Typography shapes attention, conveys meaning, and influences our perception of the world. As an interdisciplinary field, it is now more than ever the key to orientation, understanding, and communication.

Typography is never neutral.
Issues such as inclusive design, artificial intelligence, and attacks on cultural and democratic values make it clear that typography is never neutral. It determines accessibility, conveys attitudes, and shapes how reality is read and interpreted—and is therefore also culturally, ethically, and politically relevant.

The basic course in typography and sign systems in the first semester provides a comprehensive introduction and overview:

G O A L S  of the first semester:
1) You will learn about eight important typefaces, type designers, the structure of letters, terminology (stroke width, character width, character height, and much more), special characters, font extensions and font families, typesetting and composition rules, typesetting forms, the history of font development, font differentiation criteria, classification characteristics (according to DIN), measurement systems, grid structures, typographical laws, rules of legibility/reading distance, letter sequences, word sequences, line sequences, column sequences, page sequences, etc.
2) You get your hands on the fonts, i.e., you can sketch the essentials and the differences by hand, you really scribble with fonts, gain experience in the grid layout of a newspaper within a workshop, and then typeset it on the computer; … And you enjoy it …
3) You can use simple, basic graphic methods to create expression; you develop sign systems;
4) you can scribble with fonts (see 2) above);
5) you can implement a layout;
6) you can apply the most important typographical rules independently;
7) a joint semester book is created from your results; as well as a:
8) semester experience report on the typographic first semester in the form of a double-page spread in a newspaper – this will ultimately become a complete joint first-semester typography newspaper entitled “Neue Typen in Würzburg” (New Types and Characters in Würzburg).
9) You develop strength in your personal points of view and take an interest in all of these topics! This is essential for graphic designers now and in the future!

Introduction/first session:
Tuesday, October 7, 9 a.m., I.1.26

Planned excursions:
Possible combined trip to Essen to the Folkwang Museum – Düsseldorf with K20/K21, Kunstpalast, NRW Forum