TypeCon2021: Recaps & Reminders!

TypeCon2021: Together
A Virtual Conference
October 21st — 24th

Presented by the Society of Typographic Aficionados

Hello, friends!

We hope you all enjoyed the TypeCon2021 Main Program over the past couple of days.

While the Type & Design Education Forum is happening, check out some of the highlights  below … compiled by our good friends at Proof&Co.
 

Join us on Zoom for the Type Crits

Don’t forget that Type Crit sessions will take place via Zoom on Sunday, October 24th.

These sessions are open to the public, however conference attendees will receive priority consideration when participants are selected. There are twelve available slots, with each critique lasting approximately 15 minutes and we still have open spots left.

Get the details and join us on Zoom!
 

Missing the conference swag?

We’ve got you covered.

Stock up on official TypeCon2021 merch. Hoodies, shirts, socks, and more!

Check out the TypeCon store!

And make sure to reserve one of our limited-edition swag boxes!

Here are some of our highlights from day one of TypeCon:

Day one is in the books! We had a great time kicking things off with a mega keynote, a few visions of the future, some raging tunes and thrashing letterforms, and vibrant history. We don’t know about you, but we noticed a few themes coming together — the arrow of time, typographic expression, and revitalizing perspectives — all setting an optimistic and ambitious tone to the virtual conference. 

Keynote Presentation: Now And Then
Alex Trochut

Alex Trochut took us into the 3D world of lettering and explores non-static type, type that is in transition. From imitating brush strokes in digital type to creating something that looks spontaneous and uncontrolled with a digital air brush to exploring lettering design by simulating moving your laundry around, it’s clear Alex is truly living his statement from the beginning of the keynote: “Fun is the most important thing when creating.” 

Alex brought up the importance of tools, whether it’s using the right tool, making your own tools for creation, exploring new tools you haven't used before, and what new things you can make from existing tools. He also covered a lot of behind the scenes insights into his beautifully expressive work and got us thinking about new dimensions that type start to explore: motion, 3D, Augmented Reality, 4D, AI, and generative art … there’s no limit!  

Book Design: From Print Pedigree to Digital Dynasty
John D. Berry
Jason Pamental

John Berry and Jason Pamental introduced the question, what does the future of the book have for us? After a whirlwind tour through the history of book layouts — from scrolls to bound two page spreads to eBooks — we hurdled into the future, noting that reading on phones and tablets isn’t going anywhere so let’s not settle for anything less than a great reading experience.

We got to ponder what variable fonts can do for reading experiences, noting that variable fonts allow us to maximize legibility, readability, and pacing, but we just need to make sure our layouts evolve as the technology evolves. John and Jason also had us think about what makes a book a book in the first place and what’s still left to be done to build the future of the digital book. 

A Typographic History of Extreme Metal Music
Jess Meoni

Jess Meoni guided us through the history of metal band logos and it is impossible to ignore the correlation between the logo composition and the music composition of the bands they represent. We frankly had no idea how deep this rabbit hole went before the talk started but are now seriously considering starting our own Norwegian Black Metal group and scoping out ebay for Celtic Frost swag. All this heavy metal lettering begs the question: how much further can these logos go? If the music becomes even more abstract and aggressive, can the logos follow suit? What could be next in metal music and logo design? Rock on.  

Baybayin: The Ancient Script of the Philippines
Tiffany Prater

Tiffany Prater introduced us to Baybayin Script, a supposedly dead Filipino script. The written script of Tagalog, Baybayin has fallen out of use in the Philippines in favor of latin lettering. Filipino culture is wildly proud of its history and its language, and to that end, Filipino artists are working to keep Baybayin alive in paintings, murals, and tattoos.  We loved the framing of a conversation of what it means to exist in the now while carrying the weight of a culture affected and shaped by existential powers like colonialism and global influence. Seeing so many artists and top shelf creative work had us asking “How can we find modern cultural identity through typography and lettering?” 

Asemic Writing, Mandalas, Speaking in Tongues and Ecstatic Expressions
Laura Chessin

Something that’s not talked about as often as it probably should — meaning. Laura Chessin brought us close to the enlightened beyond by presenting writing as a physical act, a practice, a gesture, a study in rhythm, drawing, a sensory experience. When we think about typography, we tend to think about glyphs, shape, spacing, and a litany of technicalities that are merely a modern expression of what typography is at its core: an act of communication. We loved the complete top-down perspective reset on what writing is in the first place, and what the meaning of typography is for us as individuals. 

Ghost Story / Love Story
(or How I Learned to Love the Dead)
Ian Lynam

The ghosts of fonts past are all around us, but do we see them? Ian Lynam shared his story hunting for the history of Oswald Cooper and all the rabbit holes that led him to, including the discovery of the “screamer” punctuation mark. “Screamers” are oversized exclamation points, part of the Cooper Black release, but too quickly rushed into production for Cooper’s liking. The mark fell out of favor in the US after World War II but kept hold in Japan, where it can still be found today. Ian reminds us that there are typography ghost stories out there, bits of fonts from days gone by that have been lost to time, and it is up to us to search for them, find them, and turn them into typography love stories.

Here are some of our favorite highlights from day two:

After a second fantastic day of TypeCon, we’re just as energized to be a part of this community as ever. Some of the themes we picked up on from the day’s talks were focused around experiences of time and context, how type can continue to morph and evolve, and how everyone experiences type differently. 

An Interactive Timeline of Typographic History
Perrin Stamatis

This talk is all about context, understanding, and appreciation for the way type arrives at our doorstep, and how it then reflects back into the zeitgeist. Perrin Stamatis updates us on the progress of an interactive timeline of typography history, which is destined to become one of the most invaluable resources in all of typography. What we sometimes lack when discussing and learning about fonts is context, mainly cultural and historical. Perrin’s interactive resource tool visualizes the arrow of time and allows you to overlay the events in type with events in other fields throughout history like art, design, or world events. This timeline attempts to inject the connotation of every font through time and allow us all to engage more completely with every font we encounter.

Supporting Struggling Readers to Read Through a Font
Reneé Seward
Frida Medrano
Oscar Fernández

Scientific research shows that connecting letters to their phonetic sounds is an effective tool to help children who are struggling to learn how to read improve their reading skills. SeeType is a variable font created for this very purpose, combining letters with graphic symbols that create the same sound when you identify the symbol. SeeType has already been deployed as a web browser extension and is already making a difference in children’s lives. If a reader is able to hover their cursor over a letter and watch it transform into an icon that provides a phonetic hint, no word is too difficult to read. When reading is hard to do, it’s no fun to read, so why not make it easy?

Analyzing Iranian Modern Poster Design Based on Islamic Manuscript
Mehrdad Sedaghat Baghbani
Setareh Ghoreishi

It’s always easy to think of type as a complete and useful thing, but what if we saw type not as a complete meal but as an ingredient for making new flavors? Baghbani and Ghoreishi dove deep into how type operates as a part of a whole in building cultural design languages and why it’s hard to apply those parts to different cultural design languages. This talk presented some incredibly beautiful examples of calligraphic designs that exemplify this ideology and inspired a little introspection on our own cultural typographic contexts. 

Zimdings!
Talya Perper
Dan Rhatigan

As much as we all believe we have the superpowers to avert a typocalypse, it just doesn’t come up that often. Enter Teen Titans Go!, the Cartoon Network show bold and innovative enough to engage their superhero team in an epic typographic battle. But the episode is so much more than one long comic sans riff, it deals with type snobbery, colonization, and ultimately serves as one of the view examples of children’s type education in entertainment. Talya Perper was kind enough to talk to Dan Rhatigan about this episode she wrote, and by the end, we are all reminded that fonts themselves are not evil, just their occasional misuse (except wingdings, that is pure chaotic evil).

Made in Philly: Badass Victorian Type!
Noah Bryant

Noah Bryant took us through the process of recreating 19th century type as we continue to move ever forward into the digital age. Noah’s Project Ilhen focuses on bringing the work of Herman Ilhen to the present day, and has made his work available as beta typefaces so that we all can experience the process of reviving these nearly lost treasures. This project not only seeks to remember these fonts, but to bring them to modern marketing strategies, reminding us that we always learn from the past and these typefaces are not simply “old”, but they have the power to guide us into typography’s future as well. For us, this all begs the question: what else is out there?

💛💚💙 You’re all caught up! 💙💚💛

This recap is provided by Proof&Co. — A research and media project devoted to a better understanding of the modern world of independent typography, and a proud sponsor of TypeCon! Add us to your blogroll and bookmarks, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our weekly dispatch newsletter for all the latest in type.

High fives!

Thanks to our sponsors and partners who are helping TypeCon2021 shape up to be an amazing event. Without these individuals, businesses, and organizations, we would not be able to host such a high-quality, affordable conference.

The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, study, and support of type, its history and development, its use in the world of print and digital imagery, its designers, and its admirers. TypeCon is an annual convention presented by SOTA that focuses on type, design, and other related disciplines.

Follow @typecon and @typesociety on Twitter