Recently, Allan Haley, director of Words and Letters at Monotype Imaging Corporation, visited with Delgado Community College’s typography class to share some of his, and Monotype’s, type and font wisdom. Haley was also responsible for the generous donation of a full Monotype font library that was auctioned as a fund raiser at the 2012 AIGA New Orleans chapter “ADVANCE – Creative Review & Resource Day.” Monotype is one of the largest and oldest font development companies in the world.
Did you realize that fonts are actually software? So when you buy or download one you are actually utilizing a complex technology that allows your computer to draw your words and letters in the typeface you desire. It will also tell your printer to render your documents in the same style! And Monotype’s subsidiaries license some of the most ubiquitous fonts we use such as Helvetica, ITC Franklin Gothic, ITC Avant Garde, Optima and Times New Roman.
Delgado Community College is a dearly loved public community college with campuses all over the New Orleans metropolitan area. Haley visited the City Park campus in the Mid-City neighborhood. City Park, with its 1300 tree-lined, verdant acres, is 50% larger than New York City’s Central Park and has more live oaks than any place else in the world. The college began as a trade school more than a century ago and today serves a highly diverse student community from all walks of life — some first time college attendees and some returning to academia after, and during, professional practice. Haley regaled the small but riveted typography class with lessons and tips about how typography can command attention and speak directly to a particular audience. The typography class is part of the school’s Visual Communications department, which also offers graphic design, photography and illustration training, as well as a two-year certificate program in each of these disciplines. [Nancy Sharon Collins]
