Professor Mariano, center, with several other PUC visual arts faculty in front of his 30 Typeface Project works.
Milbert Mariano, professor of graphic design at PUC, undertook an ambitious project last summer: designing 30 fonts* in 30 days, which he dubbed “the 30 Typeface Project.”
Below, Professor Mariano shares a little bit about his project. You can also check out his Instagram account @Design_Professor to see the typefaces he created, or look at the hashtag #30daysoftype to see more of his work, along with fonts from other design-inspired artists from around the world.
What inspires you as an artist?
As a designer, for the past 20+ years, I’ve found inspiration in my students. They’ve always inspired me to be the best designer I could be for them, and have also found that they inspire me by some of their work and inspiration.
What made you decide to take up this ambitious project?
I was teaching Typography III and demonstrating how to create typefaces, since that was what their last assignment was. Something just clicked inside of me to make me think I could do this. So I decided that as a design professor, who loves type, it would be neat to create one typeface a day for 30 days. In June 2018, I had a little extra time since half of the month school was out and I liked to keep myself busy, so this also helped with that.
What was the process for creating a font like?
Working mainly in Adobe Illustrator, I would start with “OH.” Literally. There are two letters that I would start off with which could easily be repeated throughout the alphabet. If I were to begin an O and H, that would be the DNA for at least half of the other letters with repeated elements thought out the alphabet. O would help give me Q, D, C, G, U. H would give me I, T, F, E, L.
Before this project, what was your favorite font?
I’ll have to say Avenir. I overuse it.
What is your favorite Milbert-created font?
Probably my font from day 25, Serendipity. It used a typeface I created along with some perspective and gradients, which I think is kind of fun and unique.
Where can people view all of the fonts you created?
They can be viewed on my Instagram account @Design_Professor.
Interested in learning more about what visual arts faculty and students are up to at PUC? Follow the department’s Instagram account @pucart for a behind-the-scenes look at projects, field trips, and special events.
*Note: In this post, we use the term “fonts,” as it is a more common and known term. However, for the design aficionados out there, we recognize the proper term is typeface.