January 19, 2021
Our speaker tonight is David Jonathan Ross, about DrawBot:
DrawBot is a free MacOS application and Python library that helps users create 2D vector graphics with code. As a teaching tool, it offers students an easy way to dive into the Python language and immediately see the results of their work (not to mention the ability to save those results in common formats such as PDF, SVG, PNG, and MP4). DrawBot also gives graphic designers and typographers like me the opportunity to set aside traditional design tools like Adobe InDesign and Illustrator and reconsider what design tools can be outside of the world of point-and-click. In this talk, I will share how I use the application to work out my design systems in code, automating repetitive tasks and generating hundreds of variations on a theme. I will compare DrawBot to other “creative coding” apps such as Processing, and will conclude with a demo of some of the basic features of the app, focusing on drawing and manipulating shapes, text, and images.
David Jonathan Ross draws letters of all shapes and sizes for custom and retail typeface designs. A native of Los Angeles, he currently lives in the woods of Western Massachusetts. He began drawing typefaces at Hampshire College and joined The Font Bureau in 2007 where he honed his bézier-wrangling skills. Now he publishes his typeface designs at his own type foundry, DJR (http://djr.com/), as well as working on projects with Type Network (http://typenetwork.com/), teaching typeface design at MassArt (http://massart.edu/), and developing unusual display faces for his Font of the Month Club (http://fontofthemonth.club/).
We'll open the Zoom at 6:30 for socializing, with David starting his presentation at 7 or so.
Meetup link: https://www.meetup.com/bostonpython/events/275680312/