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I broadened my research to the subject of Roman history, and ended up reading about some regions in Italy, including Alba. I dug deeper and discovered Saint Alban, the first British martyr. The Latin form of the name is Albanus. According to tradition, Saint Alban sheltered a fugitive priest. When his house was searched, he disguised himself as the priest and was arrested instead and (like all the good saints) beheaded.

With each new letter, different details are designed that can be reused in other letters, and so on. It helps for me to think this way if I feel stuck on a letter. Sometimes I’ll move on to another letter for a while—for example, when I was struggling to get my S right I moved on to the Q, a letter that allows the designer a lot of creativity and fun due to the many different possibilities for the tail.

I’m learning the importance of trusting my eyes and making optical adjustments. While I begin with determined values such as stem width, I’ve often needed to change them by a few points. This finessing of details is honestly one of my favorite parts of type design; it’s like solving a puzzle, except there are many possible pieces that can fit and you’re looking for the one that fits just right and blends in best with the overall picture.

Ewan compared the rhythm of italic to the flow of the Arno river over the rocks in Florence. I really liked this analogy, especially since I heard that very sound only a few months ago. 

Early in the week we used a broad-nibbed pen, learning how pressure and pen angle change the letterforms. I found that I enjoyed using it right away. It definitely takes practice to create smooth strokes, even curves, and straight lines, but there is something very calming about the experience.

On Friday night there was a cocktail party, and I had the opportunity to meet Ellen. She is the author of the first typography book (besides textbooks) that I bought for myself, Thinking with Type. I told her how influential it was on me being here today, and she thanked me and was very sweet.