The Making of Elegy, a new typeface design by Jim Wasco

Unpublished

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Jim Wasco will discuss the making of Elegy, his award winning new typeface design, based on the ITC logo designed by Ed Benguiat ~1970. Jim will discuss his background in lettering and passions for eighteenth century American Spencerian script. It starts with a brief peek into Jim’s background and early lettering jobs related to copperplate calligraphy. He will show some historic examples used as references for the design, and then get into the nuts and bolts of how the design was created, including the sophisticated OpenType features put into the font that make Elegy function like real handwriting.

Jim Wasco, a second generation lettering designer, began his lifelong passion for lettering when his father taught him calligraphy at the age of 12. His father taught him about lettering, proper spacing, letter proportions and balance. It was this knowledge, along with his illustration skills, that formed the fundamentals for the California-based type design business he founded in 1974.

Jim transitioned to designing type on computers at SlideTek, and later spent 13 years in the Type Department at Adobe. Currently Jim is senior type designer at Monotype Imaging and works out of the Redwood City office in California.