I'm Eduardo Manso and I'm an Argentinean type designer (former graphic designer) living in Barcelona.
I'm the founder of Emtype Foundry, a small type foundry that produces original typefaces. In addittion I design custom typefaces for clients worldwide.
Tell a little bit about the typography classes you teach at various schools in Barcelona and methods to focus and develop skills there.
I have taught in almost every design school in Barcelona, currently that my time is more limited, I only teach regularly at IDEP School and I give some sporadic classes in other schools during the year.
In my regular clases I teach how to design a typeface. The method is learn by the practice, the clases has two parts. First a theorical introduction to the topic and then the practice of these conceps. In a normal class, I draw as many letters as my students to show them that a great part of the process only is a training matter. When you spend a good amount of time drawing a letter 's' with one of your students they learn that nobody does a decent letter 's' in five minutes, so they understand that Type Design is a time consuming activity and there are not shorcuts, after that, all is much easier.
What tools do you use to assist you in type designing process?
I use a lot of tools such as Robofont, Prepolator, Superpolator, MetricsMachine, OT Master, Textmate and finally, a lot of custom scripts.
Is Barcelona abound in creativity? What are you favourite art places here?
Barcelona is a fantastic city in all senses. Although I'm not really a great fan of the Modernism, the Gaudí work is magnificent and any of his buildings are an obligate visit. The markets are pure art, especially the 'Boqueria' market in the early morning that is not crowed of tourist yet. The museums are one of the strong points of Barcelona, specially the Picasso Museum and the Fundació Miro. But probably the most interesting thing to do in Barcelona is to walk around in the old town and enjoy of the views and the exquisite gastronomy.
What are your inspiration sources for designing of new typefaces? Could you recommend any resources, lettering books?
My sources of inspiration are varied and normally they don't comes from letters. Old books, music, reading, streets, travel, all them are good source of inspiration. I'm focused in design original typefaces, thats means that I try to not reproduce the past, something almost imposible, but if you try hard, you can get something that sound familiar but that is new an different at the same time.
