The Lubalin Lecture Series from Type@Cooper has been one of my favorite parts of NYC ever since I first moved here in 2014. They include thoughtful lectures from many of my favorite designers, technologists, and historians in type design. They are free to attend, professionally recorded, and posted online for anyone to watch for free.

I was really honored, then, when I had the chance to deliver a Lubalin Lecture of my own. One challenge: it was originally scheduled for early 2020 (not the best time for in-person gatherings), then moved to May 2020 as the very first online-only Lubalin Lecture.

I spoke about the current state and future possibilities of variable fonts, my background as a designer, my current projects, and the design & development process behind Recursive.

In my lecture, you can probably hear a bit of uncertainty about the state of the world, the state of myself, and of the process of recording such a video for a future, remote audience. All the same, I’m proud that I could record & share some of what I had learned up to that point, and I hope it helps others to hear the experience of someone who is still at the (relatively) early stages of learning in type design.

Best of all, I’ve really enjoyed seeing how the lecture series has evolved since my own. A couple of favorites:

• Dusting latin type history #1 On the origin of bold and fat faces with Sébastien Morlighem
• How I Became a Type Designer in Only 30 Years with Mark Simonson

Here’s the lecture 🔗

Creative Explorations in Variable Fonts with Stephen Nixon from Type@Cooper on Vimeo.