The First Years are Introduced to 'Hardcore' Typography

The Typographer Royal™ (with full regalia) dispenses words of wisdom to Jake Thompson (21)

It's that time of year when The University of Cumbria's very own Typographer Royal™, H.R.H. Rhiannon Robinson, spends a lot of quality time with our first year students.

Rhiannon was crowned Typographer Royal™ by our very own queen, H.R.H Elizabeth II, in an elaborate ceremony, held in Typographers Hall (City of London) in June 1990. The position of Typographer Royal™ is not to be underestimated and Rhiannon takes her official duties very seriously. Her role behooves her to undertake the following:

1. Banish poor letter spacing, leading and tracking from all four corners of the kingdom
2. Seek out and destroy all 'widows' and 'orphans' in documents near and far
   
3. Challenge all developers of Microsoft Word Art to single, mortal combat
4. Round-up, imprison in Newgate and finally hang by the neck until dead, all look-alike, generic fonts and that evil malefactor, known to the wider population as 'Comic Sans'
   
5. Teach kick-arse typography skills to students of The University of Cumbria
   

The Queen helps Debbie Nixon (21) finesse her design

The induction commenced last Monday with a deceptively simple brief to turn some 'naked' text into a black and white press ad. The students quickly learned that what seems an easy task , is in fact fiendishly difficult. However with Rhiannon on hand they are learning fast and will quickly develop a sound understanding of the basics of good typography.

We'll post their efforts next week...


Things appear to be going well for Luci Ormrod (21)


Jen Sproat (21) in combat with an awkward line length


As always, we design on paper first...


Meanwhile... Adam and Katy (both 21) work on ideas for the concurrent 'Twins' project