LDF17 is just around the corner and there is plenty for typography, lettering and sign fans to get stuck into. Here's what's on our to do list:
BETTER LETTERS | HAND LETTERING WORKSHOPS
Better Letters celebrate hand-crafted lettering from around the world and they'll be hosting three fantastic signwriting workshops at Borough Market and The Art Academy.
Mike Meyer Intensive Hand Lettering Workshop
16 & 17 September, 10am - 5pm
Borough Market, 8 Southwark Street, SE1 1TL
This is an intensive day filled with paint, brushes, lettering and laughs. You will hone your Gothic (Block), Casual and Script letter forms through a hands-on process of practice, personal critique and expert guidance from Sign Painters very own Mike Meyer.
betterletters.co/LDF
Create Your Own Lettering with Martina Flor
23 & 24 September, 10am - 5pm
The Art Academy, 165A Borough High Street, Mermaid Court, SE1 1HR
Engage with the process of drawing and refining a piece of your own custom lettering. Across the day you will be introduced to a variety of effective techniques to create lettering from scratch, under the guidance of Berlin-based letterer and author, Martina Flor.
betterletters.co/LDF
Gold and Glass Workshop
23 & 24 September, 10am - 5pm
The Art Academy, 165A Borough High Street, Mermaid Court, SE1 1HR
Learn the basic techniques required to work with gold leaf for lettering and sign work. Working on flat panels, and in reverse on glass, you’ll be guided through the steps required to achieve a variety of different finishes.
THE BETTER LETTERS GLOWING ALPHABET PEEP SHOW
Saturday 16 – Sunday 24 September
Hilton London Bankside, 2-8 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0UG
This free lettering-themed installation features 27 original signwritten works glowing within a modern curiosity cabinet in the Hilton London Bankside lobby. Curated and created by the team at Better Letters, you are invited to cruise the peep holes and find your favourite glowing letter…
THE EPHEMERAL NATURE OF LETTERING ARTS
Wednesday 20 September, 7pm - 9pm
Devonshire House, 68 Union Street, SE1 1TD
Specialist speakers from a range of disciplines in typography and design will debate questions around the transitory nature of lettering and the interconnectedness of various lettering, calligraphic and type traditions. The panel includes Rob Saunders (Letterform Archive), Paul Antonio (Master Calligrapher), Sam Roberts (Better Letters and Ghost Signs) and will be chaired by Donald Hyslop (Tate Modern).
LETTERFORM ARCHIVE | GRAPHIC DESIGN PROCESS: ANALOG ARTIFACTS OF EXPERIMENTATION, DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION
Wednesday 20 – Sunday 24 September
Devonshire House, 68 Union Street, SE1 1TD
A first for the UK, San Francisco’s Letterform Archive will pop up at Flat Iron Square in Bankside. The exhibition highlights the work designers produce on the way to final products utilising the breadth of the Letterform Archive collection. Includes the work of W.A. Dwiggins, Emigre Inc, Eric Gill, Philip Grushkin, Edward Johnston, Aaron Marcus, Herbert Matter, Piet Zwart and others. Join founder and curator Rob Saunders and librarian Amelia Grounds for a walkthrough of the exhibition. You’ll learn about analog production and get an up close look at the pieces.
TYPE TASTING | WHAT'S YOUR FONT?
16 & 17 September
Design Studio, Sackler Centre for arts education, Victoria and Albert Museum
Pick a typeface then customise it to reflect your personality and create your own Font Selfie. Add this to the display, which will grow throughout the weekend to create an exciting collection of typographic self-portraits.
At 2pm each day, join author and Type Tasting founder Sarah Hyndman for a short talk about her research into typeface personalities.
PAUL ANTONIO AND BETTER BANKSIDE
Saturday 16 – Sunday 24 September
Various Locations on Borough High Street
Literary legends of Bankside will come alive through a series of installations by master calligrapher Paul Antonio. Historic Borough High Street, one of London’s oldest thoroughfares, was walked by Chaucer, Dickens and Shakespeare. Quotes will be inscribed on windows in the letterforms of the period.
OTL AICHER'S ISNY
Saturday 16 – Sunday 24 September, 10am - 5pm
dn&co, 3 Tyers Gate, SE1 3HX
Brand and design agency dn&co will be celebrating the work of iconic 20th century German graphic designer Otl Aicher at its gallery Ground Floor Space in Bermondsey as part of the London Design Festival.
Forty years after it was created, the exhibition and limited edition book revisits how Aicher took what was expected of the small tourist town of Isny im Allgäu in Southern Germany, and defied it with a kit of 128 pictograms – in a way that was miles ahead of its time. The collection of rare prints will be the most comprehensive collection of Aicher’s Isny work to be seen in the UK.