On August 28, 2018, the Morisawa’s sixth Typeface Design Competition Special Seminar was taken its place at Tokyo International Forum. It was the pre-event for the upcoming entry call of the competition. The presentations started by the type designer Cyrus Highsmith who is also the jury of the competition for Latin font category. The second session was the discussion between the type designer Osamu Torinoumi who is also the jury of the competition for Japanese font category and the previous award winners. The last presentation was by the art director Kaoru Kasai who spoke about letters from the user’s point of view.
“Writing & Drawing”
The first session was the presentation by Cyrus Highsmith, a type designer, graphic artist, and an author of children’s picture books and manual of typeface design Occupant Fonts. He has also been a jury of the Type Design Competition for Morisawa award Latin category from 2012.
Cyrus began by introducing the keyword “Drawing”. In the presentation, he described how drawings could tell a story or play an essential role for the viewers or emphasise their imagination by showing his illustrations and some images from his picture books. He draws not just for making a piece of work, but also to deeply understanding what he sees, to develop his ideas, to tell what he wants to express, as well as to calm his feeling. He draws in his sketchbook every day using pens and inks.
Cyrus says, draw with lines means to capture the shape of the “thing” you are drawing, but at the same time, you are drawing the “shape of the space”. This is the essential part of the drawing, and the same idea also applies to typeface design. Cyrus tends to be aware of the positive shape (black shape) and the negative shape (white shape) when he draws letters.
Cyrus explained that drawings such as illustrations draw stories, but typeface design should be more abstract. Typefaces are already something that speaks out loud, but it should not be too assertive to cause arguments with other elements.
When Cyrus found that Morisawa is holding the Type Design Competition, he wondered “Why Japanese Vendor wants Latin typefaces?” but did not enter the competition himself which is something he still regrets today.
At the end of his presentation, Cyrus gave a message to everyone ― You can design types with just drawing lines in a sketchbook. I want to welcome everyone to join the competition including those who have never involved with typeface design. You should not push your self to either of Japanese or Latin typeface but think freely and explore. As a jury, I very much look forward to seeing your entries.
〈Text:Chiyo Date (TART DESIGN OFFICE) Photo: Mitsuru Hirota〉