Type Electives is an online design school shaping the future of type.
We offer a wide range of live online classes focused on letterforms, including type design, lettering, and creative technology. Our faculty is made up of people who approach their practice from a place of respect, responsibility, criticality, and love. We're excited to work with students interested in exploring a future founded in these principles.
Our Mission
We aim to form a more inclusive and equitable future in type and design by increasing accessibility to specialized education, and creating a thoughtful space to shape the discourse around type as culture and industry.
We are a diverse community of lifelong learners, multi-disciplinary designers and artists, making space for the multiple narratives and truths that shape our practices.
We believe in encouraging active knowledge-sharing and meaningful dialogue that honor each other's local traditions and cultures, rooted in place and community, to redefine the way we practice design.
Making type education more accessible
- Specialized classes exploring the analog, digital, and cutting-edge potential of letterforms
- Scholarships to students from under-privileged and under-represented communities
- A curriculum that enables a non-linear path toward an education in type
- A core curriculum focusing on developing solid foundational type skills complemented with workshops and lectures.
Bringing a thoughtful approach to education
- Engaging with educators who have critical thinking and engaged pedagogy as an intrinsic part of their practice
- Leading a classroom founded on mindfulness and integrity
- Nurturing students to become self-directed learners who can be confident in creating a body of work that celebrates their unique voices and lived experiences
- Creating a curriculum that promotes observation, reflection, and thoughtful engagement.
Cultivating and engaging with our community
- Offering workshops, classes, and lectures to share the craft and love of our profession
- Compensating teachers, organizers, and assistants a fair wage
- Providing a platform for new voices to share their stories and new ideas to be heard
- Encouraging established voices to share their knowledge with the community
- Providing an online space for open dialogue and peer-learning
- Celebrating the achievements of our community members.
Meet the Team
Juan Villanueva (he/him) is a Peruvian typeface designer and educator in New York City. Juan is a Sr. Type Designer at Monotype. A graduate of the Type@Cooper Extended program, he has taught for institutions such as Type@Cooper, The City College of New York, and The Letterform Archive. Juan is also the founder of Type Crit Crew, an initiative to make type design education more accessible and inclusive.
Lynne Yun (she/her) is a Korean typeface designer and educator fluidly connecting the seams between calligraphy, type design, and generative typography. She is an alumna of the Type@Cooper Extended program, School for Poetic Computation, and ITP at New York University. She has previously taught for institutions such as Type@Cooper, Parsons School of Design, and The Letterform Archive. She currently runs Space Type, an NYC studio operating at the intersection of type and technology.
Scholarships and Funding
We are a fully independent organization funded by tuition fees and donations. All funds go directly towards our mission to form a more inclusive and equitable future in type and design through fair compensation, scholarship seating, and public programming.
If you are interested in supporting our mission, please consider making a one-time or ongoing donation.
