Erik van Blokland (born 1967) could not choose between type design and programming and decided to do both. His work includes randomfont Beowolf 1 (1990, MoMA collection 2011), typewriter Trixie (1991), banknote LTR Federal (1996, TDC 2002) and Eames Century Modern (2009, TDC, Letter.2, 2011).
For many years he has focused on the technical aspects of type design and developed, among other things, the acclaimed type interpolation tools Skateboard, MutatorMath and Superpolator. Erik co-authored the Unified Font Object (UFO) specification and the W3C Web Open Font Format standard 2. He is also co-organizer of the triannual Robothon Type & Technology conference 3.
Van Blokland is a 1989 graduate of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK). He is currently the head of the Type and Media master department. He invented the TypeCooker sketching tool which challenges students to meet ridiculous requirements.
Van Blokland consults on type design tools, logos, lettering and typefaces, with clients including HBO, The Government of The Netherlands, Adidas, and Adobe. He can talk endlessly about ancient digital font formats and currently dabbles in research projects on optics, digitisation, drawing and responsive type. More at LettError.com.
The 6-week type design programme that you’ve been waiting for starts on 3 June and ends 11 July 2025
Our summer programme is in English and covers typeface design and calligraphy techniques, type history, and software practices. Every kind of design professional can learn about type design in a relatively short amount of time.
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Great line up of speakers on graphic design, typography. Fabulous workshops. Join us on 31 May 2025!
We think it is important to create platforms to let various universes communicate about their love of typography in their everyday practice. Come to Paris for the 31 May 2025 to listen a mix of inspiring speakers evoking topics as broad as graphic design, web design, motion design, publishing, visual identity, communication and type design.
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