Communication Arts, the leading professional journal for visual communications, has launched a new Typography competition to celebrate the best use of typography as the primary visual element in design and advertising, plus new typeface designs, calligraphy and handlettering.

Jurors include Stephen Coles, type director at the FontShop and editor of Typographica; Allan Haley, director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging and past president of the New York Type Directors Club; and Ellen Lupton, designer, curator, critic and author of Thinking with Type. Their selections will be showcased on www.commarts.com and reproduced in the January/February 2011 issue of Communication Arts. More than 50,000 copies of the issue will be distributed worldwide assuring important exposure to the creators and publishers of these award-winning projects.

Entry deadline: September 10, 2010.
Submission requirements and FAQs can be found at CommArts.com/competitions/typography

Notes on Design recently spoke to London based Graphic Designer Fraser Muggeridge about his current venture – the Typography Summer School. Held over the duration of one week progammes, designers can apply to attend the course and study typography to enhance their practical skills and theory. This introductory interview is part 1, with part 2 consisting of a studio visit and further conversation with the programme participants.

Notes on Design: Hello Fraser, I know of your work through your design studio and understand that typography is of great importance in your work. Please can you tell us how and when you first got into typography and graphic design?

Fraser: I have always been drawn to letters. As a schoolboy my parents asked me if I wanted to play a musical instrument. I said I would prefer to be taught calligraphy, so once a week I would sit at the kitchen table with the only graphic designer in the town, drawing letters. This was the start of my study of typography, a process which still continues today. Everywhere I go, I am fascinated by what I can learn through my obsessive observations of typography: from paper bags in Kolkata, to haulage trucks on the M1 motorway.

Notes on Design: When you work with a client on a typographic project how do you communicate the best direction or outcome?

Fraser: This will depend on many factors. Sometimes we might want to be big and bold and sometimes not. Typography can be a very subtle thing – A lot of it is in the detail – clients will notice when something isn’t right but they don’t know why. Read the rest of this entry »