Nº30 Meeting Recap: Type on Tap

After a busy holiday season, the Ligatures team organized a fun Type on Tap meetup and greet at O'Grady's. As with all new beginnings, resolutions were discussed and encouraged. It was a wonderful opportunity for the team to get feedback about what events people are looking for and create an exciting, typography-filled 2016. As always, we encourage suggestions for future events. Feel free to e-mail us at ligatures.yyz@gmail.com.

 

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Meeting Nº 25: Brush Lettering Workshop Recap

IMG_8795 After the success of our spring brush lettering workshop, the Ligatures team organized a summer workshop. Taught by Toronto letterers Kyle Gallant and Christopher Rouleau, the workshop focused on building the proper techniques associated with brush lettering. Participants were given all of the tools and resources to get them practicing with this particular style of classic lettering.

The Saturday workshop sold out in a matter of days, so a second date was added due to high demand. Both workshops were full of fun and eager people of all different skill levels. It was amazing to see a vast array of people participating.

The morning was spent working on the basic stroke techniques and becoming comfortable with all of the tools. Once the stroke exercises were complete, instructors Kyle and Chris lead the class in constructing casual uppercase letters.

After lunch and a bit more practice, participants moved onto lowercase lettering and began putting together basic letter combinations. Students are always encouraged to hold off on writing words right away and focus on stroke consistency and letterform construction. The rest of the afternoon was spent with different lettering exercises that put all their practice to the test.

The workshops were a massive success! It was amazing to meet so many new people and reconnect with others. The success of the workshop couldn't have been done without the help of Veronica Wong, and the generosity of Shopify for allowing us to use their beautiful space.

The Ligatures team has been in discussions to host an intermediate lettering course, which would focus on taking drawn letters and bringing them onto the screen. Stay tuned for more information on this, and please contact us if you like to get on the waiting list.

We are also working on a way to bring you our workshop book and tools, which would be available in our online shop for purchase. IMG_8793 IMG_8792 IMG_8788 IMG_8787 IMG_8786 IMG_8785 IMG_8783

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Again, big thanks to all of you that participated and looking forward to organizing another lettering workshop shortly!

Meeting Nº 24: Type on Tap Recap

Last week, Ligatures organized, "Type on Tap," a creative hangout for those font-loving individuals. The team secured a lovely back patio at O'Grady's, which was conducive to mixing and mingling.  It was a wonderful opportunity to meet some new people as well as seeing old members.

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We lined the tables with kraft paper and spread out some fun tools to play with and test out. With drinks in hand, people got right into decorating the tables with different forms of lettering. Kyle was always around to help and share techniques.

We had a wide array of new members, not all in the design field, which was amazing. It was amazing to hear the different stories from all these people and their intrigue with typography.

We always encourage our members to put forth ideas that they may have about future Ligatures events. If you know of another venue that may be able to support a future, "Type on Tap," let us know! It's fun to kick back and talk type, especially if it's another warm, sunny day!

The Ligatures team has a number of great events coming up in the next few months. Stay tuned for more information about our Brush Lettering Workshop (August), Movie Screening and Lecture (September), and Swash & Serif, our Toronto collective type show in October.

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#INKdoc Contest

ink_writing_closeup02 At our Spring Show & Tell, we had the opportunity to get a sneak peak into Ryan Couldrey's new doc, INK.

Film Synopsis: Not long ago, handwriting was taken for granted as something anyone could generally do well. Today, children are taught how to type on tablets - putting pen to paper is an afterthought. INK follows Tanja Tizania - a freelance photographer in Toronto, Ontario - and her journey to rediscover the written word. 

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To celebrate INK's release, Ligatures and Ryan have teamed up to create a fun contest. After watching the film, answer, "What bottle of ink did Tanja shop for at Wonderpens?" The winner will receive a bottle of that particular ink as well as a DVD copy of SNOW - Ryan's feature film based off of the graphic novel. The contest will run from Tuesday, July 7th until 11:59 pm on July 13th. E-mail your answers to ryancouldrey+inkcontest@gmail.com!

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Whitney Public School Lettering Workshop

IMG_7393 IMG_7395Last week, the Ligatures team had the opportunity to teach lettering to a very enthusiastic grade 6 class at Whitney Public School in Toronto. As you may know, cursive handwriting has been removed from some curriculums and most of the younger generation's development is spent learning through the keyboard or tablet. Governments in both Ontario and Quebec have pulled cursive as a learning expectation and other provinces are following suit. With all that in mind, Ligatures co-founders Christopher & Leslie created a fun and interactive day that introduced these keen, young participants to traditional hand-lettering.

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We spent the first half of the morning working on basic letter structure using the Crayola Brush Pen markers and our Ligatures tracing guides. With the lettering building blocks in place, the kids moved forward to using paint and brushes. The kids seemed to enjoy this transition and noted the difference in working with an actual paint brush.

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As part of the preparation for the day, each student was asked to prepare a short 2-word quote that would be used as their final piece. The latter half of the afternoon was spent practicing the words from their quotes and creating colourful backgrounds for their final pieces. Although some kids were anxious to move forward and work on their final piece, some took the time to ensure that they had mastered their lettering. It was a great exercise in planning & composition.

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What an amazing and rewarding day! Every student was so talented, creative & keen to learn from us and explore new ways of writing. A huge THANK-YOU to Ms. Diniz and her wonderful grade 6 students. Keep up the great work!

If you'd be interested in having the Ligatures team come into your classroom, please feel free to email us at ligatures.yyz@gmail.com and we'd be happy to discuss further.

Meeting Nº 22: Marquee Letter Workshop Recap

When the Ligatures team was working on the Swash & Serif type exhibition last year, we constructed the logo out of cardboard and created beautiful 3D lettering. It's success gave us the idea to run a workshop on marquee lettering and illustrate how easy and simple they are to make! 2014-show-outside

Despite it being the long weekend, a wonderful group of participants joined us at Shopify to create their own marquee letters. All the tools were provided and people dove right in!

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Thank-you to those that came out to our workshop this afternoon. I think I can speak for the whole Ligatures team when I say it was a fun and exciting afternoon. We're really looking forward to seeing the final letters/characters so please share them online (Twitter / Instagram) and tag us (#ligaturesyyz). We'd love to see the final products!

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If you're looking to add lights to these letters, DeSerres has a few options available and you can check them out here. If you're looking for more vintage lights, Home Hardware, Canadian Tire, or Michaels are other options. When looking for lights, ensure that they are indoor safe and have a battery pack that you can tuck away. Depending on the strand that you purchase, measure, mark, and cut points to which you can push the light through. Make sure that you're working with a sharp knife as this will help with cutting out the smaller holes. If you have any questions or concerns about this step, please feel free to e-mail us and we'll get back to you.

For future reference, you can purchase rolled corrugated cardboard from Rotblotts and any art store will carry larger sheets of cardboard.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Meeting Nº 22: Make Your Own Marquee Letters Workshop UPDATED

Join us on Saturday, May 16th for an afternoon of marquee letter making! We thought we'd give you a little sneak peak into the process that goes into making these fun and easy to make letters!

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Creating these 3-dimensional letters is so easy using only cardboard, exacto knife, and a glue gun! As part of the workshop, you'll be provided all these tools to use and take home with you! You'd be amazed at how well the rolled corrugated cardboard adds a lovely stroke to the entire piece.

Last day to sign-up for this workshop will be Wednesday, May 13th. To sign-up, head to ligatures.ca!

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A big thank-you to Chris for sharing his own personal cardboard lettering!

Meeting Nº 21: Spring Show and Tell Recap

After a successful brush lettering workshop last month, the Ligatures team organized a Spring Show & Tell to showcase current work and to mingle with other creatives in the city. to start

The evening began with a preview of a short documentary, "Ink", directed by Ryan Couldrey & featuring the calligraphic talents of Tanja Tiziana. The short film, still in the final editing stages, explores Tanja's hand-lettering and some of her process work. Despite the decline of handwriting as a result of technological changes, the interest and relevance of hand-lettering is still alive and well. "Ink" was a wonderful way to open our meeting. We'll keep you updated on the progress of Ryan's film, and we look forward to sharing the completed documentary at a future event.

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The rest of the night filled with discussion and opportunities to try new brushes that the Ligatures team had brought along. It was also a great chance to connect with friends – new and old – that had joined for the night. Critical Mass was kind enough to lend out its space – we maximized the opportunity by covering the tables with kraft paper & varying styles of markers and pens. Many different styles of lettering graffiti on the tabletops –  it was a great conversation starter.

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We also gave updates on a few of the upcoming events that the Ligatures team is working on:

  • We'll be hosting a "cardboard marquee letter-making" workshop on Saturday, May 16th at Shopify. More information coming soon.
  • Our Ligatures Lectures series will continue in June / July with a special guest speaker.
  • Due to the success of the previous brush lettering workshops, Toronto letterers Kyle Gallant and Chris Rouleau will be hosting another session in early August.
  • In keeping with the film festival spirit, we're looking to screen a type-related film in September.
  • The Ligatures annual type exhibition, Swash & Serif, will celebrate its second showing come October at The Black Cat Gallery.

More information will be provided shortly – please stay tuned to our website and social media.

Again, thank-you to all those participants that came out to our Spring Show & Tell. It was a great to see some new faces and reconnect with friends from previous events. Thank-you to Critical Mass and Margot Trudell for hosting the meeting, and for the ongoing support of the design community.

Meeting Nº 20: Brush Lettering Workshop

After much success with our brush lettering workshop back in July 2014, the Ligatures team offered its first full-day workshops this past March, hosted by Toronto letterers Christopher Rouleau and Kyle Gallant. 1

The participants started with the basics, learning the fundamental strokes that make up brush letterforms with our new & improved lettering course book (retail version coming soon to our shop!) There was an opportunity to try out all the different brushes that were provided: Tombow, Faber-Castell, Pentel, Copic Wide, and the Sharpie Brush. As people found their favourite tools, and got comfortable holding the pen, the construction of letterforms began.

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After a thorough review of the basics, Chris and Kyle led the group into developing classic upper case letterforms with the strokes learned.

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The afternoon portion of the class explored the lowercase alphabet, with short letter combinations. Both Chris and Kyle had encouraged the students to hold off on writing words until the basics were covered. Slowly but surely, they eased into word construction and the results were stunning.

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We also had several exercises, including matching a style, and fictional branding exercises. The talent in the room was incredible!

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At the end of the day, it was amazing to see how far everyone had come in their brush lettering. In just 7 hours, people had discovered which tool they were suited for, and began developing their personal style.

On behalf of the Ligatures team, I'd like to thank Veronica Wong and Shopify for allowing us to use their wonderful space. The open air concept and natural light couldn't have made for a better learning space. Thank you to all of those that participated in this event - it was a big step for the team and we were grateful for the warm reception. We can't wait to do it again.

If you're interested  in working with Ligatures for future workshops at your agency or office, please contact us at ligatures.yyz@gmail.com and we'll be happy to discuss options.

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Meeting Nº 19: Calligraphy Workshop Recap

Last weekend, a lovely group of people gathered at Coach House for a blackletter calligraphy workshop, hosted by the talented Kevin King. Located on the second floor of the building, the Coach House library provided a creative space for those interested in learning the history of the style, and experimenting different forms of tools for the lettering. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce the blackletter script, which is a "distinct style of calligraphy most noted for its dense texture and very vertical rhythm," (Kevin King). Kevin King - Calligraphy

Kevin provided the tools (including some very interesting bamboo styluses) and a workbook. Throughout the course of the workshop, Kevin guided the participants through a number of different techniques, including the construction of each letterform. With Kevin's tidbits of fun facts & anecdotes, it made for a very educational afternoon.

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A big thank-you to Kevin for his time and wonderful teaching skills and toCoach House for lending its creative space.

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Meeting Nº 18: Letraset Love Letters Recap

A little while ago, Ligatures received a very generous donation of Letraset from the wonderful Sharon Hart. The team sorted the huge collection of sheets into categories and set-up at Shopify, eagerly awaiting what creative and love-filled cards people would create. IMG_5724 image

Letraset came into existence in the early 1960's and due to its dry-transfer capabilities, designers were able to quickly create visualizations of concept work. It really revolutionized the way designers worked and created headlines and other work. To this day, Letraset still sells dry-transfer typefaces.

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Photo 2015-02-10, 9 00 19 PMDespite the cold, there were a number of new faces that came out to our event. As this was a card-making session, a lot of quirky and fun letters began to appear. Some filled with love, others with ... well, sarcasm. There were hundreds of styles and sizes to choose from – it was a great opportunity to play with composition. The hardest part ... kerning! It really makes you appreciate how far we've come. Thanks, InDesign!

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As the night came to a close, it was fantastic to see all the cards come together and see the creativity that had blossomed throughout the evening. Even after a very busy night of transfers, we still had hundred of Letraset sheets in our collection. Stay tuned in the future for another Letraset event!

A big thank-you to Veronica Wong and the team at Shopify for hosting the Letraset Love Letters event.

 

Meeting Nº12: Ligatures Lectures - Lettering and the Movie Poster

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It's with great pleasure to announce the success of our first ever Ligature Lecture. In the spirit of the film festival that took over Toronto in September, our first lecture focussed the relationship between lettering and the movie poster. Beginning in the early 1920's, Leslie's lecture spanned the decades looking into the characteristics of type and how it evolved with the movie poster itself.

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We were lucky enough, thanks to Veronica Wong, to host the event at Shopify at its downtown office. If you haven't met this talented lady yet, check her out on Instagram (SUPERVEE). Can't get enough of her amazing lettering! The wonderful space allowed for much interaction during the presentation as well as a a show-and-tell that followed the presentation.

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This was a great opportunity for Leslie to combine both of her passions: film and type. Although there are plenty of resources when it comes to the evolution of the movie poster throughout the years, it's the relationship with type that grabbed her attention. Throughout all the research that went into this lecture, it was the fun and interesting factoids that would come about. For instance, the original Metropolis poster, which only has 4 known original copies left, went to auction and sold for over $1 million? Wild!

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There were many new faces that showed up for the presentation, which was fantastic. It was great to meet each and every one of you! It was lovely to see different groups break off and share some of the work that had been brought. As we move forward with Ligatures Lectures, it would be lovely for anyone interested in presenting a particular topic to contact Chris, Kyle, Margot, or myself. As we're such an eclectic group, it would be a great opportunity to share your knowledge with the rest of the group. We'd be happy to work with you for our second lecture.

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Again, a big thank-you to Veronica and Shopify for hosting our very first lecture Looking forward to seeing everyone later this month for our type walk!

Photo credits: Christopher Rouleau

Meeting Nº12: Ligatures Lectures Presents - Lettering and the Movie Poster

Lettering and the movie poster

We're one week away from our very first Ligatures Lecture on Lettering and the Movie Poster.  We’ll be discussing the evolution of type throughout the decades along with beautiful examples of poster design. This will be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate both lettering and the film poster.

The lecture (as well as a show-and-tell) will be taking place on Wednesday, September 24th, from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm at Shopify (80 Spadina Avenue, 4th Floor). Feel free to bring along your own work for a show-and-tell following the short presentation.

We're half full so if you're looking to RSVP, head to ligatures.ca to sign-up!

We look forward to seeing everyone!

June Summer Show and Tell Nº9: Recap

After a successful run of workshops and screenings, it was nice to organize a night where everyone could come together and catch-up. We had hoped to experience our first Ligatures meeting on a patio somewhere but alas, the weather made it a little too chilly. That being said, we secured a nice spot at the back of O’Grady’s Tap & Grill. Group Shot

It was lovely to see some old and new faces at the show and tell. It was even better to get a peak at what everyone had been working on. Wow! There was some very impressive stuff being shown! From wedding invites to typefaces in the making, it was great to share and give insight into the work being shown. If you looked at our area of the bar, it was evident that little groups were forming and discussing various projects and events. Every so often, people would get up, shift around, and a new topic would emerge. This is what Ligatures is about and it was wonderful to see it in action.

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Seeing everyone gather was also a great opportunity to share some of the exciting things that the crew at Ligatures has been working on. It was the first time we had debuted our “We Totes Love Type” bags – what a success! We even had a few sales! As many of you know, we like to do little giveaways at the end of the meeting, and Ligatures regular Sarah Davies won her very own tote bag. Enjoy!

We also brought along our new business cards! If you haven’t seen them, check them out on Chris’ blog post. If anyone grabbed a few at the meeting, please feel free to give them away and spread the Ligatures love!

It was also a great platform to mention that we’re working on a brush workshop – hosted by our very own Chris Rouleau & Kyle Gallant. This would be a fantastic workshop to participate in and we’ll post more details once the event gets finalized. We’ve also been looking into screening the Sign Painters film. Exciting!

A very big thank-you to everyone that came out to the meeting – it was great to see everyone. We look forward to seeing you again next month!

As always, thanks for the support in making Ligatures grow bigger and better.

 

[ Photo Credit: Sarah Davies, Leslie Harrod, and Chris Rouleau ]

March Meeting Nº5: Recap

All I can say to begin this recap is THANK YOU to all those Ligatures members that braved the weather and made it out to Coach House for our first ever movie night! With the snow blowing outside, we screened the documentary Linotype in the quaint library on the second floor to a full house. 1911804_10100570057339200_1302084046_n

The night started with a wonderful tour and demonstration by Kevin King. Kevin’s been a wonderful contact with this group and helped in organizing this great event. Coach House is lucky enough to own an authentic Linotype machine, which is proudly displayed at the entrance. Built in 1917, the machine wasn’t in working order, but it was still something to see in person and really set the tone for the movie we were about to screen.

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The film was filled with amazing and entertaining interviews with typesetters all around North America. From young to old, the fascination with type seemed to transcend the generations. It was great to see younger generations stepping forward to continue on the legacy that Linotype has created. One of the areas of the film that stood out was the discussion on the Linotype University, which offers various training programs to people interested. Organized and taught by Linotype engineers, there's actually a course coming up in the fall! Roadtrip?

I really don’t want to give too much away of the film but all I can say is that it is a really entertaining and educational film to check out. That being said, I think another big shout out needs to go to Ryan Edwards for helping us acquire the screening rights to this film. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to make this happen. It was also lovely to see all those Ligatures members that brought along snacks & beverages to share with the group. Building a sense of community with the members has been wonderful and this movie night really brought us together. If you weren’t able to make this screening, don’t worry! We’ve got some more movie nights in the works for the upcoming summer months!

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