In this impatient age of 'need it now' tech-and the emerging use of AI to generate visual answers and direction-are we on a path to being saturated with 'new-lazy' type design? Are new typefaces or fonts necessary? Are they, in fact, 'new' at all? Is social media to 'blame' for an influx of mediocre typography with limited context?

In Your Face! StereoType 'Mono et Mono' Studio is asking these and many more questions-whilst taking you back to the core of the designing of type and typographic elements. It is going to demand you challenge the 'norm', the 'quick and the ugly'; the 'Pinterest pretty'; the 'Microsoft mundane', and will set you on a trajectory of font-frenzy, mark-making discovery.

In order to understand one's own standpoint in the realm of typography, it is imperative we attempt to understand what has come before, and what may yet be. By taking a hands-on approach we will be generating our own research artifacts and documents whilst referring to the 'rules' and methods of the great creators of type. Interpreting that knowledge-and grasping its importance to us as designers-should enable reflection leading to creation. We can break the rules, as long as we truly understand and acknowledge them!

In this studio you will be expected to deploy all of your creative thinking and design skills, indicative of a passion for creative difference. You will be required to develop outcomes with thought and skill, that concisely communicate your ideas to a broad audience. You will need to evaluate how type/typographic elements impart their messages-beyond the obvious. We will look within, through and beyond the face of type. Your outcomes should demonstrate a deep understanding of the subject matter, allowing your work to inform and educate those residing outside of the 'design-and-type-universes'.

In Your Face! StereoType - Mono et Mono Studio is calling upon you to use your heart, your soul, your creative thinking and design-based skills to look at ways in which you can challenge the standard construct by discerning, deconstructing, reassembling and creating type or typographic elements which will translate into visually interesting communicative message/s. You are expected to explore context, form, material, method and process. Expected outcomes will be in the form of visually creative materials and expressive artifacts demonstrating your understanding of the subject matter.

This Studio has 4 interlinked assessment tasks. Each inform the other and are a critical dialogue with the subject matter.
1.Studio Knowledge Object (SKO) 12 Inch Vinyl Album Sleeve/Notes/Poster (as a cohesive Packaged Artifact).
2.Specific Type-knowledge Design Manifesto (400 Words) + Preliminary Conceptualisation (6-8 Pages).
3.01 Work in Progress Portfolio and Design Process (approximately 100 Pages).
3.02 Portfolio of 6 x 'Snapshot' Developmental/Experimental Posters (6 x Posters at specific interval dates to be advised).

"Lettering, a reference manual of techniques." Andrew Haslam, Laurence King Publishing, 2011, ISBN: 9781856696869
"Typography Sketchbooks." Steven Heller & Lita Talarico, Thames & Hudson, 2011, ISBN: 9780500289686
"Hand Job, a catalog of type." Michael Perry, Princeton Architectural Press, 2007, ISBN: 9781568986265

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Designing Experiences, Designing for Social Change, Design and the Post-Digital, Designing Identity, Designing Publications, Designing Disobedience