Friends of Type duo, Erik Marinovich and Aaron Carambula, led the AIGA/NY Lettering Workshop How to be a Friend with Friends of Type, an experimental lettering workshop at the AIGA National Design Center on Friday, October 19, 2012.

Participants were guided through techniques to visualize and execute an ampersand.

The day included sketching, critiques, and individual work sessions to refine and digitize their ampersand project.

AIGA/NY interviewed one of the workshop participants, Jay Quercia, on his experience.

AIGA/NY: The day-long lettering workshop featured everything from ideation, to sketching to critique and refining. For readers who may be wondering what the day was like, can you share your experience as a participant?
Jay Quercia: The day started with a quick history of Friends of Type. They talked about how they all used to work at a branding agency before coming together to form Friends of Type. After that, there was a very brief history of the ampersand, and a small primer on printer’s language when describing a drop shadow, [such as] drop shade, split shade, relief shade, etc.We got organized and jumped right in to initial sketching. Erik and Aaron encouraged us to be loose and sketch as many ampersands as possible. They started a stopwatch and asked us to sketch light, heavy, big, small, with the wrong hand, with our eyes closed. At the end of the sketching, most of us had six pages (give or take) of ampersands, some better than others.

We were asked to choose two favorites, which was challenging, but Aaron and Erik also came around to pick their own personal favorites. They instructed us to choose one to refine. We began tracing our chosen [ampersand], adding weight (called skin by the FOT). We were encouraged again to do as many explorations as possible, to really push the form. At the end of this, we chose our most interesting sketch to scan during lunch.

After a brief Shake Shack break, we came back and started digitizing. Aaron gave us all a few tips for working with the anchors in Illustrator, and showed us how to finesse our curves.

The next step was adding clothes (or treating the type, how should it be set, how should it live). Few of us actually completed this step, but Erik briefly showed us how he finished his pieces. He mentioned that he was always collecting textures from random places. He buys old books, or saves the patterns on envelopes to use later in his designs. At the end of the workshop, everyone in the class took an anonymous vote and the [designers of the] top three ampersands, were awarded a print by Aaron.

AIGA/NY: There were many different methods for approaching the final lettering project. Was there a specific approach that inspired your final work?
JQ: Throughout the entire process of creating and choosing an ampersand, it was obvious that Erik and Aaron were looking for the outliers. They seemed to be searching for the ugly ducklings within our sketches. I almost felt that this was the reason their work is always very unique. Instead of going for the obvious answer, they would choose the one that’s a bit off, to hope that the finalization of such a piece wouldn’t adhere to today’s trends. I struggled a bit with my final. My original ampersand was a bit top heavy, and in the end I ended up shifting the weight downward. In terms of inspiration, I would say that my affinity toward scripts and elegance contributed to my design.

Ampersand by Jay Quercia. Courtesey of Jay Quercia.

AIGA/NY: What are some of your key take-aways from the speakers? How has the Friends of Type workshop influenced or inspired you?
JQ: One of the biggest things I took from the class was the fact that creating something beautiful is never easy. Erik showed a bit of his own process work and it was interesting to see how many things he tried before arriving at a final. If there was one word to describe it, I’d say it was perseverance. You can’t let the failures discourage you, but rather use them as a guiding light. A failure is just another lesson, another step toward the right answer. Another thing I found interesting was the fact that both Erik and Aaron encouraged the idea of happy accidents. By sketching with our eyes open or eyes closed, and with our wrong hands, there were some moments of beauty—an interest that we would have not found had we not let our guard down. My own ampersand was one that I created with my eyes closed.

AIGA/NY: Would you do it again?
JQ: Absolutely.

Additional Information:
Friends of Type

Event Details:
AIGA/NY Lettering Workshop How to be a Friend with Friends of Type

Event Photos:
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