To launch this year’s Rome Workshop campaign we asked some participants to share their experiences. Here is Sophie Brown from Newcastle, NSW (Australia).She is a Graphic designer/ freelancer, who works part-time as an in-house designer for the University of Newcastle. Her freelance is primarily  typographic and lettering work.

What was your favorite part of the workshop and did you gain anything you did not expect? The best aspects of the workshops for me were the tutors. They really are world-class. I’d never before had access to such a wealth of knowledge, experience and style, and I couldn’t soak it up fast enough.

What I didn’t expect to get out of the course was a lasting network of amazing friends. They’re spread across the world and they’re all on their own creative adventures, but we still keep in touch and I know I’ll have good company if ever I’m in Seattle, Milan, New York, New Delhi or Colombia.

How has it changed your career? Describe if and how it has informed your work. The workshop actually gave me a new career altogether, and an entirely new source of income. As part of the course – and in the subsequent months after returning home – I created a fully functional typeface, which I sell through The Designers Foundry. I can now add “type designer” to my resume! I won’t exactly be retiring off the royalties, but having a regular source of passive income gives me increased flexibility to pursue more potentially profitable typographic projects.

Overall, it’s fueled my love of lettering, and has inspired me to continue down that path.

What did you learn the most? And have you shared with others (through workshops, presentations or in class) what you learned with others and how?  Broadly, the most invaluable lesson I got out of the program was that design could be anything. It could inform culture, solve problems, save time, challenge, excite, inspire… It gave me a big picture perspective to crystallize my days spent dealing with details.

How would you describe the program to others? Totally immersive, culturally enriching, historically educational, creatively inspiring and, really, just lots of good fun. Learning all about type with design deities in Rome, whilst eating gelato every other day – what’s not to love?!