Latin One is geared toward someone who is self-taught, has experimented with making fonts on their own, or someone who has taken introductory type courses (for example, a 10-week course or an intro to type design course at university).

Students should already be familiar with the basics of using a font editor and have the start of a typeface to work on during the course. Our aim is to cover the fundamentals of type design execution in more depth than would be possible in introductory classes. However, you do not need to have any formal training to make the most of the course, just the practical experience of drawing letters in a font editor.

Ideally yes. The course is designed for you to work on a typeface you started outside of class and improve it as we go along. If you want to participate fully, and receive feedback on your work, then you need some letters to work on. However, if you prefer to learn through observation, then you are welcome to join without one.

It does not need to be finished, or even near finished. If you have something like 10 characters, that’s a great place to start.

Text, display, connected script, experimental, sans serif, serif — bring whatever you’re excited to work on.

If you have a typeface that is uppercase only, know that we deal a lot with lowercase letters in the course (which would be the case in most any type design class). Feel free to bring all the capitals, but be ready to learn about the lowercase as well!

There are two components of the course that happen outside of the live sessions: watching the pre-recorded lectures and working on your typeface. We recommend spending a minimum of 4 hours outside of class to accomplish both of those activities.

The two courses were designed to be taken separately or one after the other. Students who enroll in Latin One will have the opportunity to sign up for any edition of Latin Two before the general public, giving them priority enrollment. Another benefit of taking Latin One is that students can skip the normal application process for Latin Two, and instead simply sign up.

Based on our past experiences with students, most people interested in taking Latin Two will also benefit from taking Latin One. If taken together, Latin One will get students ready for all Latin Two has to offer. Taken on its own, Latin One gives you the opportunity to dive deep into the execution side of type design, ask questions, and receive personalized feedback.

All demonstrations using a font editor will be conducted in Glyphs. Many of the concepts are universal (like drawing or spacing) and will easily translate from one font editor to the next. There is a lot to learn that is independent of a font editor. Although any font editor is welcome, just know that some content is Glyphs-specific and our primary fluency is with Glyphs. If you are interested in trying Glyphs, you can opt to use the trial license that comes free with the course.