The Art of the Alphabet
in Northern Italy
About
The Italian landscape is full of exotic characters. Some are 2000-year-old classics, others are 20th century newbies. Some hide in plain view and others require a dedicated search.
Now in its third year, TipoItalia will guide you on a typographic excavation and digital revival of hand-painted signs from the streets of Venice, inscriptions from the Renaissance and Tipoteca’s collection of Art Nouveau and Art Deco wood and metal typefaces. Join us for this two two-week residency from June 22–July 5, 2025. We’ll explore old alphabets, print them via letterpress, and revive them to achieve computer-ready fonts. Type historians, printers and designers Riccardo Olocco, Rory Sparks and Dan Rhatigan will be your guides on this alphabetic excursion as you unearth and refresh the best of Italian lettering and typography.
TipoItalia encourages learners to see the alphabet in its myriad forms and trace their evolution to the type collection held by Tipoteca. This program fosters a “typographic archaeology” that can then be translated into printed works and digital type, allowing the participant to bring Italian typography to life.
Experience
We welcome educators, designers, and type lovers of all levels to experience the rich typographic legacy in the Veneto and the museum.
Experience with letterpress and Glyphs software is helpful but not required.
Overview
June 22—July 5, 2025
Taught by Rory Sparks, Dan Rhatigan, and Riccardo Olocco
This session includes 12 workshop days, including studio time at Tipoteca Italiana and day trips throughout the region.
The days at Tipoteca Italiana will include a mix of organized demos, presentations, and self-guided work in the studio.
Schedule
Day 1 — Monday
Tipoteca Italiana
Investigate Tipoteca’s collection
Introduce group letterpress project
Day 2 — Tuesday
Tipoteca Italiana
Introduce Glyphs
Design a “missing letter”
Day 3 — Wednesday
Venice
Lettering walk with Andrea Carrer
Visit San Michele or Library of Fondaziona Cini
Day 4 — Thursday
Tipoteca Italiana
Digitize found letterforms
Continue group project
Day 5 — Friday
Tipoteca Italiana
Print specimen sheets for type in the collection
Day 6 — Saturday
Verona
Visit Museo Lapidario Maffeiano
Visit Biblioteca Civica with Alessandro Corubolo
Day 7 — Sunday
Treviso
Visit Salce Museum
Day 8 — Monday
Tipoteca Italiana
Begin type design project
Introduce bookbinding
Day 9 — Tuesday
Rovereto and Arte Sella
MART Museum and Casa Depero
Arte Sella
Day 10 — Wednesday
Tipoteca Italiana
Continue type design project
Optional letterpress work
Day 11 — Thursday
Tipoteca Italiana
Complete type design and prepare specimen
Day 12 — Friday
Tipoteca Italiana
Print group type specimen
Bind and edition letterpress prints
teachers
Riccardo Olocco
Riccardo Olocco is an Italian type designer and researcher, and president of the Italian typefoundry CAST, Cooperativa Anonima Servizi Tipografici. He graduated from the University of Reading. Since 2015 he returns annually to contribute workshops on the design of type revivals. His interest in history is central to his design work, and underpins his approach to contemporary design with lessons from historical models. With Michele Patanè, Olocco is the author of Designing type revivals (LazyDog, 2022): with this book they aim to share ideas, procedures and practices distilled from that experience.
Rory Sparks
Rory Sparks is an independent letterpress printer and bookbinder who specializes in collaborative, limited-edition artist books. Sparks earned her MFA in interdisciplinary art through the Confluence program, now at University of New Mexico. Nationally, Sparks has taught at various craft centers such as Penland School of Crafts and Minnesota Center for Book Arts. In the Pacific Northwest, she has taught at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and PNCA. She has also co-founded several communal spaces including Produce, Working Library, and Em Space.
Dan Rhatigan
Dan Rhatigan is a typographer with over three decades of eclectic experience as a typesetter, graphic designer, typeface designer, zine publisher, and educator. He has a BFA in Graphic Design from Boston University, and an MA in Typeface Design from The University of Reading. After years of designing custom type and leading design teams at Monotype and Adobe, he now publishes his type through his own small foundry, Bijou Type, and is back at Monotype looking after the strategy and curation of their platform libraries. Dan is also on the board of the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum.
Pricing
June 22–July 5, 2025 | This residency hosts a maximum of 12 participants.
The fee covers the cost of the workshop and transportation for daytrips. Participants pay airfare, lodging and ground transportation to Cornuda where Tipoteca is located.
Pricing + due dates (subject to change):
• Registrations by March 15, 2025 - Euro 2,190.00
• Registrations by May 1, 2025 - Euro 2,390.00
• Registrations after May 1, 2025 - Euro 2,590.00
Final balance must be paid by April 25 2025. In case of cancellation, the fee is fully refundable until May 10 2025. After May 10, half the fee will be refunded. No refunds will be made after June 1, 2025.
Additional details
Lodging
Participants will arrange their own lodging. We recommend that participants (and their companions) stay at Villa Bolzonello (a 30 minute walk from Tipoteca). Other nearby options include Al Bagolaro (20 minute walk), and Terre di Bea (40 minute walk). You may rent an ebike in Cornuda or we’ll provide a shuttle van during the residency.
Meals
On the days when we’re at Tipoteca you may enjoy lunch or dinner at le Corderie for a flat fee of 15€ including wine pairings. This restaurant showcases the freshest meats, fish and vegetables of the region. The city of Cornuda also features other dining options and coffee shops within easy walking distance of the museum.
Daytrips
Per the schedule shown, we will visit Venice, Verona, and Rovereto during the workshop. We will offer a tour bus or train to each location as part of the cost of the residency.
materials
All participants must bring a Mac laptop with a version the Glyphs software loaded. Please be sure to load and test the software before you arrive.