Cooper Union
Cooper Union
Jason Smith Inspiration
We’ve just sent our talented intern, Andy Lethbridge, to the Cooper Union in New York to hone his skills in its intensive summer typeface design programme.
Jason stumbled across Andy’s hand lettering on Instagram a year ago and the pair met up at Andy’s degree show. Impressed by the craft, beauty and potential in his work (and more on that later), Jason offered Andy an internship on the spot.
The Cooper Union is one of the most distinguished design institutions in the US and its type department is one of the most focussed, rigorous and comprehensive around – it felt like the best place for Andy to hone his skills. A typophile’s dream-come-true, the course is an integrated foundational programme that includes typeface design, calligraphy, history, and theory. It teaches traditional and digital lettering techniques and styles as a way to explore the history, tools, the underlying structures, and the practical application of letterforms.
Aside from creating letters himself, Andy will be going on field trips to the Butler library and the Grolier Club, amongst other prestigious New York libraries.
In the meantime, Andy’s taking over our Instagram account while he’s in NYC. He’ll be exploring libraries and historic archives as well as New Yorks rich typographic landscape, follow him here: Instagram @Fontsmith #NYC.
Watch this space to see the journey that Andy takes while he designs a typeface over the summer.
