Ants In My Pants | Newsletter
A couple of months ago, I shared with you a few resources under the motto “support, share & contribute”. I then realised this motto is one of the driving forces behind my last nine years writing these bimonthly newsletters. The second one is “never stop learning”.
Let’s be honest, keeping a consistent habit for nine years is no joke. Sometimes, it feels like a huge task piled up on top of more work. Many times it brings me joy, as it allows me to toot someone else’s horn. And most of the times, it works as my personal visual diary showing me the progress of my own work and my interests.
Today, I’ll give you an update on my nomad life since the start of 2023, and what’s coming in the following months.
For the last three months, we have been living in a 50-square metre apartment in Barcelona. I found a yoga studio five-minute walk from home, and in April I went back to a co-working studio for the first time since transferring Rotson Studios.
Today, I’m sending you this letter from a tiny medieval village of 200 people, in the Catalan wine region of Priorat. This time, the house is bigger and more affordable, it has thick stone walls and includes fibre internet connection!
In a couple of weeks time, I’ll take part of AtypI Paris 2023. Living in Australia made it challenging for attending international conferences, that’s why this year I decided not to give it a miss. On Wednesday May 10, I’ll be hosting a Copperplate calligraphy workshop.
In June we’ll move back to Barcelona, and in August we’ll be based in Berlin with a close friend of ours. Hit me up if you live there, I’d love to catch up!
For my partner and me, working remotely while travelling is a privilege and quite an adventure. We are taking it day by day, and making the most out of it while it lasts.
Are you working from home? Do you still love it?
Is your job giving you flexibility? Or perhaps you are back at the office full time again?
Are you planning a trip somewhere this year?
Hit reply and get back to me, I would looooove to hear from you!
Below, you’ll find a self-initiated project part of this year’s 36 Days of Type; an updated resource on women and non-binary type and graphic designers; my next Intro to Copperplate Calligraphy Course and my new recorded self-paced course.
On the last section of this newsletter, you’ll find an online type design school called Practica, the Gerard Unger 2023 Scholarship and a great lecture by Aleksandra Samuļenkova.
Supporting, sharing and contributing.
Much love, Maria xx
Script Meets Fraktur Alphabet | Self-initiated Project Course
In 2016 and 2017, I joined 36 Days of Type designing two sets of display uppercase alphabets. My 2016 entry turned into my first independent font family called Green Fairy.
Inspired by the lettering piece above, I decided to develop two sets of display alphabets and join their 2023 edition again, while exploring further shapes, contrast, colour and texture. Check the entire alphabet here.
A List of Fonts by Woman | Resource Updated
During Women’s History Month, I shared on my IG stories a list of resources on fonts designed by women, as well as supporting material to learn more about female and non-binary graphic and type designers. Now you can find this info compiled on an updated article on my blog called “A list of fonts by women”.
Intro to Copperplate Calligraphy Course (L1)
April 26 & May 3, 17 & 24, 2023
Level 1: Beginner and intermediate
2 hours x 4 Wednesdays
6 to 8pm AEST / 10 to 12am CEST
For the second time in nine years, this course will run on a school night from 6 to 8pm (MEL time), or from 10am to 12pm (BCN time).
Pump Up Your Copperplate Calligraphy | New Recorded Self-Paced Course
Refine, up-skill and fine tune your existing Copperplate calligraphy skills.
This course has been designed to offer beginner and intermediate students with exisiting knowledge of Copperplate calligraphy an on-going 12-week support in their learning journey.
Basically, it is a bridge between my live online Level 1 and Level 2 Copperplate courses.
Watch this video announcing the course.
Practica Program | Learn Type Design Online
Latin type design is a centuries-old discipline, but the resources to accelerate its study are often geographically distant, out of print, or simply scattered in tiny bits all over the internet. Sol Matas and Nicole Dotin started Practica to create a rigorous, supportive environment in which to study type design no matter where you are in the world, and regardless of whether your city is type-rich like Sol’s (hello, Berlin) or relatively type-poor like Nicole’s (sorry, Minneapolis).
Gerard Unger Scholarship by TypeTogether
Mentorship, publishing, and funding for new type designers and their fresh designs — this is TypeTogether’s annual Gerard Unger Scholarship.
Key annual dates
–15 April: application submissions begin, via a simple online form.
–15 June: final date to submit entries; late entries will not be judged.
–1 August: winner(s) announced.
Lubalin Lecture Series | Having an accent in type design with Aleksandra Samuļenkova
Being native to a script or just an alphabet is rightfully considered to be an advantage or even a crucial requirement when designing typefaces for that script or alphabet. As a type designer who designs for three scripts while being native to only two of them, I am eager to examine the concept of nativeness in type design.
Aleksandra Samuļenkova is a Latvian-born type designer based in the Netherlands. She studied visual communication in Riga and Berlin and graduated from the TypeMedia master program at KABK in The Hague. Watch her lecture here.
Subscribe to my bimonthly newsletters here.