What means can we use to influence the industry that we are going to work in? What opportunities and what responsibilities do we have as future designers?

For a long period, typography was a male-coded profession. From the beginning of the 20th century women in the printing industry fought to receive the same recognition as their male colleagues and the same working conditions. They also had to deal with the notion that women were, by nature, less good at typography. The profession has continued to be male dominated even in modern times in spite of the fact that this male domination has been the subject of attention in various contexts and projects in recent years.

The starting point for my project was learning the basics of font design. In my capacity as a future graphic designer I wanted to find a way to contribute to the programme of gender equality in the industry and so I invited other interested women and non-binary creators to learn with me.

With inspiration, support and advice from established font designers, from ABF (adult education centre) and from the Alphabettes network I founded Kollektyp which was a six-week study circle with 14 participants at which we learnt the basics of Glyphs. The results were collected in a compendium and a website with the aim of encouraging others to undertake similar initiatives.

www.kollektyp.se
www.instagram.com/kollektyp

CONTACT
info@louiselo.se
+46 (0)70 867 24 68
instagram.com/louiseloworks
www.louiselo.se

THANKS TO
Moa Pårup, Nina Stössinger, Nadine Chahine, Minna Sakaria, Eliza Hearsum, Alessia Mazzarella, Robin Mientjes, Alphabettes, Erik Moberg, Gro Janarv, Sara Kaaman, Ludvig Grandin, Nadja Endler, Elvira Glänte, Guro Lehnert, Beatrice Dalghi, Martin Hjellström, Alma, Konstnärernas centralköp, Uncut and all the participants.