This second phase of TypeParis Summer25 has proven to be one of the program's most diverse and complete. It featured two different international type guests, several visits between Paris and Antwerp, and, of course, continued development of the students' personal type design projects! During these weeks, we welcomed Marc Rouault as instructor, who taught and supported the attendees alongside Jean François, Mathieu, Julie and Gina.
Libraries and Museums Visits: Paris and Antwerp
One of the most important parts of this second stage of Summer25 programme was gathering references to help shape all the typeface designs. It is precisely through the various organized visits to libraries and museums that attendees could enrich their own research, aligning with their project briefs.
The first outdoor visit of this summer program took us to the Rare Books department of the François Mitterrand Bibliothèque Nationale de France. With the expert guidance of Jean-Marc Chatelain, the department’s director, we explored a collection of extraordinary type specimens from rare books dating back to the 17th to 19th centuries.
As a new feature this year, the group of students traveled to Belgium to visit the historical Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. This rich and impressive typography collection from the 16th century offered attendees the chance to discover a large amount of punches, matrices, and historical specimens.
Through these first visits, attendees gained an understanding of how typographic forms developed, which in turn helped them initiate the initial sketches for their individual type projects.
International Guest Critics: Cecilia del Castillo and Ramiro Espinoza
Early in this second phase of the program, we hosted Cecilia del Castillo, a TypeParis alumni who this time shared her type design knowledge with us. The second guest critic for TypeParis Summer25 was Ramiro Espinoza.
First, Cecilia individually helped all the attendees gain a clearer idea of the design they wished to achieve, based on their briefs and references. Her training at TypeMedia and her experience as both a type designer and calligrapher proved very beneficial during this research stage.
One week later, with designs much more defined, Ramiro reviewed the students' designs one by one with a fresh perspective, offering in-depth feedback to everyone. There's something unique about him, as he's the first alumni to return as a type critic. The exchange with the attendees of Summer25 programme was highly productive.
Both guests delivered a talk to conclude their full day at the school. Immediately afterward, they joined the attendees for the regular Typo Bistro to properly end these long days.
Broad Style and Typeface Extension
Back at school, the main goal of this second TypeParis Summer25 phase was to establish a broad style for all attendees' typefaces and to build a creative workflow based on the previous design space practice from phase one.
To achieve this, we introduced the basics of a digital workflow, which included drawing Bézier curves, correctly positioning points, and understanding spacing as an essential part of the design process. This was also the time to introduce various design options by changing style, weight, and contrast. This allowed students to discover the wide range of design possibilities and to fuel inspiration for their personal typeface projects. The idea behind adding new masters is to explore new shapes resulting from interpolation and variable font technology.
By the end of this extension stage, all students had transitioned to Glyphs, though they will continue working on tracing paper for key new elements like capital letters or numbers.
Don't miss their impressive progress in the next phase!
– By Gina Serret
