Type design has become a virtualised, one-man/woman profession. Besides the many benefits (such as working in pyjamas all day) it can also make type-people feel detached, losing touch with the wider context of their work. At Rosetta we do not subscribe to that and so we took deliberate action to remedy such potential apathy.

Figure: Some of the Rosetta designers watching the coordinator on a children’s swing and enjoying the romantic architecture of South Moravia.

Unlike some other independent foundries, Rosetta does not have one or two central designers. It functions as a cooperative hub which makes it particularly effective when it comes to designing for non-Latin scripts. One or two people pretending they know everything about everything would not be any good in such an environment. A larger circle of designers, consultants, and friends who have fun working together is much more useful. We value our designers and enjoy collaborating with them. In order to further foster this basic setup we came up with the concept of Rosetta Camp, a yearly gathering of designers releasing their work with Rosetta.

The first Rosetta camp took place near our headquarters in Brno (Czech Republic) this September. From the beginning, the intention was to provide 50/50 lifestyle conditions, that is 50% socialising and 50% work. We believe that only in such an environment can the human brain operate at its best and come up with groundbreaking ideas on just about everything. But mainly, we focussed on strategic planning, finishing and presenting our new merchandise, sessions about Arabic and Multiple-Master production, show-and-tell on Czech type history, and type design art-direction and mutual feedback sessions. The socialising half does not need to be detailed here, but rest assured that all major beverage providers were carefully assessed.

Figure: The city of Brno

Figure: Sessions on Czech typography and type design

Figure: David and Vaibhav talking about girls

Besides our new Arabic poster and multi-script pencil we have also introduced an ideal libation for type collaboration — a complementary beer to Skolar type family (read more about its making here), hand-made and lovingly supervised by the author of Skolar himself. This release is an attempt to break off the generally rather stiff approach to type families. As far as we know, Skolar is now the first type family extending not only beyond writing systems, but also beyond type. Unfortunately for the readers, this to-be-merchandise was all entirely consumed during the camp.

Next year, we hope to connect the Rosetta Camp with the TypeTalks mini-conference in Brno and allow more public participation (e.g. in workshops). Let us know if you would like to join us.

Figure: Skolar Regulager

Figure: Romantic goodbye from the Rosetta crew

Figure: UFO bonus