Design is a collaborative activity, that sometimes pushes us outside our comfort zone to co-create with strangers. When we push ourselves and take a leap of faith, we discover that magic happens in spaces where people come together, the strategies and solutions far more elegant and resolved than we would have managed in isolation.

My workshops begin with breaking down those barriers: to us, as well as to each other. Our introductions to the group involve humanising ourselves, diffusing performance or perfection pressure, and inviting everyone to this type community. As a warm-up assignment, I like to get the group talking by inviting them to make name-tag stickers for each other in a 5-minute sprint. This sets a warm, engaged, spirited, open tone for the rest of the activities to follow.

An introductory demonstration of posture, movement, tools, styles, techniques and experimentation instantly inspires and gets everyone going. A few type terms are thrown in and some expressive word-play is introduced, that everyone is encouraged to take forward in their explorations as per their interest and abilities.

An illustrated presentation, this can be tailored to be as extensive or brief as required, according to the group’s abilities, background and academic priorities. extensive version:

• History of letterforms, scripts and the alphabet structure itself, in several languages across the world. A sense of where letterforms came from and what factors played a part in their shapes.

• History of scripts and typefaces, introducing how writing styles, technology and applications influenced type.

• Type classifications and how to identify them.

An introduction to Type Anatomy and introduction to type terms that we would be using through the workshop. Ascenders and Counterforms, Ball Terminals and Tails, x-Height and Baseline, Ear and Shoulder, difference between Kerning and Tracking, Font and Typeface etc.

A guided walk through the city’s streets or a selected neighbourhood, to notice, reflect on, discuss and document type styles, scripts, ornaments and materials commonly in use. Introduction to emotive and informational potential of type, type choices for certain products, applications or functions, influence of history and other scripts if any, colour and composition etc. Students take photographs of their favourite (or most intriguing) samples to discuss with the group later.

For a more advanced class, we like to follow up the walk with an assignment that takes off from it. For example, the students choose a sample of lettering they photographed, study its attributes and attempt to extend the letter-set using the same attributes. If they know another language or script, they could also apply the given attributes to create companion letters in that script. This exercise forms a very good basis for discussions, insights and the future practice of type design.

Another good way of introducing type design, is by using a foreign or made-up script, since that allows students to focus on attributes and drawing techniques, rather than getting caught-up and intimidated by an aspired perfection of known shapes or readability. In a workshop format, we use an abstract inspiration (like dropping spaghetti on the floor and seeing the shapes it forms spontaneously). Each student picks a shape they like, uses their choice of calligraphy tool to recreate and refine the shape, thus arriving at their own personal ‘letterform’. The group is encouraged, in fact, to assign a sound to their letterform, followed by a dramatic reveal that they just collectively created a script and a language!

Design is a non-self-centred practice. Our professional job as designers, is to dream, nurture and give birth to other people’s babies. We create and give away.

As a final act of stepping into that world, we invite the group to create something they will gift to someone. In one of the versions of this assignment, they divide up into teams (always in teams!) and, using all the tools learned in this workshop, hand-paint a signboard for someone in the immediate community who otherwise can’t afford one or would really benefit from a better one. In India, we paint signs for street vendors and small shop owners in the neighbourhood.

In another version of this assignment, the group collectively makes different letterforms that come together to create the city or neighbourhood’s name or signboard, as a gift to the place.