How I got to Reading

Yesterday night I was chatting at the bar downstairs with Federica and Linda, one fresh master graduate from Siena and the other about to graduate in London, and Linda asked me how I got to pick Reading. I thought I might as well post it here, since it’s where I am supposed to document all the hows and whys about the MATD.

After many months reading, drawing and generally daydreaming about type design, I felt the desire to concentrate a bit more on it and not just in my free time. I wanted to have some time to properly learn some things like spacing, kerning, typeface production. As I was reading about Type]Media in Den Haag and MATD in Reading, last August, I thought a master would have been the perfect thing for me. A full year of nothing but type, fun!

So I started mulling over the idea and thinking about possible scenarios. As I’m a partner in a design studio I knew it wouldn’t have been easy to “just” leave for a year, so I tried to put it the best possible way to my partners. In september I went to ATypI in Brighton, and spoke briefly about it with Joe, Luc(as), Elena and other people. I even met Gerry one night, together with former MATD graduates, and talked to them about it as well. After thinking about it for a while, in late October I became committed to the idea and decided to start investigating about how to get in the two courses. I hadn’t yet decided on which one yet, I just knew I really wanted to do it.

After emailing former graduates of either the two courses I was even more confused, especially – as expected – since each one was recommending the master they’d taken. I didn’t feel I had enough arguments to differentiate too much or prefer one vs. the other. So I looked a bit to the Web sites, read some information, then decided to write to the course directors.

Towards the end of October I emailed Gerry Leonidas (MATD), who promptly replied with a series of things I needed to consider and to outline the admission program. After a couple of weeks I also emailed Jan Willem Stas (Type]Media). I must have been caught in the spam filter or something, but I never got a reply back.

December came, work was pretty hectic in those days so I didn’t focus too much on my application as there was plenty of time (I thought). Right after Christmas I decided to tell my partners about this, before starting the application procedure. They had a right to oppose and I thought it was fair to not rush it too much. After all, the health of the studio was more important in the short term than my personal satisfaction, since there’s six of us involved, and I didn’t want to damage it in any way. They where of course concerned about what would happen, but recognised it was something I really wanted to do, so in the end they where pretty supportive of me.

This is the bit where it gets weird: January came, and work restarted in the usual, hectic way. I still hadn’t heard from Stas so I thought I should have sent a followup email, but as I thought there was no rush and I wasn’t aware of any deadlines, I happily worked away, working on my portfolio every now and then. In mid-february I went to Milan for work and went and met Marta Bernstein at her studio since I was interested in her thesis about italian typographic history in the 19th century. One of her partners in the studio – and co-writer of the thesis – is Emanuela Conidi, who was attending (and still is) the MATD in Reading at the time so I figured I was going to ask her about it. Once we got to the subject of Reading, I told her I kept meaning to apply to Type]Media as well. That’s when I knew the applications for this year had been closed at the end of january – because she had just applied for it, and had been offered a place.

Thinking back to it I kicked myself for not getting back to Jan Willem Stas earlier on. Type]Media, I learnt, was much different from MATD. Apart from being based in the Netherlands, where I never lived, the kind of learning programme is very different too: apart from the usual history and drawing classes, one is studying calligraphy, stone carving and other approaches to type making. MATD is more focused on history, research and non-latin typeface development as far as I can tell, but I’ll know more for sure after I’ve been through it. This is a very superficial comparison of course (they do non-latin in Den Haag, too, for eample), but I don’t think I’m in a position to really compare the two at the moment. Besides, a full comparison of the two courses would beyond the scope of this post, really.

So Reading was my only choice. I’m not saying it was my second choice: in retrospect I think it somehow suits me better since I’m already doing many of the things you do there, like research. It will help me sharpen my skills in the areas I would have been doing anyway in my rushed, unprofessional kind of way. I also already lived in the UK so I’m more used to the English way of life. To be honest, Reading feels more comfortable to me. But I don’t know what I would have done if I had had the chance to get a position in both universities. Does it matter now? Hardly.

Anyway, I sent my portfolio and application forms on the 28th of February and got a reply from Gerry on the 3rd of April. Success!

So this is how I got to Reading.

To somehow close on the matter, for poor souls like me: if you’re considering either one of the courses (or others, although I’m not aware of any other postgraduate studies quite like these two in Europe at the moment) make sure you ask about the application procedure as soon as the very idea of applying to either course crosses your mind. And if you get no reply, or you’re stupid like me and can’t find any information on the Web site of the course, phone, mail, insist until you have an answer. Don’t forget to be polite while doing this, it’s not like the world has to stop because of you. But be determinate!