Type Tricks: Your personal guide to type design

The book is about typographical rules and the underlying structure of the work process in the design of new typefaces. In that way it is both a reference book and a user manual. In an illustrative format, it presents the different stages of type design in an easily approachable manner. 

The book takes its outset in my experience as a teacher of type design, my own practical experience with designing typefaces, and in my academic research. The material originates in lectures given at introduction classes to type design, and has been tested and adjusted for optimal communication. 

The work process of designing typefaces is different from the process of designing other graphic matters, where you typically can move back and forth between the developmental stages. This does not – in the same way – go for type design. If the student is too quick in moving forward, he or she can end up with an unreasonable amount of extra work. 

Type design is a craft that contains a number of essential tricks that the designer needs to know and understand. These being rules for stroke weight, letter skeleton, proportions and spacing, with a common denominator of a perceptual adjustment that does not follow mathematical correctness. It is exact knowledge that I repeat again and again to the students in my teaching. My experience is, however, that these guidelines are difficult for the students to remember. 

I have longed for a book that I could refer to when I am not around, I therefore decided to create the book Type Tricks. 

Beier, S. (2017) Type Tricks: Your personal guide to type design, BIS Publishers, 1-206 p.