Renaissance Type Systematization and Digital Frameworks | Eugene Yukechev/Anna Damoli | ATypI 2020

As part of the Plantin Institute of Typography’s expert class type design course under the roof of the Museum Plantin-Moretus, a group of international students examined models by French Renaissance punchcutter Robert Granjon as the basis for a digital revival. The research questioned whether there is cross-standardization between the roman and italic models of Granjon. This would be consistent with the theories on the Renaissance type-production systematization of Dr. Frank E. Blokland, who supervised the research. Artifacts from the unique collection of foundry type material from the Antwerp museum were used for the investigation. The findings were eventually extrapolated to contemporary digital frameworks for the production of new fonts. During their talk, Eugene Yukechev and Anna Damoli will take the audience by the hand and guide them through the unknown territory for many in the field of type and typography. After all, it is easy to take the historical frameworks for granted and reproduce them optically. Although it may not be necessary for reproduction, research into Renaissance standardization and systematization can provide deeper insights into the intrinsic structure of the unconsciously reproduced frameworks. Information hidden at first sight may support a more authentic interpretation of the source models in question, and the distilled patterns can be used to further master the harmonic and rhythmic aspects of type in the digital font-production environment. A...