dyana weissman: on the brink

Talking with experienced type designers invariably gives me a rare sort of thrill. The skills they possess are breathtaking, if not altogether frightening; their typographic corpuses speak – and more than occasionally constitute – volumes; their accumulated knowledge reaches far beyond typography, stretching well into the realms of history, language, and culture; and sometimes they can speak just as deftly about wood, metal, and photo type as they can about digital.

But if my conversations with veterans are thrilling, my exchanges with novice designers are an order of magnitude more; they launch me headfirst through sentient states both lofty and low, landing me smack-dab in the center of an emotional muddle that comprises overwhelming excitement, burning envy, sheer awe, incredible curiosity, and immense pride. Young designers have an enthusiasm and a passion for the typographic arts that are exquisitely palpable; they bear the mark of minty-fresh educations and are eager to put them to good use; and though newly indoctrinated, their young minds are yet malleable and receptive. Indeed, they are about to embark upon incredible, indeterminate journeys; none of us knows which roads they will take, just as none of us can deny that their futures are whatever they will make of them.

Dyana Weissman is one of these young typographers of whom I write. A graduate of RISD, and a freshman designer at The Font Bureau, she actually appears to have taken Casey Kasem’s weekly benediction to heart; with feet firmly planted, she seems to have a clear idea of where she’s headed, or at least of what she wants to achieve. Though just 23 years old, she shows signs of being on the brink of something great; and as exciting as it will be for her to experience, it may well be much more so for us to watch, and to cheer her on as we do.

JC: Dyana, what is your background and training in typography?

DW: My mother used to do freelance graphic design, so there were always computers and type specimens lying around. I took a class during my foundation year at Rhode Island School of Design on typography. The teacher told me, “of everyone in this class, you got bit the hardest.” I was nuts about it, and I went on to major in graphic design. During one summer, I decided to stay in Providence, and I took a job as a hall monitor for the pre-college kids. It was a terrible job, but I was rewarded with money and a free summer class, which was a little counter-productive because I was up all night – until about five in the morning. I decided to take Cyrus Highsmith’s type design class. It was only two weeks long, but it lasted from eight in the morning until five or six at night, and I couldn’t get enough. I think that I slept about three hours a day, but I was so enthusiastic about it, I just kept going.

After that I was pretty sure I never wanted to do anything else, so I tried out other areas (just to make sure there wasn’t something else I was as interested in), while keeping in touch with Cyrus. During my senior year I took an internship in which I began to digitize a Scotch Roman that I should be finishing soon.

JC: What do you do at The Font Bureau?

DW: A designer gives me a project to work on – either a custom job or something we’re thinking about releasing – and I do what I can with it. When I’m finished, he or she helps me to see what I’ve done wrong. Lately, I’ve been checking the spacing and kerning on a retail typeface, as well as making a display version of one of our Readability Series faces. I’ve also helped to expand two fonts out right now, Nobel Extra Light Condensed and Extra Light Italic. Nobel was designed by Tobias Frere-Jones; naturally, he gets the big credit. I’ve also started doing a lot of typeface identifications; someone will email a jpeg or tiff of a typeface that they desperately want. I really love doing these, since I get to prowl through the specimen books and test my knowledge. It’s a great way to learn, because I begin to see what the subtle differences are between faces – what separates FontFont Bodoni from ITC Bodoni, for example. Plus, while searching I often find an interesting typeface that I never would have come across otherwise.

JC: What are you especially good or bad at in type design?

DW: For a while I was getting pretty good at making Central European character sets. I haven’t gotten too many of those lately, though. One thing I need to work on is catching the details; just when I think I have everything done, I look again and see glaring mistakes. I’ll have named a file wrong or made a curve happen too fast. Sometimes this occurs after I’ve already turned in a proof, which of course, is never impressive. But I want to get everything perfect.

JC: Why have you chosen to become a type designer?

DW: I decided to become a type designer simply because I love it. When I first drew letters in Cyrus’ class I felt this thrill that I was actually accomplishing something. And it’s just what I like. I like that it is simply black and white – I’m terrible with color. I also like that it is just about beautiful lines and beautiful shapes, and about finding the relationships between them.

JC: What do you perceive to be some problems with type design as a career choice?

DW: Piracy is the first thing that springs to mind. With the state of the economy and the mindset that some type users have, it is so easy for them to pass around fonts as though designers didn’t spend hundreds of hours on them. Another problem is that the average person simply knows nothing about typography.

JC: What kinds of faces do you want to design?

DW: Good question – I have become very interested lately in calligraphy and in script faces, which is odd, because a year ago I would have told you that I hated most script faces. I’m digitizing a script right now, taken from Lucas Materot’s work. Apart from that, I like very thick, chunky stuff. Slab serifs are so cool. I love, love, love TheSerif by Luc(as) de Groot. The heavier it gets, the better. Clarendon has this funky, '70s federal building quality to it that I like a lot as well.

JC: What do you think type design needs most right now?

DW: Type simply needs to be better understood. First, people need to be aware that type design is an actual, legitimate occupation. Second, designers need to learn how to use type better.

Most of my friends from high school crack lame jokes and think that what I do is pointless. A few of my college friends – people who graduated with me in graphic design, even – think that I don’t have a “real job.” They think that graphic design is the only important thing, and that type design is just a facet of graphic design. They don’t realize that we have our own conventions and societies all over the world. A few of these friends even steal fonts and talk about it openly, as though I’m not there. They have no idea what goes into making a typeface and how important typefaces are.

And as most people reading this blog are aware, there is horrible design assaulting our eyes everyday. While there are, of course, much more important things to worry about, I still can’t help noticing the misuse of type everyday. There are so many signs and logos in Boston that just make me want to cry.

JC: Where does type design fit in with your goals in life?

DW: I will always want to be drawing; why would anyone stop? I’ve talked to some designers who have been in the business for a while, and they tell me that they’ve started to grow tired of it, and that it becomes the way to feed their kids, and so that’s what they live for. At 23, I’m certainly not ready to settle down yet, if ever...so my career had better be my main focus. It would be nice to get the Peignot award, but I have a long way to go before I can imagine that being a possibility; although you only go as far as you allow yourself to go. So why not? I’ll go for the Peignot. Otherwise, in a few years I’d like to have travelled more and seen the world. I think that if I ever save up enough money (and courage), I’d like to live in Italy and draw type there. But I like Boston far too much to ever think about leaving.

05-Aug 2003