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Welcome

Are you ready to take your type design skills to the next level? The registrations for the new academic year are open. Join our Expert class Type design 2024–25, which will be offered through distance learning again. Or try our short course on the history of printing types, for a quick but effective learning experience.


Matrix set

Expert class Type design: get inspired by the typographic heritage of Antwerp

The Expert class Type design will have a mixed formula this year. From 21 till 24 October 2024, the online classes are complemented by an intensive four-day program in Antwerp, packed with in-person lessons, guest lectures, study visits, and social activities. The students will get to know each other better, while learning about the unique collection of punches, matrices, and prints that are preserved in Museum Plantin-Moretus. All the other lessons will be offered through distance learning. The online lessons are undoubtedly attractive for our international students, who will save themselves a lot of travel and hotel costs.

Taking the course online implies that research in the reading room of Museum Plantin-Moretus is not possible. To get around this, students will receive high-quality photos and scans of punches, smoke proofs, matrices, and prints from the museum’s large collection.

Over the course of nine online sessions, given between November 2024 and April 2025, a select group of students will have the chance to learn directly from Dr. Frank E. Blokland, type designer, font producer, software developer, and Senior Lecturer. He will provide in-depth insights into the history, theory, and practice of type design, sharing his vast knowledge and experience with students.

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Punches Gros Capitales

Last call: The history of printing types

In February and March 2024 John A. Lane will repeat his series of lectures about the history of printing types. The course will be taught in the classroom at the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp, but international students can participate remotely via Zoom, synchronously (in real time).

These lectures discuss the influence of manuscript and engraved letterforms on the form of printing types from the introduction of European movable type to the digital era. They cover the work of the most important punchcutters and type designers from the earliest roman types (Nicholas Jenson, Francesco Griffo) to the late 20th century (Hermann Zapf, Adrian Frutiger).

  • – four lectures on Saturday afternoon
  • – 24 February, 2 March, 9 March and 16 March 2024
  • – Teacher John A. Lane

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Open Day 2024

The institute’s Open Day will take place on Saturday 27 April 2024 and this is the perfect opportunity to inform you about our Expert class Type design.

You can come to our classroom, or follow along via Zoom. The sessions will be at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Central European Time.

Register with an email to plantin.instituut@antwerpen.be

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