{"id":651227,"date":"2026-05-06T09:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/651227\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T09:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:12:09","slug":"addison-copas-doesnt-want-freedom-he-thrives-under-the-limitations-in-his-wordmarks-and-brand-identities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/651227\/","title":{"rendered":"Addison Copas doesn\u2019t want \u201cfreedom\u201d \u2013 he thrives under the limitations in his wordmarks and brand identities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"sm37w\">Virginia-born graphic designer <a href=\"https:\/\/addisoncopas.net\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Addison Copas<\/a> is fascinated by limitations. In art classes in school, he disliked the \u201cunbridled freedom\u201d he was sometimes afforded, where briefs such as \u201cpaint whatever you want, however you want\u201d did nothing for him. When studying type design under Seb McLauchlan at Kingston University, he followed a trajectory of rebelling against the concept-heavy, opting for research-based and technique-focused practices where he could \u201cweigh the worth of his mind and hand against objective criteria, like weight, texture and rhythm\u201d.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"8hr93\">\u201cThe fun thing about teaching your subject of study is that you can make adjustments you wish had been made when you were a student; to make that subtle and possibly frivolous change you wish to see in the world. For me, that was designing on paper,\u201d says Addison. \u201cWith the exception of exceedingly modular designs, pencil, pen or brush and paper lend themselves to quicker, unconstrained prototyping. If I want to adjust an unsatisfactory curve on a vector, I need to pull around at least four different interconnected points; but on paper, it\u2019s one fell swoop of the pen.\u201d Needless to say, Addison\u2019s work is rooted in pencil and paper practices, and it shows. His work is a throwback to classic letterforms \u2013 it feels almost medieval. It\u2019s warm and wonderfully retro in a way we don\u2019t see so much of now, with each project becoming a type of invitation.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"7u90c\">Inspired by Czech typographer Old\u0159ich Menhart, Addison channels his \u201cconstant wonder\u201d through text type design, which he calls a \u201cseverely confined art\u201d \u2013 fenced on one side by contemporary cultural conceptions of letterforms and on the other side by the quirks of human sight. \u201cWhile the painters may abandon centuries of technique accrued in shading, perspective and colour in favour of pursuing their unfettered whims on the canvas \u2013 type designers have no such luxury,\u201d says Addison, revelling in the constraints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virginia-born graphic designer Addison Copas is fascinated by limitations. In art classes in school, he disliked the \u201cunbridled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-651227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}