TipoItalia 23—The Art of Alphabet in Northern Italy
June, 12–23, 2023
with Bill Moran and Riccardo Olocco
The Italian landscape is full of exotic characters. Some are 2000-year-old classics, others are 20thcentury newbies. Some hide in plain view and others require a dedicated search. Join Tipoteca Italiana for a typographic excavation and digital revival of letters from the streets of Venice, inscriptions in Milan and their own collection of Art Nouveau and Art Deco wood and metal typefaces. In this two-week workshop you’ll explore old alphabets, print them via letterpress, analyse and revive them to achieve computer-ready fonts. Type historians and designers Bill Moran and Riccardo Olocco will be your guides on this alphabetic excursion as you unearth and refresh the best of Italian lettering and typography.
TipoItalia23 encourages learners to see the alphabet in its myriad forms and trace their evolution to the type collection held by Tipoteca. This program fosters a “typographic archaeology” that can then be translated into digital type allowing the participant to bring Italian typography to their desktop computer.
Who is this open to? Why should I do it?
Tipoteca Italiana offers a program of this format to attract educators, designers and type lovers to increase awareness of the rich typographic legacy in the Veneto as well as the museum’s collection and cultural offerings. Experience with letterpress is helpful but not necessary.
