How does one become a type designer?
Haphazardly. If you’re neither good in police or insurance, just try typeface design! [Pun with the French word for typefaces: police] You’re not good enough to be an illustrator. You’re lazy enough to only do what you like. You can scan old foundry catalogs. So you can become a type designer! There are some really good self-taught type designers out there like Jean-Jacques Tadjian (Radiateur Fonts) and Christophe Badani. But the easiest way is to go to art school. There are now quite a few good schools with good teachers, most of whom have gone through the Scriptorium in Toulouse. Spread for the Présence Typo foundry in Font 006 What did you do in the Imprimerie Nationale? I had an internship there where i had to work on a design by José Mendoza [photo] for administrative documents. I did the roman uppercase and all the italic bold letters, all of it on scratchboard — the traditional way. The master stopped by twice a week to see how much damage had been done. It must have been gut wr
