School is back in session. My daughter begins kindergarten, which is all about learning to read. She will stop looking at letters as shapes as she thinks about how they group together and what they mean.

My new group of junior undergraduates will study letters as forms this semester, having learned to read long ago. For them, it’s almost about learning to stop reading, or at least not letting their desire to read block what their eyes can see. The letters they will study are forms on a two-dimensional surface as much as they are symbols that have meaning when combined into words and sentences. How can they find, make, manipulate, and evaluate these forms? The “alphabet” above was clipped from sources as varied as Jenson’s original type, Maira Kalman’s lyrical handwritten forms for children, Luke Williams’ original calligraphic and typographic designs featured in Communication Arts, and Landor’s famous work for Northwest Airlines from an era ago. The forms are drawn, typeset, photographed, letter pressed; in each case, media plays an important role in the resulting form—its shape, edges, textures, palette, associative qualities. The letters have been cropped out of their original contexts, making reading them as parts of words nearly impossible, hence forcing the eye to look. But even in their original formats, they can still be viewed for their visual properties. Looking at letters is a foundation for learning typography and an excellent way to spend a semester. 

Designers, and particularly students of design, are asked to build visual collections with some regularity. Breadth and quality are key, at least in the initial rounds of an exploration. Designers need to see a lot from a range of sources, generate a great many ideas—some good, some bad, some strange—to move the design process forward. That process might be summarized as a big start with lots of editing. 

School is in session. Time to get started on that first collection of stuff. Get busy. 

A  Burson Marstellar Design Department, Ace Chain Link Fence, 1982
B  Maira Kalman, What Pete Ate, 
C  Ekta Mody, Communication Arts, 2010
D  Tom Lichtenheld, Duck Rabbit, 2009
E  Eskind Waddell, New Year’s Eve, 1982
F  TM Graphic Design, Cal State Fullerton, 2010
G  Margaret Thompson, 2011
H  Pentagram, Hilton Typographers, 1990
I  Miroslav Sasek, This is Paris, 1959
J  Jude Landry, Jessica Hische poster, 2010
K  Jessica Hische, birth announcement for Annie Hendrix, 2009
L  Rebeca Méndez, The Experimental Exercise of Freedom, 2000
M  McCoy and McCoy, 1982
N  Landor, Northwest Airlines logo, 1990
O  Cahan and Associates, Maxygen Annual Report, 2000
P  Cap Pannell & Co., 1982
Q  Nicolas Jenson’s Roman type, c. 1470
R  Vogue’s First Reader, 1942
S  Luke Williams, featured in Communication Arts, 2011
T  Fred Woodward, Hot Magazine, 1990
U  Luke Williams, featured in Communication Arts, 2011
V  Gino Boccaasile, Cervo poster, 1935
W  Ork Design, map of Chicago
X  Virgil Scott, featured in Communication Arts, 2011 
Y  Heather Corcoran, undergraduate thesis, 1992
Z  John Downer, Fairplex italic (lig one), 2011