Open Grid 6 Jul – 14 Aug 2026 Apply by 30 Apr

Open Grid — a six-week summer school for type, interface and code

Open Grid
Summer School
for type, interface & code

6 Jul – 14 Aug 2026, Hall B of the old print works. Six studios, forty-eight seats and one public show, all on the same twelve columns.

No.StudioLeadWeeks

01Type as ImageLetterforms you can crop, stack and shout with.Mara K.Wk 1–2
02Interfaces That BehaveButtons, states and the manners of software.Tomas R.Wk 1–3
03Code for DesignersLoops, noise and a canvas that answers back.Ines V.Wk 2–4
04Motion on a GridTiming, easing and the one-pixel nudge.Kofi A.Wk 3–5
05Print Is Not DeadRisograph, overprint and ink up to the elbows.Lena S.Wk 4–5
06The ShowHang it, light it, defend it out loud.Juno P.Wk 6

Fig. 1 — The grid cube. 27 modules, equal gaps, no exceptions.

Scroll. Week one starts below.

The hall

1,200 m² of north light, long tables and a twelve-column grid taped straight onto the concrete.

Wk 0–6

A converted print hall in hard daylight with long white tables and an orange tape grid on the concrete floor

The riso room

Two drums, eleven inks and one house rule: wash your hands before you touch the orange.

Wk 4–5

Hands in black gloves lifting a freshly printed orange and cyan risograph sheet from the output tray

The specimen wall

Everyone pins one letter on day one. By week six the wall has turned into a typeface.

Wk 1–6

A white wall covered edge to edge in pinned black type specimens with a few orange and cyan sheets

Set the columns
Pick a gutter
Count the weeks
Fill the seats

Twelve columns. The first one is the wordmark, squashed.

Learn the

Rules.

Then break

them.

— on purpose, in week three, with a tutor watching.

Six studios, one hall, one shared grid. Every week you make something, break it on purpose and ship whatever survives the Friday crit.

We Make

Student cutting a large black letterform out of paper on a cutting mat, with orange offcuts around — Wk 2 · Type as Image · paper, knife1 / 3

A wall poster sliced into strips and rearranged out of order, pinned with cyan tape — Wk 2 · Type as Image · paper, knife1 / 3

Tutors

06 people · 00 lecterns

48seats, and not one more

Six working designers and coders. They teach in the morning and make their own work beside you in the afternoon.

Ratio 1 : 8

Hands from above setting wooden type into a composing stick on a white bench — **Mara K.**Type as Image

A tutor seen from behind sketching interface states on a whiteboard grid with an orange marker — **Tomas R.**Interfaces That Behave

6studios under one roof

Hands typing on a keyboard in front of a monitor full of generative line patterns — **Ines V.**Code for Designers

No stage, no slides, no hiding at the back. Crits happen at the table and everybody talks.

Fridays · 16:00

12full bursaries, fees and bed

A person from behind scrubbing an animation timeline on a laptop in a dark room lit by a cyan screen — **Kofi A.**Motion on a Grid

Inked hands pulling an orange risograph print off the drum — **Lena S.**Print Is Not Dead

A person on a ladder from behind hanging large black posters on a white gallery wall — **Juno P.**The Show

1public show, doors open to all

“Learn the rules. Then break them on purpose.”

House rule no. 1 · painted on the hall door

Six courses — pick two, sit in on the rest

01 / 06

01Type as image
Weeks 1–2 · Mara K. · 8 seats
Letters stop being words and start being shapes.You will crop, stack and enlarge until a single glyphcan hold a wall on its own.
02Interfaces that behave
Weeks 1–3 · Tomas R. · 8 seats
Every button has a mood: idle, hover, busy, sorry.Design all of them, then test them on someonewho has never seen your screen.
03Code for designers
Weeks 2–4 · Ines V. · 8 seats
Loops, noise and a canvas that answers back.No computer science degree needed, only the patienceto break a sketch forty times before lunch.
04Motion on a grid
Weeks 3–5 · Kofi A. · 8 seats
Timing is a layout problem with a clock attached.You will animate to the column, the beatand the one-pixel nudge.
05Print is not dead
Weeks 4–5 · Lena S. · 8 seats
Two drums, eleven inks, a lot of misregistration.Learn to love the overprint, then plan for itlike you meant it all along.
06The show
Week 6 · Juno P. · all 48
One week to hang it, light it and write the labels.Then the doors open and you explain your workto strangers, out loud, all evening.

The show, last year

10 pieces · drag or scroll to turn the room

01 / 10 — Ada M. — Variable specimen

Tools down. Week six is over.

Ada M. — Variable specimen
Rui C. — A booking flow that apologises
Sol B. — Noise garden
Ife O. — Riso calendar
Pia N. — Kinetic poster set
Tam H. — Type as image
Noor L. — The patient form
Eli W. — Grid cube app
Bea D. — Overprint zine
Kai F. — Six-week archive

Tools down. Week six is over.

Getting in · four steps

1. Send six pieces of workAnything you made. Unfinished counts, school projects count.
2. Write 200 wordsTell us which rule you want to break and why.
3. A short callTwenty minutes with two tutors. Cameras optional.
4. You’re inSee you on 6 July. Bring a pencil, we have the rest.

Applications close 30 April 2026

Six weeks.
Forty-eight seats.
Your move.

Fee2,400covers studio, materials and the riso ink you will waste

Bursaries12full fee plus a bed, no essay contest

Who19–30students, career switchers, self-taught coders

Start your application