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Handmade Type Workshop – Q&A with Amandine Alessandra

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London-based graphic designer and photographer Amandine Alessandra is the subject of our latest Handmade Type Workshop contributor Q&A. Here she discusses the people that inspire her work and what the future has in store for Amandine Alessandra.

Wearable ABC - Amandine Alessandra

What led you to making handmade type?

Typographic installations allowed me to put together my two loves, photography and installation, and to focus on semiotics, and how to influence the meaning and impact of a message. It is also a chance to use mediums that are usually not related to graphic design: I’m passionate about finding alternatives to print and computer based communication; I love working out other solutions to publicly display physical messages in highly visible ways, taking their environment into account. The idea is to create a ‘readable experience rather than a scripted space’ (an idea borrowed from Michael Worthington). Building up three-dimensional typographic installations allows a confrontation between words and real life, using context as a playground rather than as simple background.

What are your favourite materials to use?

People and Buildings

What (or who) inspires your work?

Puns, Freudian slips, English and foreign idioms are an endless source of inspiration, and playing with words and idea association in general, as well as Georges Perec’s and OULIPO’s work. I’m fascinated by little ways to both enhance and disrupt the everyday. Andy Goldsworthy’s ephemeral and natural print work (Rain Shadows), any in situ work by Helmut Smits, the Russian art group Voina are also amongst my influences. I’ve set up a blog where I keep references of work that strike and feed me.

Take a seat Alphabet - Amandine Alessandra

There seems to be a trend for all things handmade in design at the moment. Why do you think that is?

Richard Hollis defines graphic design as ‘the business of making or choosing marks and arranging them on a surface to convey an idea’. With designers’ tools now being accessible to anyone and the open source culture blurring the notion of authorship, anyone can be a designer, at least in theory.

This has refocused the practice onto the thinking process and the importance of the idea in design. Programs as well as other mediums should be used (or even better: misused!) with a critical perspective, hence the importance of going beyond the standard tools. I don’t see this move towards handmade design as a Luddite nostalgic move towards the Past, more as a way to think outside the Adobe box.

Interestingly, this phenomenon is also visible in product design: in the same way as anyone can now produce a computer-based layout, mass-produced items are now the norm. We are talking at a time when the Ikea Billy shelving system is probably the most commonly owned piece of furniture on Earth. A handmade practice is a way of questioning the uniqueness of both the designer and the consumer.

What projects are you working on now and what does the future hold?

I’m currently working for creative agencies on specific projects related to experimental typography, often human-based, which is something I enjoy very much. Besides this, while I’m still researching on experimental typography with self-initiated projects, I would love to do more collaborations soon. I’m also co-writing an article on vernacular design.

Books as a Block

Taking font creation back to basics, Charlotte Rivers‘ new book explores innovative ways to design contemporary lettering of all kinds, examining everything from classic design examples to 3D and illustrated fonts, digital lettering and radical conceptual alphabets.
Handmade Type Workshop is ideal for anyone looking to move beyond existing typography and fonts to create, explore and use original or customized letterforms and available now from our website.


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