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| 03 |---AIGA BOSTON-->-->> 1998 Conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Massachusetts College Of Art. AIGA Boston. Carlos Segura Lecture. by Cathy Sheehan. "I will never give up the print side of design - I love the touch and feel of materials, the texture of fine papers and the way they allow for interaction." As a paper promoter, I felt it important to begin this review with that quote from Carlos Segura, a leader in digital type exploration at T-26, and principal of Segura, a Chicago-based design and advertising firm. Having said that, all of the tools of design that are available today do force us to try new things. With the desktop tools available, the experimentations and creations seem to be unlimited. That's the inspiration behind the many digital typefaces founded by T-26, a digital type foundry born in 1994 by its principal, Carlos Segura and his partner, Sun. Carlos Segura charmingly walked the crowd of just over 175, at Massachusetts College of Art, through the T-26 philosphy; the music side of his design talents, including CD packaging design and actually writing music, many tracks inspired by beats from Japan; and the Segura advertising, packaging, promotional, and direct mail campaigns. Then Segura proceeded to share the many digital "movies" that are developed for each of his typefaces. Given his talent in packaging, the music industry, and design and advertising, why design new typefaces? Because he can. Segura has taken his creativity and his sense of "doing what he loves" and moved it into the font business. He is challenged by technology and the opportunity to experiment. Each of the typefaces that Segura develops take on a personality of their own. They are then brought to life in the form of a "short movie" which is used to sell the emotional concept of the typeface. Oddly enough, after looking at some of the movies, it's easy to try to place a personality on some old standbys. Would Helvetica be a drama or a comedy if you were the playwright? The movies for each font are available on the internet, through www.T26.com and www.segurainteractive.com. The packaging elements that Segura shared incorporated everything from "Bags of Art" to unique aluminum packaging, burlap bags, posters, postcards, tins and CD Roms, to a variety of limited edition releases for his fonts. The limited editions range from 5,000 to 20,000, and are never reprinted after their initial distribution. The packaging ideas also contained a variety of production elements, including letterpress, silkscreening, and engraving, which lended to their originality. After spending a two hours plus listening to Segura, it was obvious that his talents are endless, along with his creativity. Segura was inspirational and authentic, sharing openly during a question-and-answer period which left the audience feeling motivated and awestruck at what they had just experienced. A trip to the Segura or T-26 website will certainly give you a taste of what the evening offered, without the complimentary music CD's; typebooks; and posters which were distributed at the AIGA Lecture. All the more reason to attend a future lecture! Poster invitation (below) for the event sponsored by the AIGA on November 18, 1998. Boston. (AIGA archive)  >> return to "presentation" section :-) SEGURA INC. 1110 North Milwaukee Avenue. Chicago, Illinois 60622-4017. (t) 773.862.5667 (f) 773.862.1214 (e) info@segura-inc.com |
