INNERchamber’s ‘Typeface: A Concert of Characters’ to explore the history of typeface inventors and designers

“Typeface: A Concert of Characters” will take place at Factory 163 on Feb. 1 beginning at 7 p.m.

When it comes to history, there is no shortage of niche areas of interest to explore and appreciate, offering those who do a glimpse into how just one piece of the world we live in today has come to be.

On Feb. 1, INNERchamber’s ensemble of musicians will put one of those unlikely historical rabbit holes to music as they join typographer and design instructor Christopher Moorehead for “Typerface: A Concert of Characters,” a musical and historical exploration into the inventors and designers who created the many diverse typefaces that have become so ubiquitous in our modern world.

“I started as an engineer. I graduated from Queen’s (University) and worked in a number of sectors – automotive, manufacturing, aerospace – but even in that time, I was interested in typography and the art of letter forms,” Moorehead said. “I would do, as a hobby, calligraphy. I remember, even when I was at school, I would do things like design concert posters for shows and hand-lettered wedding invitations.

“So, I always had this fascination for type and then I started reading up on it just for my own amusement. And there came this time when, all of a sudden, I would look at, say, a sign and look at a piece of type and I would be able to identify it and I would analyze it. Even then, it was going around in my head; ‘Is this the correct thing? Is this not correct?’ And I got to the point where I couldn’t get out of that mode.”

Ultimately, Moorehead realized he had found an unlikely passion and decided to complete a degree in graphic design at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) with typography as his focus. He went on to teach every level of typography at OCAD over the course of 13 years before moving to Stratford, where he now teaches at the Stratford campus of the University of Waterloo.

While attending a dinner party two years ago, Moorehead met a fellow Queen’s University engineering grad and the artistic director of INNERchamber, Andrew Chung. As the two were talking, the topic of typography inevitably came up, and they realized there is a unique overlap between their two passions – typography and music.

Not only did they discover an alignment between the classifications of typography and eras of music history, but they also found there are similarities between musical composition and typographic form – not to mention both written music and type exist to communicate content in a specific way and share it with the wider world – ultimately leading to the creation of INNERchamber’s next concert concept.

“Type exists to honour content,” Moorehead said, quoting from Canadian typographer Robert Bringhurst’s book, Elements of Typographic Style. “Ultimately, what is the thing that’s being said and how can you say it more effectively, depending on your choice of how you have set it typographically, your choice of type base, your choice of various little elements? How long are your lines, the space between lines, how do you make it as readable as possible, how do you make people want to continue reading it? But ultimately, it is the content that matters.”

“I have a great respect for anything that has a depth of beauty in something like type,” Chung added. “I can immediately see there are a lot of details that go into it, and in speaking with Chris, that became very, very apparent. … Chris made it clear there’s great layers of depth in the story of type. When we’re looking for ways to bring music to our audiences, sometimes it’s nice to get a hook, but here, I just think this is a lot of fun. We can all learn something about what Chris has dedicated his life to learning, and we can all just exit this concert with this greater awareness that type is everywhere, just like music is everywhere.”

Narrated by Moorehead, who plans to share the interesting and entertaining stories from the history and development of type, the concert will feature performances of music composed by some of the greats during the high points of typographic history. INNERchamber ensemble musicians Anna Ronai on piano, Ben Bolt-Martin on cello and Chung on violin will perform classic pieces by Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven among others, as well more contemporary compositions by artists including Leonard Bernstein and Rebecca Clarke.

At $53 each, tickets are available at www.innerchamber.ca and they include a dinner by Boutique Catering at 5:45 p.m., ahead of the concert at 7 p.m. Tickets must be purchased by 5:30 p.m. Jan. 30 for the dinner to be included, however they will be available after that date at the same price without the dinner. Student and arts-worker discounts are available.