I first applied to the Type@Cooper Condensed program immediately after finishing my undergraduate degree. I definitely wasn't ready and was (rightly) rejected. I took some time to get more work experience, improve my vector illustration skills, and take some skill-specific workshops. Specifically, I enrolled in an Intro to Type Design class at the Cooper Union. I figured taking this workshop would either let me know that studying type design wasn't right for me or strengthen my portfolio. I'm happy to say that it did the latter. When I reapplied to the Extended program, I was a much stronger candidate than before.
(All of this is written based on my experience in 2016/2017. I'm unsure what/how it's changed since then.) In the extended program, I worked on two major projects: a revival typeface and an original one. Starting with the revival let us get comfortable with the tools and theory of typeface design, before diving into an original work. Throughout the program, you have a studio class and a history class. These are supplemented with a good amount of workshops and additional lectures. So all in all, it was a pretty strong overview of type history, hands-on work, and theory. It's kind of an incredible quantity of educational material.
We had classes in both the old and new building. In the old Cooper Union building, our class was on the top floor, behind that gigantic clock. To get there, you had to take a round elevator. It was awesome. Unfortunately for me, the commute from Jersey was kind of brutal. It was about a 2h commute each way for me, made worse by car sickness on the (now defunct) DeCamp Bus 33. The classes were in the evening, which is great because then you can continue to work. I think almost everyone in my cohort was working while attending the program. As a parent attending though, this meant that I missed two nights of bedtime every week.
Commuting to Cooper multiple times a week means I got plenty of opportunities to capture interesting type throughout the city. I'm particularly proud of this mini collection of messed up Helvetica.
Executant is the typeface that I created as my final project for the Type@Cooper Extended program. It is inspired by the written and visual poetry of Barcelona artist, Joan Brossa.
We had two workshops with Ken Barber throughout the program. Foundations of Lettering and later in the year, a workshop on Brush Script.
Workshop on show card/brush lettering with John Downer. I think most of these images are his work and not mine.
For our thesis works, we got to run a limited edition of posters that we printed in a 2-day letterpress workshop. Each student has a set of every other student's poster. I think I still have a bunch of mine, in my attic and will send you one if you want. (email me: beth@politetype.com)
We took a class field trip up to Columbia to get a hands-on tour of their Rare Book & Manuscript Library. I took a ton of photos that I don't really look at that often, but am still glad I captured.
