Looking up information for last week's post about the European Design Awards 2012 I stumbled upon this simply lovely promotional video for TypeTogether. Four Hand Typography shows the type designer duo of Veronika Burian and José Scaglione collaborating on type design projects, interacting with co-workers, exhibiting their work, and lecturing and holding workshops all over the globe. In a mere one and a half minute the video offers a glimpse of the world of contemporary type design, of a successful collaboration resulting in a fine collection of quality typefaces. This is a clever and well-made piece of promotion, and rather unexpected in the world of type design.

4-hand typography from TypeTogether on Vimeo.

The world of a type designer is, in reality, not enclosed and solitary anymore, at least it doesn't have to be. Although creating new letterforms is essentially a very personal and subjective matter, it doesn't exclude the potential of a successful collaboration. TypeTogether is proof for that. There is much more to running a type foundry than simply drawing type every day; customer relations, printing piles of test proofs, preparing images for the website, answering questions, traveling to conferences and the list goes on. The video, 'four-hand'typography', lets the audience take a glance into the daily routines of type designers from indispensable customs like espresso drinking to the planning of long-term projects and future outlooks.