TYPOLONDON

Love it? Hate it?
As a designer, you can’t avoid it. Indeed, you wouldn’t want to – your love affair with typography will prove to be one of the most enduring and intense. Sounds dramatic? Perhaps, but as any aspiring graphic designer will tell you, typography is IMMERSIVE.

There are a few key dates in the design calendar. This is one of them. For those of you lucky enough to have already got your ticket, this weekend looks set to be an inspiring ‘bootcamp’ of all things typographic… three days of presentations and events kicks off in London this Thursday 20th. With up to 40 presentations scheduled from international speakers, this conference will cover many and various aspects of contemporary creative design practice.
With speakers such as Erik Spiekermann
Neville Brody Rian Hughes and Chip Kidd, the Speakers list reads something of an international Who’s Who in current design practice, drawing from a variety of design disciplines including film, graphic design and emerging media.
This leads to a broad and eclectic lecture programme – for example,  a talk on Web Fonts by  Ivo-Gabrowitsch follows on from Calligraphy workshops with Andreas-Frohloff and this begins to show the range, scope and calibre of the event.
This mixing of the old with the new, the juxtaposition of digital and traditional, continues to be one of the most interesting and fluid aspects of typography, to me. The changing face and accessibility of digital mediums, coupled with the process-oriented discipline of printed type, continues to evolve new and inventive ways of working – the blend of the conceptual with the process-driven leading to new ideas. This year’s theme, “Places” ‘explores our surroundings, how we interact with people, how we understand the environments we pass through and how we contextualise our world.’Michael Beirut ‘s Talk – ‘The Only Important Decision’ – focuses on the materials of the designer; ‘Architects get to choose between bricks and stainless steel. Fashion designers have wool, silk or latex. For graphic designers, sometimes there’s only one important decision: what typeface should I use?’
This brings our attention firmly back to the practice of typography, to the art and science of type. ‘Sound as Form‘ as Tomato put it. If you don’t make it to the event you could still treat yourself to a typographic weekend.  Check out Gary Hustwit’s film helvetica
This documentary follows the story of a typeface and has some great interviews with many of the designers who’ll be presenting this weekend. It’s uplifting, thought-provoking with a global outlook. For all Visual Communication students, whether you are interested in graphics, illustration, photography, film, or any other part of the creative spectrum, TypoLondon offers a wealth of contextual information that will keep your Learning Logs busy for many months to come!
Tickets are still available at time of writing! Students who missed the opportunity to book can still register for the conference and a limited amount of Student tickets have now been made available… at £290 each these don’t come cheap, but it’s a massive reduction in the full price (650 exc VAT) So hurry! Typolondon promises to be a rich experience that will fulfill your design needs for many months to come…
oh, and while we’re at it, what do you think of the web page typography? And why no Carson? Discuss.
http://typolondon.com/