The project

Open Educational Resources for Typography (OERT) is an open educational project available to everyone who wishes to broaden their knowledge of typography: students, teachers, or individuals interested in the subject. This project is built upon the course material prepared by Cátedra Cosgaya (FADU / UBA), a set of booklets that we began to produce in 1994 and which is currently organized into three sections: theoretical, historical, and practical. The project aims at expanding, updating, and editing the current material in Spanish, to translate it into English, and to publish it online under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license.

Phase one: Theory

The first part of the project provides a theoretical framework to understand the attributes of a font family and introduce the skills involved in typeface design: what ‘structure’, ‘stroke’ and ‘counter’ mean in this field, what kerning and tracking are all about, how to deal with details and serifs. It also describes how fonts can be used appropriately through a repertoire of approaches to typography for different sorts of publications, from music CD inserts to books, newspapers and magazines. Once published online, it may be edited, enhanced and improved with the input and assistance of everyone interested. We hope your collaboration will help us move the world of typography forward!

Phase two: Practice

The second phase aims at developing exercises to put theory into practice. We will develop introductory exercises to typeface design and to designing with type. Each exercise will include a description of the knowledge and skills necessary to execute them as well as a guide with analysis criteria that will help to self-assess the development achieved. Once published online this material may be edited, enhanced, and improved with the input and assistance of everyone interested. We hope your collaboration will help us carry it forward.

Phase three: History

The third phase addresses issues of history, from the origin of writing to the invention of typography, reviews the major stylistic movements, the great designers and the great moments in technology. This allows to contextualize the theoretical and practical knowledge, while enriching the learning process. Once published online this material may be edited, enhanced, and improved with the input and assistance of everyone interested. We hope your collaboration will help us carry it forward.

This entry is also available in: Spanish