The Cube: practical research in theoretical models

Monday, June 17, 2019, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Add to Calendar

Image

 

Erik van Blokland speaks about the cube as part of Type@Cooper and Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography's Herb Lubalin Lecture Series. The reprint of The Stroke by Dutch type design theoretician Gerrit Noordzij sparked deeper digging into the origins of his iconic cube. This talk reflects on what this model can mean for type design and education. As a conceptual object, the cube inspired modern interpolation tools and design spaces. A report about curiosity-driven research in type design practice. Registration requested here.

Erik van Blokland, a type designer from The Hague, Netherlands, started the LettError foundry with Just van Rossum in 1989. He studied graphic design at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, and picked up the taste for type design in Gerrit Noordzij's class. The early experiments in type and code (Beowolf, Trixie, Hands) were published by FontFont. More recently Eames Century Modern at House Industries and lots of work for Photo-Lettering. Tool development became an important part of Erik's work (see Superpolator). First with Petr van Blokland and Just van Rossum in RoboFog. Later with Tal Leming in the RoboFab and UFO projects and the initial stages of the WOFF specification for webfonts. Van Blokland is a senior lecturer at the TypeMedia course of the Royal Academy of Arts

Located in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, at 41 Cooper Square (on Third Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets)

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.