a topic for their final project, which involved translating their acquired 2D knowledge into a 3D object. Examples included a series of »Spationators« (tools for adjusting letter spacing) and typography games, which were displayed alongside posters and documentations in the semester exhibition.
Although teaching was fulfilling, especially since I learned a lot from my students, my tenure at the HfG ended after a few years. Unfortunately, I realized too late that working in an institution requires not only professional competence but also an understanding that politics is not just a game played in the government.
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Lecturer in Typography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd [Lecturing Post]