Students, faculty featured in upcoming typography book

RIT’s visual communication design MFA program is making its mark on the upcoming second edition of Mastering Type, hailed as a crucial guide to typography for print and web design.

Three students, along with Assistant Professor Anne Jordan, had work selected for feature in the textbook, which highlights top examples of typographic work from around the world. 

An open call for submissions prompted Jordan’s Typography and Design Systems classes to submit work for consideration. Projects by visual communication design graduate students Honey Gardharia ’24, Phoebe Huey ’22 (industrial design), ’24 MFA and Ipek Koprululu ’24 are set to accompany Jordan’s in the second edition, set for a 2025 publish date.

Mastering Type held a free, international competition that yielded 2,005 submissions, with 272 designs ultimately chosen for the final book. With the student and faculty submissions, RIT’s presence is widespread in a book that will hold work by designers from 36 countries. 

The Mastering Type selections follow other recent international recognition garnered by visual communication design students. 

Koprululu made an exclusive list of professional designers chosen for the Society of Typographic Arts (STA) 100 competition, which annually celebrates 100 examples of typographic excellence produced around the globe. Meanwhile, Koprululu and Huey were also among six visual communication design students recognized in the Graphis New Talent Awards, a showcase of creative excellence around the world. 

Below are the samples of work chosen for Mastering Type.

Honey Gardharia 

Created in the Typography class, this poster for the Rochester International Jazz Festival explores the rhythm and soul of the event through a dynamic typography design.

“The interplay of fonts mirrored the diverse musical genres featured in the festival, guiding viewers through lineups, venues, and events with a rhythmic flow,” Gardharia said. “The typography served as a guide, inviting viewers to explore the rich sounds and stories that defined the Rochester International Jazz Festival.”

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Honey Gardharia

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Honey Gardharia

 

Phoebe Huey

Huey’s experimental sewn version of Helvetica was created in the Typography course taught by Jordan. Huey later developed it into a motion design project. The designs were part of a campaign in response to the negative environmental impact of fast fashion, a business model that mass produces fashion trends at a low cost. The custom typography features machine-stitched threads to represent microfiber pollution.

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Phoebe Huey

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Phoebe Huey

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Phoebe Huey

Anne Jordan

Three book designs the assistant professor produced for clients. She has created award-winning artwork for a range of clients, including Open Letter Books, Penguin Random House, Princeton University Press and Stanford University Press.

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Anne Jordan

Jordan's book cover design for "Good Men" by Arnon Grunberg.

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Anne Jordan

Jordan's cover design for Subimal Misra's "This Could Have Become Ramayan Chamar's Tale: Two Anti-Novels."

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Anne Jordan

The cover of Dan O'Brien's "A Story That Happens."

Ipek Koprululu

Designs of a monogram, book cover and Rochester International Jazz Festival poster were made in the Typography course. Meanwhile, Koprululu’s contemporary rebranding of the American Library Association’s classic “READ” campaign is output from her Design Systems class.

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Monogram design by Ipek Koprululu

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Ipek Koprululu

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Ipek Koprululu

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Ipek Koprululu

Part of Koprululu's rebranding of American Library Association's "READ" campaign from the 1980s.