Jeff Kellem’s ATypI Stanford 2026 presentation, “Music to Their Eyes: A New Shape-Note Typeface for Sacred Harp Singers,” is now available on YouTube.
The talk was given for an international audience of type designers and tells the story of the new shape-note music typeface commissioned for the 2025 Edition of The Sacred Harp. Jeff discusses the history of The Sacred Harp’s book design, the challenges of designing a clear and readable shape-note typeface, and how five years of iteration, historical research, feedback, and pandemic-era communication helped shape the final result.
The new typeface helped make the 2025 Edition more readable while also allowing additional space for new songs. More broadly, the presentation offers a rare look at how type design can directly affect a living musical tradition and the communities that carry it forward.
Watch the presentation here:
Leave a Reply