In the late 1800’s Claude Debussy wrote “The century of aeroplanes has a right to its own music. As there are no precedents I must create anew.” When so many of us labor over learning our 12th century versals and 14th century italic, one could argue that in this “electronic” era we haven’t even begun to explore writing that would meet the musical equivalent expressed in Debussy’s 1800 proclamation.
We will try to catch up in this class and will use music and the philosophies of various musicians to do so. We will listen to music and write, draw, and paint music. We will compare renaissance classical music and renaissance writing and contrast them with modern classical music and its implications for the development of modern writing. With the musical elements, pace, force, and flow, as our guides we will invent modern expressive letterforms. The program will also explore issues surrounding verbal/visual legibility.
Throughout history scribes have been concerned with the form, character, and beauty of letterforms, and their arrangement on a page. These concerns, however, were always aimed at achieving a legible, visual communication of the verbal message. Calligraphy in our modern times is not always required to meet this need.
In both the commercial and fine arts fields, interest has grown to push lettering to become more visually expressive of its verbal content. Rules of the visual arts language can now take precedence in the development of calligraphic works. In this class we will explore the expressive potential of calligraphy that can result from line character.
Non- traditional calligraphy tools, such as graphite, will be used, as well as drawing techniques normally associated with fine arts drawing. The goal will be to broaden our views about how we can make letters so that our work can achieve a maximum visually expressive impact.
This class concerns itself with the shape, the place, and particularly the space of writing. The white space, in traditional western calligraphy, has generally been referred to as the negative space and the empty space. In the orient, the calligrapher, when facing the empty page sees it as being full of energy and assumes the challenge to activate the page, rather than filling it. In a successful work, the black marks and the white space are both active, merging together as one dynamic entity.
This perception of the page, common to the oriental traditions of calligraphy and painting, was also the driving force of modern western art. In the workshop we will examining the visual principles that have guided this work and will apply them to our calligraphic studies. This will include exploring figure/ground relationships, the power of the center of the page, the edges of the page and the corners of the page.
Consideration of these forces will enable students to create more forceful, dynamic, and expressive images. Open to all levels: students can work at their own pace and level.
This is a design class which focuses on the fundamentals of design with calligraphy. It is not a class on “how to design a specific thing (such as a greeting card) but a class that will help students approach the design of any kind of project.
The design vocabulary that we will study includes focal point, balance, unity, harmony, contrast, texture, size, proportion, and scale.
Finally students will explore simple creative approaches to the process of design. Open to beginning and intermediate level students. Students should have studied at least one calligraphic hand.
Traditional Lettering Classes
The Language of Modern Calligraphy
Book-making and Book Design workshops
Long Term Extended Studies Programs
