This course serves to familiarize the student with the fundamentals of typography. Typography forms the basis of our contemporary communication. Students will gain design abilities based on analogue techniques as well as digital software. The class explores letterform design and moves subsequently to typesetting exercises performed using the letterpress printer and computer. Compositions exploring typography as color, form, and image will be examined for visual impact as well as meaning. The history of typography is incorporated beginning with Guttenberg in the 1400's through the classic designers of the 17th and 18th centuries, type-design through Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus, and Modernism to contemporary digital type design.