Curriculum
Postgraduate research course
ANRT currently offers two kinds of postgraduate curriculum.
The post-master course is 4 semesters long: 3 semesters to develop a self-initiated project dedicated to type or editorial design (from October to March), followed by a 4th semester of professionalization. The course delivers a Diplôme de Spécialisation et d’Approfondissement, mention recherche typographique (120 ECTS).
Students can join a pre-established research programme: 2-3 positions for these programmes are opened each year. A strong connection between research and practice is required, and interdisciplinary projects are encouraged.
Six students are recruited for each session, who receive € 4450 research grant to support their research project. Students meet with the core teaching staff on a weekly basis, and attend a range of seminars and workshops by guest lecturers throughout the year.
In some cases, students who wish to take their research further have the possibility to undertake a PhD in partnership with another research laboratory. Such research programmes are necessarily more ambitious and must aim at providing an original contribution to research. They are co-supervised by ANRT and the partner institutions, and are carried out on the longer term, with PhD students typically working on their project for 36–48 months.
Applicant profile
ANRT is a place of excellence where a specific expertise in typeface design and in editorial design is developed. Its purpose is to support research projects submitted each year by applicants. In addition to self-initiated projects, wider research themes have been defined, to be developed by ANRT on the longer term: they result in specific research programmes relating to these aspects, and are developed with partner institutions. These themes include:
- Typographic solutions for the digital humanities: designing specific alphabets, scripts or notation systems for scholarly purposes
- Typeface design for minority and/or ancient scripts, unencoded or about to be encoded in Unicode (The Missing Scripts)
- History of typography, especially in France
Course structure
The post-master’s provides an outstanding environment for developing research, with the benefit of regular supervision by leading typographic designers. We teach both in French and English.
- Director of typographic research in attendance two days per week
- Regular invited speakers on typography / graphic design
- One-day sessions dedicated to guests and lecturers, visual artists and theorists
- Partnerships with research laboratories and academic departments developing joint research programmes
- Preferential access to documentary and other resources (study trips) offered by ENSAD Nancy
- Some expenses related to research projects may be covered by ANRT
- Presentation and dissemination of students’ work (publications, exhibitions, etc.)
Opportunity for teaching experience: students can lead workshops to ENSAD Nancy’s students.
