Troy Leinster My name is Troy Leinster. I am an independent typeface designer originally from Brisbane. I studied Typeface Design at Cooper Union in New York, and Type and Media at KABK in The Hague. After graduating from Type and Media, I relocated to New York to join the team at Hoefler&Co., where I worked for seven years. I’m now designing typefaces under Leinster Type, providing one-on-one type design coaching under Typemasters, and teaching Typeface Design at Cooper Union. My journey so far has allowed me to learn from many type designers, all with different opinions and processes. Through that experience and my nine years of teaching, I’ve developed and continue to refine my own type design process.
For me, designing a typeface without a process feels like going on a road-trip without a map. There’s a lot of time lost taking different routes, while always trying to get back to the safety of knowing you’re back on track. This approach is exhausting, and, before you know it, you’ve either given up or settled on an alternate destination. The type design process is largely about proofing and polishing, while keeping track of where you’re at. I’d like to show how I tackle this process in bite-sized chunks to avoid settling for something that might not be your best work, because you’re exhausted. I will share examples of text developed by Jonathan Hoefler, and how to use it for proofing a typeface, and the different entry and exit points in my process, making it versatile for different projects.