Baltimore Design Week is coming and we couldn’t be more excited. As you may have read already, Commercial Type is coming to town! Co-founder Christian Schwartz will be in Baltimore to tell us more about the hows and whys of their typeface design work.

To gear up for Christian’s talk, we think it’s time to get down to basics. When you strip away serifs, nuances, and entire sets of characters, which glyph comes to mind?

Letters, punctuation, accents, and decorations all speak to people on some level. So what does your favorite glyph say to you? What does it represent? Is it a thrilling interrobang or a subdued bracket? Maybe you think the ampersand is a bit of a show off? Are ligatures actually besties?

We want to know how you perceive glyphs, so we’ve got a bit of a challenge for you: Find your character and give it some character. Use photos, illustrations, your mother’s favorite calendar, or whatever strikes your fancy, and give your favorite glyph a selfie. Post it to Instagram, mention @aigabaltimore, and tag it with #bmoreDW15 & #glyphie. Don’t have an Instagram account? Keep your image in a square format and tweet us @aiga_baltimore!

We look forward to seeing what you come up with and we’ll share your creations with our design community as we go. So, get your glyphies together and show us Tilde’s sassy side. (We can’t wait to meet her!)

Besides showing off your glyph skills, you’ll also be entered for a chance to receive free entry to the Commercial Type talk. So get to drawing, pasting, scanning, photographing, or whatever method you’re most comfortable with.

Looking for some inspiration? Check out these resources:

Glyph: Wikipedia
Are Some Fonts More Believable Than Others via Fast Co.
13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using
14 Punctuation Marks That You Never Knew Existed
Don’t forget to check out our Design Week event, Five Years of Commercial Type, too!

Brooke saves galaxies, builds kingdoms, and attempts to grow tomatoes. In her free time, she is AIGA Baltimore’s Social Media Maven, as well as a graphic designer and front-end developer. You can view her portfolio at www.brookeaowens.com and find her on Twitter at @BrookeAOwens.