The Making of House Industries Lettering Manual

Monday, September 14, 2020, 12:30 - 2pm

Add to Calendar

Image

Renowned letterer and author Ken Barber shares a behind-the-scenes look at the new House Industries Lettering Manual. For over 25 years, the acclaimed design agency and font foundry has built a reputation on providing a distinctive voice to companies and brands around the world through expressive logos and wordmarks. In his revealing new handbook, the studio’s Chief Lettering Officer unveils the underlying tactics and techniques that form the core of House’s eclectic creative process.

During this visually-engaging and entertaining presentation, Ken will highlight case studies from the Lettering Manual, including work for luxury brand Hermès, director JJ Abrams, and broadway musical The Cher Show. The author will also share never-before-seen photo outtakes and sketches, and explain how on earth late-night TV host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel came to write the foreword.

Registration is required.

Ken Barber is a letterer, type designer and type director at design studio and type foundry House Industries. He is also a partner of Photo-Lettering, Inc., the online lettering-vending service nominated by the Design Museum London as a 2011 Design of the Year recipient. Ken's work is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and has been honored by the New York Type Directors Club. Association Typographique Internationale recently selected several of his typefaces for inclusion in the organization’s decennial design competition. In addition to teaching at Maryland Institute College of Art, Ken regularly lectures internationally on the subjects of lettering and typography. He also manages typeandlettering.com, an online resource for students and attendees of his frequent workshops.

  • 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.