Troy University’s Art and Design program’s International Center for Collaboration and Creativity (IC3) has partnered with TROY’s Center for International Programs to bring a free, virtual three-week seminar to 10 students from Spain’s University of Zaragoza.
The seminar, which kicked off on Jan. 18, is being taught by Assistant Chair and Associate Professor Chris Stagl and is covering typography terms, historical references and best practices. The seminar will conclude with a mix of analog and digital creative projects.
“This seminar dovetails perfectly with the mission of Troy Abroad which is to provide cross-cultural opportunities for TROY students as well as exchange students. The University of Zaragoza is a long-standing exchange partner with Troy University, and this seminar will give students from both universities a unique learning experience,” said Sarah McKenzie, Study Abroad Coordinator. “I am excited to see the learning outcomes and, hopefully, the desire for these students to actually visit the Unizar or Troy campuses. Thank you to Professor Stagl for making it a reality.”
Stagl said the seminar was developed to target institutions that do not currently offer coursework on typography.
“The opportunity for the IC3 to collaborate with the University of Zaragoza is one of those experiences, that as an educator, cannot be easily replicated. This three-week seminar was developed specifically in mind for institutions that do not currently have focused course work on Typography,” Stagl said. “Working with Zaragoza’s Department Chair, Dr. Alfonso Burgos Risco, has been an awesome experience as well. We’ve been able to share ideas and work together via email in the pre-production of getting the seminar ready to launch for their students via Canvas. I’m hoping these international students, from Spain and beyond, are able to find value in the seminar’s curriculum and ultimately are able to enhance their design thinking as it applies to the creative application of Typography as a communication tool.”
The seminar is receiving positive feedback.
“I have enjoyed the projects that have been proposed to us to learn typography. They have helped me learn new terminology and the most important elements to take into account to do proper manual typography.
Typography is something that has interested me for a while, and I want to be able to create my own fonts and use them in my projects,” said Alba Sanz Reglero, a design student from the University of Zaragoza.
The creative projects developed by the students enrolled in this seminar will ultimately be on display on the Art & Design department’s website student work section under a new ‘international spotlight’ heading that will also house a series of interviews of current international students enrolled in the program and attending the Troy Campus. These interviews were created by students in Stagl’s Fall 2021 User Experience class in the newly formed Studio207 housed in TROY’s International Arts Center. Student directors include Collen Layton, Hannah Keiser, Olivia Kattos, Jazmyn Fletcher and Lamarquez Johnson. International students featured in the interviews include Sophie Bilberg from Sweden, Ailin Jiang from China, Siqi Huang from China and Dang Long from Vietnam.
