Sugar Maples Center for Creative Arts

Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced

I say, “ALPHABET  SOUP!” You might think, “I ate that just yesterday.” This is important because fonts rule our world now. In the good old days, fonts were the realm of specialists. With computers, we cross paths with endless riffs on fonts. If you’re interested in this weird artistic science of aesthetic living, writing to your grandchildren or whoever, letters can be drawn in many ways. And in this case…YOUR WAY. Cyrus Highsmith’s approach is based on the importance of white space and sensitivity to shapes. It’s a method he applies to type design as well as image-making of all kinds. For Highsmith, it’s a way of seeing the world. This workshop will be a messy, hands-on, and computer-free exploration of us; drawing, making, and thinking about letters. Students will explore techniques involving stencils, mono-printing, and making their own drawing tools. We will venture to say, if you’re an artist working in ANY medium, this workshop in the beautiful Catskills is for you.

Cyrus Highsmith is a letter drawer, teacher, author, and graphic artist. He teaches type design at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He wrote and illustrated the acclaimed primer, “Inside Paragraphs: Typographic Fundamentals.” In 2015, he received the Gerrit Noordzij Prize by the Royal Academy of Art; the Hague, for extraordinary contributions to the fields of type design, typography, and type education. Highsmith’s inventions in typeface design extend to Ford Corporation, Martha Stewart Living, the Wall Street Journal, Men’s Health, Star Wars, and many others. One of Cyrus’ most well-known typefaces are Zocalo, used by the Mexican daily El Universal and the Antenna Series. In 2017, he became Creative Director for Latin Type Development at Morisawa USA.

Course Fee: $300 + $30 Lab Fee + $40 Non-Refundable Registration Fee