Inspiring workshops to sharpen your skills, get your creative juices flowing and help you work smarter. Just for 26 members, we have a rotating sushi bar of brain food to tempt you throughout the year. Not a member yet? Stump up £40 pounds and grab a seat at the bar.

Our next workshop...

Trade Secrets: Making words visible – the art of typography

Have you ever written something you love only to see it ruined by poor design? And then felt frustrated that you couldn’t quite put into words what was wrong? Our next Trade Secrets workshop, run by illustrious designer Mark Noad, will cover the key aspects of making the written word visible.

We’ll be looking at things like the anatomy of typefaces, what makes them readable, why some are better for large amounts of small text and others for small amounts of large text. We’ll help you understand the choices designers make when putting words on a page – why the length of line, the gap between lines and the space around them are all important. (And, of course, why it’s important for the designer to understand what you’re trying to communicate in the first place!)

This will be an interactive session, not a talk – a mix of the conceptual and the practical. By the end of it you’ll know your serifs from your sans, your kerning from your leading, and your x-height from your point size. This session will give you the tools to talk type with your designers and make sure your hard-written words look the part.

When: 6.30pm—8.30pm, Thursday 27th February

Where: Quietroom, 40 Bowling Green Lane, Farringdon, London, EC1R 0NE

Cost: 10% discount (£72) if booked on or before 31 January

£80 if booked in February

£120 for non-members (includes 1 year’s 26 membership)

To book: email Richard Axtell at admin@26.org.uk

After this session, you’ll be able to make more money, by:

- knowing how to charge more, and possibly work less

- getting paid what you could or should be paid

- managing clients effectively and setting up projects for success

- boosting your professional presence

- setting ambitious realistic goals specific to you

About Mark

Mark Noad is a designer and typographer with a thorough understanding of how to apply words on the page, on screen, and in the wider environment. With 30 years’ experience in the design industry, he’s worked on a wide range of projects – from book design to sign systems, corporate reporting to identity development – and is probably best known for his redesign of the London Underground map. More recently, Mark has curated conferences and exhibitions as chairman of Letter Exchange. He’s also taken part in several 26 projects, including 26 Lies and Memory Maps.

About the training team:

Elise leads communications consultancy word-design, with clients such as the BFI, LEGO, Dishoom and Arvon. In 2017, she was President of the D&AD Writing for Design jury. She teaches creative writing at Central Saint Martins, and she writes books—most recently, the award-winning Faber novel The Madonna of the Mountains.

Fiona started as a journalist, writing features for national newspapers and magazines. She runs her own copywriting consultancy, Wordspring, where her clients include Nike, Nokia, the Paris Opera House, Save the Children, Help Musicians UK and Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. In 2018, Fiona was President of the D&AD Writing for Design jury.

Heather heads up Enough Said, a brand language and content strategy consultancy that’s on a mission to free us all from the tyranny of woolly and wasted words. Over the years she’s helped the likes of Virgin Holidays, eBay, Vodafone, Girlguiding and Bank of Ireland use words more wisely to reinforce their brands.