At Flow, we have to admit to being somewhat preoccupied with letters. We concern ourselves with their combination, order and appearance to the extent that we could be seen as slightly obsessive (although in an entirely healthy way, that’s only ever good for business).
So, as self-confessed type addicts, we continue our annual involvement with the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) student assessment scheme. Based in the UK, the society sends out challenging briefs every year and students around the world can submit entries with the hope of being made an official society member. Tiffany Turkington-Palmer, Flow’s managing director, is the official education officer for ISTD South Africa and has been involved since 1999.
This year saw submissions come in from five different design departments around the country. Assessment took place at Flow’s Jo’burg offices and was rigorous. Each student’s project has to be viewed by a panel and all aspects carefully assessed to see if the student measured up for typographic excellence. Submissions consisted of a development document (to show the thinking behind the idea), a production document (to show an understanding of process), type specs (to show detailed knowledge of typography), as well as the final creative output and rationale explaining the concept. Each submission takes at least 45 minutes to get through and every project gets a report back from the panel, whether the application was successful or not.
It is always a delight to see fresh, creative, challenging and inspired student work and this year’s submissions gave us all of that. Typography is such an inherent (and often undervalued) part of any communication and it’s good to be reminded of its creative possibilities. Congratulations to the successful new society members!
Next year’s briefs have already been posted (see www.istd.org.uk) and the Flow design team look forward to our continued participation in the process of promoting typographic brilliance.