Teaching for Creative Authenticity

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Troy University

Troy University — College of Arts and Humanities | Troy, AL, USA​

​Typography (ART 3325)

In-Person · Taught: Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025

This course explores typography as both a technical craft and a vehicle for visual communication. Students examine the history, anatomy, and expressive potential of letterforms through analog and digital methods. Emphasis is placed on hierarchy, rhythm, and composition—teaching students to use type as design rather than decoration.

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Through a sequence of projects ranging from letterform studies to large-scale campaigns, students develop typographic fluency, visual discipline, and conceptual authorship.

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Projects included: Sweet Sixteen, UN International Peace Day Poster, Anatomy of Type, 36 Days of Type, Typographic Compositions, Shape the Future: A Campaign for Voter Participation

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Sweet Sixteen

Students document real-world letterforms through photography and translate them into a four-quadrant composition combining analog and digital methods. The project builds typographic awareness, spatial precision, and craftsmanship through observation, drawing, and vectorization.

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UN International Peace Day Poster (Fall Classes Only)

Students design a typographic poster interpreting the UN’s annual Peace Day theme, applying hierarchy, contrast, and expressive form to communicate a global message in both digital and print formats. The project emphasizes personal voice, advocacy and the real world application of design skills.

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Anatomy of Type Your Way

Students analyze typographic anatomy and design an informational diagram that includes all key definitions. The deliverable is a poster and a matching digital version that demonstrate clear labeling, creative composition, and personal design style.

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36 Days of Type

Inspired by the global 36 Days of Type challenge, students design a complete alphabet (A–Z) and numeral set (0–9) that expresses a unified visual system. Through iterative sketching, research, and digital refinement, they develop a repeatable methodology that ensures consistency across characters. Deliverables include the full character set and a process book—emphasizing systems thinking (“work smarter, not harder”) over software tricks.

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Typographic Compositions (Spring Classes Only)

Students deconstruct letterforms to see them as design artifacts rather than text. They transform initial sketches into refined compositions that explore form, counterform, and spatial tension—challenging their understanding of typography’s visual and conceptual role. Deliverables include six finalized typographic compositions, a mounted print, and a presentation deck articulating design intent and creative rationale.

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Shape the Future: A Campaign for Voter Participation

Students design a typographically driven awareness campaign that promotes civic engagement and voter participation. Working through research, ideation, and design development, they define their audience, craft original copy, and create cohesive visual assets such as posters, social media graphics, apparel, and an “out-of-the-box” concept piece. The project emphasizes typography as a persuasive tool for advocacy—balancing message clarity, visual consistency, and emotional tone. Through moodboards, mind maps, collages, sketches, and polished mockups, students learn to articulate how type, hierarchy, and design systems can inspire real-world action while maintaining ethical neutrality.