I was pumped to hear from the speakers for this week’s TPTalks. It was great to meet Nikola Djurek in class that day, and I was looking forward to learning more about his work. I had the pleasure of meeting Morag Myerscough that evening at Le Tank, and she was such a character. I was happy to see that her personality clearly comes out in her creative work. We heard from Nikola first, then from Morag later in the evening.
Nikola is a true innovator in his work as a typeface designer. He constantly challenges himself, pushing to approach problems in a new way, and to surprise himself. Of particular interest was his exploration of what he calls ‘gradient’ typefaces; using variations within the design space, such as width and weight, and combining them in a wave-like fashion with cleverly written OpenType programming, to create fascinating effects and textures. His bi-script typeface system, Balkan, is also extremely clever. It consists of Latin and Cyrillic, stacked vertically within the one letter-space. Here’s a brief excerpt from the Typotheque website:
“The Balkan typeface system is a series of fonts that depoliticises and reconciles them for the sake of education, tolerance and, above all, communication. Balkan transliterates and translates Croatian Latin into Serbian Cyrillic and vice versa, thus the fonts serve as educational software capable of reconciling disparate scripts.”
Morag’s presentation was really inspiring. She has a way of injecting a positivity and energy into all her work. She is one of those individuals who manage to over time develop a body of work that feels cohesive, with many linked themes and styles. I now feel I could recognise a Morag Myerscough installation just about anywhere! Morag loves to create physical installations, turning spaces into places. She is fascinated by the idea of Belonging, and always aims—successfully—to imbue this in her work. It was a pleasure to be taken through her journey as a designer, particularly toward the end when she shared a little about her unique and eccentric family.
It was another great TPTalks. See you at the next one.
Nikola Djurek
Morag Myerscough
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