Oliver Linke Type Designer Lazydogs Typefoundry, Germany Play (43min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Oliver Linke (*1971) studied graphic design at the University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, Germany and the University of Missouri, Kansas City (1993–98). He continued his studies in art history, art education and philosophy (2000–05) at the University of Augsburg. Today his work focuses on book- and type design which is also the topic when he tries to attract the attention of his students at the »Munich Designschool« and the University of Applied Sciences Augsburg.

Gerald Fleuss Calligrapher/Illuminator, Great Britain Play (28min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Gerald Fleuss worked for a time for the lettercarver David Kindersley before studying calligraphy and bookbinding full-time with Ann Camp at Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, returning to teach there for the next ten years. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators in 1982, a member of the Art Worker’s Guild in 1983 and served as Honorary Designer of the Wynkyn de Worde Society for 1998. He is the co-author (with Dr John Nash) of Practical Calligraphy (Hamlyn 1991), was featured in Calligraphy Masterclass (Collins 1990) and contributed to The Calligrapher’s Project Book (Collins 1987) and Digital Calligraphy by George Thomson (Batsford 2003). His work is included in public collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Houghton Library, Harvard University USA.

Richard Hollis Graphic designer and writer, UK Play (53min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

The intention of this talk is to present Edward Johnston, even before his Underground lettering, as a modernist, and at the same time to take another look at his book, Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering.

Humphrey Stone Typographic designer Play (44min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

This talk, by a biased son, is a tribute to a father who combined brain, eye and hands to a remarkable degree. Unassuming, modest, observant, scholarly and a superb craftsman he was above all an artist with an artist’s vision. Largely self taught, except for a fortnight at Eric Gill’s studio in Pigotts, his mastery of the art of engraving letters in wood remains equal to none.

Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop, UK Play (17min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Website: www.kindersleyworkshop.co.uk

Workshop: “Letters into Stone” — mp4 (20 min, < ?php echo urlfilesize('http://media.river-valley.tv/conferences/atypi_brighton2007/quicktime/Letters_Into_Stone.mp4','mb') . 'MB';?>)

Juliet Shen Principal, Shen Design Play (42min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Juliet Shen is principal of Shen Design, a graphic design studio she founded in 1989, and has taught design and typography at School of Visual Concepts, Cornish College of the Arts and Art Institute of Seattle. She holds a Master of Typeface Design degree from the University of Reading, England. Her thesis typeface family, Bullen, appeared in Computer Arts and Typo magazines in December 2006. Current projects include type design for the University of Oxford Press children’s division. Her annual Chinese New Year cards have been circulating in Seattle and other parts of the world for 17 years.

Ken Garland United Kingdom Play (45min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Ken Garland completed his studies in graphic design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, in the 1950s. He was Art Editor of Design magazine from 1956-62, when he left to establish his own graphic design studio as Ken Garland and Associates. Among his many clients were Galt Toys, Race Furniture, Barbour Index, The Butterley Group, William Heinemann, Paramount Pictures, Harper & Row, Otto Maier Verlag, The Science Museum, Cambridge University Press, The Ministry of Technology, Jonathan Cape, The Arts Council, the Royal Parks Agency and the Barbican Gallery.

Andy J Altmann Graphic Designer, UK Play (41min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Andy Altmann graduated in graphic design from the Royal College of Art in 1987 and almost immediately formed the multi disciplinary design group Why Not Associates with fellow graduates David Ellis and Howard Greenhalgh. Located in London, Why Not Associates gained an international reputation based on a creative and experimental approach. In 19 years of experience they have worked on projects ranging from exhibition design to postage stamps via advertising, publishing, television titles, commercials and corporate identity. Their clients include the Royal Academy of Arts, Malcolm Mcclaren, the Royal Mail, Nike, Paul Smith, Virgin Records and Channel 4.

Richard Kindersley Letterer Kindersley Studio, U.K. Play (28min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Richard Kindersley studied lettering and sculpture at Cambridge School of Art and in his father, David Kindersley’s, studio. He has had an independent studio in London since 1966. He is a letterer of international renown. His knowledge and love of poetry and understanding of letterform results in powerful, unique work. He carves in many materials, the chosen letter forms and texts expressing the different qualities of the stone, brick or metal. He has worked extensively in Scotland and in recent years has created a series of magnificent, monumental standing stones, (a group from the Millennium now in the Sainsbury Collection) with words carved directly into slabs of Caithness stone.

Yaki Molcho Israel Play (34min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Yaki Molcho was born in Israel in 1945. He graduated from the Graphic Design department in Bezalel – Academy of Art And Design in Jerusalem in 1971. From 1972 he worked as freelance graphic designer and art director with major advertising agencies, magazines and daily newspapers in Israel; he has also designed numerous books, record sleeves, catalogues and exhibitions. During the years 1985-1992 he co-designed the typographic design of the Valley of the Communities site in Yad Vashem, the National Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

Timothy Donaldson Type Designer, UK Play (37min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Timothy Donaldson was formed in the north west of England, an only child of Yorkshire parents. He developed an obsessive interest in drawing during his first decade which matured into another obsession with writing (still drawing) during his second one. During his third decade he was a journeyman signwriter, earning his crust in pursuit of the just forming of letters. By his fourth decade he had become a lettering artist and type designer and a lecturer at Stafford College School of Art; a legendary destination for the teaching and learning of Typography in England. Now into his fifth decade, he focusses fully on his work with letterforms as a Research Fellow at the University of Lincoln.

Karen Cheng University of Washington, USA Play (29min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Type design is, in some ways, an old-fashioned subject within a graphic design program. As the field of graphic design matures, emphasis has shifted away from traditional issues of craft, visual skills and formal innovation to also include communication theory and strategy, often in a wide variety of social and cultural contexts. Additionally, advances in digital technology continue to transform communication media and platforms, further expanding the desired capabilities and competencies of new graduates.

Joe_Clark Joe Clark Play (29min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

A public–transit system is a hands–on place, or one that’s foot– and arse–on. The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), which runs a 69–station subway line and a network of buses and streetcars, offers riders a typographic treasure in the form of the subway’s station names and original signage, which use a mid-century sansserif font not found anywhere else – upper case only and like Bernhard Modern in its crossbar heights and Art Deco curves. The font is still a spot–on choice 50 years after the subway opened; it reminds us just how generic Vignelli’s Akzidenz in the New York subway really was.

Kevin_Larson Researcher Microsoft Advanced Reading Technologies, USA Play (38min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Kevin Larson received his PhD in cognitive psychology in 2000 from the University of Texas at Austin. His academic research was on word recognition and reading acquisition. He currently works for Microsoft’s Advanced Reading Technology team working on the scientific understanding of ClearType and other reading technologies.

An exploration of various aspects of the history of the book in South Asia, and the cultural, social, religious, political, economic and technological factors which have influenced its development

Graham Shaw is Head of Asia, Pacific and Africa collections at the British Library. He has published widely on the history of printing and publishing in South Asia, including Printing in Calcutta to 1800 (1981) and The South Asia and Burma retrospective bibliography: stage 1: 1556–1800 (1987).

Paul Luna University of Reading Play (50min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

A discussion of what typographers look for in non-Latin typefaces and the criteria for selecting particular typeface combinations for academic and reference books.

Professor Paul Luna is Head of the Department of Typography Graphic Communication at the University of Reading, and has recently written on the design of Johnson’s Dictionary. He joined the Department in 1998 from Oxford University Press where he was head of corporate design, the culmination of twenty year’s work at OUP that included the design of major publications such as the Oxford English Dictionary, bilingual dictionaries, the Oxford Shakespeare, and the Revised English Bible.

Simon Prais www.hebrewtypography.me.uk Play (63min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

The Hebrew and Latin letters are fundamentally different. Circumstance and technology has distorted the development of Hebrew type and typography but which Latin typographic styles and conventions are appropriate to the Hebrew letter?

Simon Prais studied for an MA in Visual Communications (Manchester Polytechnic) in 1984–85 and wrote his dissertation on design considerations affecting the simultaneous use of Latin and Hebrew Typography. In 1986 he co–founded TypeMaker Limited (t/a ColourConfidence) and is their Technical Director. TypeMaker are developers of graphics manipulation software and are the largest independent European colour management specialists. They were also the first UK PostScript typesetting service.

Mamoun Sakkal Sakkal Design, Washington Play (58min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

OpenType is a font description and rendering format adapted by major computer companies to address many issues related to composing and rendering digital type. In OpenType, specific script and language processing engines handle the different scripts which means that the unique qualities of Arabic are no longer forced into the molds of Latin script as was the case with previous technologies.

Mamoun Sakkal, a native of Aleppo, Syria, who immigrated to the United States in 1978, is founder and principal of Sakkal Design in Bothell, Washington. Providing graphic design and communication solutions to major national and international corporations, his firm has focused on Arabic calligraphy and typography since the 1990s and received several awards for calligraphy and type design. His clients include Microsoft, Linotype, and Bistream. Sakkal lectures on Arabic and Islamic art and architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle, and other Universities in the US, Syria, and Uzbekistan, and continues to participate in fine art exhibitions in the US and abroad. He is a recent doctor candidate working on the history of Islamic calligraphy and its use in contemporary art.

Thomas Milo Amsterdam, The Netherlands Play (70min) Download: FLV | MOV | mp3

Thomas Milo is the president of DecoType. Unlike any other player in this field, DecoType develops font technology that takes into the equation the Islamic calligraphic tradition and the requirements for both modern and classical Arabic orthography. DecoType has been working on Arabic script technology since 1982, in the course of which they pioneered the concept of Dynamic Font (Smart Font, Intelligent Font) DecoType has a close partnership with WinSoft, France.

Titus Nemeth Vienna Play (14min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

Vienna–born Titus Nemeth graduated in 2006 with a distinction from the Master of Arts Typeface Design programme at the Department of Typography and Visual Communication, University of Reading. He specialises in multi–script typeface design with an emphasis on the Arabic script. His master thesis researched the current state of Arabic newspaper type and typography and found acclaim by experts in the field. He is currently pursuing further research on the Arabic script at the École Supérier d’Art et de Design d’Amiens, France. Besides his academic endeavours he continues his work as freelance designer and consultant.

Thomas Milo Amsterdam Play (26min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

Amsterdam–born Thomas Milo is independent scholar, typographer and inventor. Tom was guest lecturer among others at Cooper Union in New York, the Agha Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT in Cambridge, MA, USA, the Dept. of Typography and Graphic Communication of Reading University, UK, the Graphic Design Department at VCUQ, Doha, Qatar and recently in the Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman. With his DecoType team he pioneered smart font technology in the early 1980’s, a concept later adopted by Microsoft and Adobe and now a key feature of every day’s computer typography. In 1985 he incorporated DecoType together with his partners Mirjam Somers and Peter Somers. DecoType’s approach to Arabic computer technology is based on exhaustive analysis of the structure of pre–typographic Arabic script. For Brill, Leiden’s renowned academic publishers, DecoType produced in 1989 the first ever computer–typeset Persian and English dictionary. The latest resulting product, WinSoft’s Tasmeem, is a platform for sophisticated, both traditional and contemporary, typographic designs. This year Brill has resumed its 325 years old tradition of Arabo–Dutch typography by adapting Tasmeem for its Arabic texts. Recently the government of Oman commissioned DecoType to typeset the Koran, the icon of Arabic script culture, as both a beautiful and a searchable text for the internet, using Tasmeem.

Tarek Atrissi Holland Play (29min) Download: FLV | MOV | Ogg | mp3

Beirut born Tarek Atrissi, now based in Holland, has gained a worldwide reputation for his cross–cultural design work, which has been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum New York and is part of the permanent Design Collection of the Dutch Poster Museum in the Netherlands. His awards include among others the Type Directors Club’s, The Dutch Design award and Adobe Design Achievement awards. He is the founder of www.arabictypography.com, the online communication platform for Arabic Type. Tarek speaks regularly at international Design conferences, events and universities worldwide. He has designed the visual identity for the country of Qatar, and his clients include MTV Arabia, BBC, Al–Ghad Newspaper in Jordan, and many other clients interested in a contemporary approach to Arabic design and typography. He is the co–author of “Visual Narratives from Arabia” published by UNESCO in 2008. During the logo (shop) exhibition El Hema, Tarek Atrissi designed the Arabic logo version of El Hema, and designed with Peter Bilak one of the five new Arabic fonts introduced in the project. Trying to connect Arabic fonts to Dutch culture, the HEMA was the chosen Dutch icon. Separately, he has designed several Arabic fonts widely in use in the Arab world.

Peter Rosenfeld URW++ Design & Development GmbH Play (30min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGV | MP3

Much of the actual font technology finds its origin in the IKARUS system, invented by Dr. Peter Karow in the early 1970’s and developed till this day by URW++ Design & Development GmbH under supervision of Dr. Jürgen Willrodt. A historical overview and explanation of more than thirty years of Spitzentechnologie by URW++’s managing director, who was directly engaged in the IKARUS development over the past thirty-five years.

Peter Rosenfeld started, after finishing his business studies in 1980, his first position in the font production department at Dr. Hell in Kiel. It was there where he first got in touch with digital type. Peter joined URW Software & Type GmbH in Hamburg in 1982 and a little later he became the manager of the URW font studio. He worked very closely for and with Dr. Peter Karow, the visioneer and pioneer of the type industry. Roughly ten years after joining URW, Peter became Managing Director of URW++ Design & Development GmbH and the company has established itself in the graphic design industry by continually developing and marketing innovative font products and related software.

Dr. Peter Karow Formerly URW Software & Type GmbH, Adobe Systems Inc., & AdFinder GmbH Play (44min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGV | MP3

Digital Typography transpired in type design and text layout. It has changed font production and text composition in their entirety. Dr. Karow was involved in many of the demands for digital typefaces which came into existence from 1972 through 1997. These issues included formats, variations, interpolation, rasterizing, hinting, autotracing, grayscaling, and element separation. Modern text composition was mostly influenced by programs such as WordStar, Word, PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and FrameMaker, which replaced writing, typesetting and printing in offices on the one hand and at home on the other.

In current times, text is composed much less manually than in the past, but not as digitally generated as its potential. Within modern text composition, digital text is a special part that should proceed without manual assistance and human layout. Up to now, the milestones were these: kerning, optical scaling, paragraph composition (hz-program), chapter composition (chapter fit), and digital ads. As is known, a good deal of engineering endeavors has already been implemented in regards to digital typography. However, distinct challenges still exist such as refinements to autotracing, autohinting, element separation, kerning, optical scaling, chapter fit, and automatic text composition. Many sophisticated tasks are still left to be executed, they belong more to artificial intelligence than to engineering.
 
Peter Karow was born as a farmer’s son in Stargard, Pomerania, on November 11, 1940. From school and after his civil service he progressed to the University of Hamburg, to study high energy physics leading to a dissertation in 1971. With Rubow and Weber he founded the company URW Software & Type GmbH. Digital type became his life’s work and has continued to be a most enjoyable and exciting task to the present day.

Several contacts with type designers, especially Hermann Zapf, had great impact on his development of the IKARUS program. Since 1988, both worked on the ‘hz-progam’ in order to use the power of computers to improve the micro-typography of texts.

Peter Karow gave international presentations on numerous conferences, wrote many articles for journals, got 14 patents for DTP related methods, and wrote several books, among them: Digital Typefaces and Font Technology (both Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 1994), Typeface Statistics (URW Verlag, Hamburg, 1993).

John Hudson Tiro Typeworks Play (75min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGV | MP3

Individual scholars, scholarly associations and academic publishers regularly deal with texts whose needs, in terms of character set, complex layout and typographic refinement, exceed those of everyday font use and, hence, of most fonts. John Hudson examines some of these needs and the solutions provided by specialised and custom typefaces, using three projects as examples: SBL Hebrew (for the Society of Biblical Literature), Cambria Math (for Microsoft), and the new Brill family of types (for Royal Brill). The Brill project, which is in progress, illustrates the impact of both specialist user needs and a 325 year publishing tradition on design decisions, as well as the latest technical solutions to typesetting complex and unusual texts.

John Hudson is a type designer and co-founder of Tiro Typeworks. Since 1997, he has specialised in the design and development of custom fonts for multilingual computing and publishing. Tiro Typework’s clients include Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, and Linotype, as well as many smaller companies, academic associations and minority language communities. In addition to his type design activities, John writes and lectures on font technology issues.

Dr. Jürgen Willrodt URW++ Design & Development GmbH Play (68min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGV | MP3

This presentation will summarize the status of OpenType support in different applications and on different platforms. It will give an overview of the OT Layout features support, the existing bugs, problems and shortcomings related to OpenType fonts.

Dr. Jürgen Willrodt studied Physics and Mathematics and got a PhD in theoretical particle physics in 1976. Jürgen joined URW Software & Type GmbH in 1983 as a software developer. His first major development project was the porting of the IKARUS font production system from DEC to Sun Unix. He has been the main developer of the IKARUS system since 1985, developing interpolation, auto-tracing and hinting algorithms as well as special algorithms for Kanji separation. Since 1995 Jürgen is managing director at URW++ Design & Development GmbH and responsible for font production and font tools development, amongst which IKARUS and DTL FontMaster.

Frank E. Blokland Dutch Type Library Play (52min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGV | MP3

Not only font production processes can be automated (with DTL FontMaster); to a certain extend also the type design process can be done by software itself. Blokland will give an introduction on the (possible) automation of type design processes and a presentation of the most recent version of the DTL LetterModeller application.

This presentation is partly based on the PhD research on Harmonic Systems in the Latin Script, which the speaker is currently doing at Leiden University.
 
Frank E. Blokland is type designer (of, amongst others, DTL Documenta and DTL Haarlemmer), Senior Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague since 1987 and Professor at the Plantin Society in Antwerp since 1995. Frank founded the Dutch Type Library in 1990. A couple of years later he initiated and supervised the development of DTL FontMaster, a set of tools for the professional font production, developed together with URW++ Design & Development GmbH.

Currently Frank is doing a PhD study at Leiden University, in which harmonic systems in type and music and the automation of type design processes play a central role.

Thomas Milo DecoType Play (72min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGV | mp3

Tasmeem provides a platform for both modern and traditional Arabic, capturing the accumulated expertise of past calligraphers and typographers as a plug-in to applications such as the Middle Eastern version of Adobe InDesign. For typesetting Arabic Tasmeem is far more versatile than what OpenType can offer.

Thomas Milo is the founder of DecoType, the first in the industry to introduce the concept of intelligent fonts (Ruq’ah 1986) and to develop Arabic script solutions based on thorough research into the Islamic calligraphic tradition. Decotype contributes fonts and Arabic Calligraphy applications to Microsoft Office Arabic Edition and to Adobe PageMaker Middle East, and provides a special interface for Calligraphic typesetting; they provide Arabic fonts for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X and WinSoft-Adobe InDesign ME. For years DecoType worked closely together in research and development with Tradigital (UK, Germany, Egypt), in the context of which DT produced the typeface in which the complete traditions of the prophet (hadith) have been printed. Together with WinSoft all features of ACE were built into InDesign resulting in Tasmeem.

Thomas Milo DecoType Play (6min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGV | MP3

The second Dr. Peter Karow Award for Font Technology & Digital Typography has been awarded to Thomas Milo for the development of the ACE layout engine (the heart of the Tasmeem plugin for InDesign ME) for Arabic text setting. More»

Tom Boulton, Theo Wang The Society of Revisionist Typographers, www.sortdesign.com Play (40min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGG | MP3

The Society of Revisionist Typographers would like to give a brief introduction to the history of our founding and how we established a letterpress printing business in this day and age. Illustrated with examples of our work and the collection of printing equipment we use day-to-day.

The Society of Revisionist Typographers consists of Messrs Tom Boulton and Theo Wang. Having met and graduated from the London College of Printing (now Communication), we established SORT with the aim to preserve and revive the traditional forms of print-based graphic design that are often threatened with obsolescence through practice and application. We design and produce our own product range, available in retailers including Liberty, Tate, Southbank Centre & Magma. We have also worked on commissions with a number of designers, artists and individuals.

Martin Andrews University of Reading Play (26min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGG | MP3

An introduction to auto-lithography and the work of Rena Gardiner who, in a small cottage in Dorset, devoted her life to writing, illustrating, printing and binding a series of historical guide books. Rena treated a small industrial press as a hand-press and created work of great individuality.

Martin Andrews is a lecturer in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading and is a museum designer and printing historian.

Dave Farey, Colin Brignall Play (35min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGG | MP3

In 1961 the Letraset dry transfer product was patented and launched, and it was a product of its time. There were also far reaching benefits for the graphic design industry and for the future of type design, both analog and digital. From the mid 1980s, with the launch of Apple Mac, sales of rub down lettering sheets went into a gradual decline but the legacy of Letraset is undeniable.

Colin Brignall and Dave Farey were involved from the very beginning, both becoming Letraset type design studio managers responsible for selecting, designing and artworking unique typefaces for transfer and subsequently creating fonts for all aspects of the current digital market.

Nick Morley, Victoria Browne East London Printmakers, www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk Play (23min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGG | MP3

East London Printmakers is an artists’ cooperative based on Mare Street in Hackney. Set up 12 years ago to create a support group for artists using printmaking, they now run a busy studio with facilities for etching, screenprint, relief printing and photopolymer/photoetching. With over 200 members the group organises regular exhibitions in London and internationally as well as workshops, artist’s talks and a residency programme. The group is almost entirely self-funded and is run by a group of voluntary committee members but all members are encouraged to organise events and have a say in the running of the studio. www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk

Nick Morley is an artist and freelance illustrator. A member of East London Printmakers for the last eight years, he is also the current chair of ELP’s committee. Nick has a passion for printmaking, especially the underrated art of linocut, about which he writes an occasional blog (linocutboy.blogspot.com). Nick teaches printmaking workshops at ELP and London Print Studio. He has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally and has been commissioned to illustrate book covers for Faber and Faber, Penguin and the Folio Society. www.nickmorley.co.uk | www.linocutboy.etsy.com

Victoria Browne holds a Master of Arts in Multi-Disciplinary Printmaking from the Centre of Print Research, University of the West of England and studied at the Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen in Norway. Victoria is currently the resident artist at the University of Middlesex London. She works with artists to edition polymer photogravure prints and teaches a variety of printmaking techniques. www.kaleideditions.com | www.lillil.com

Teal Triggs Play (33min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGG | MP3

Fanzines are ‘do-it-yourself’, amateur, limited run, publications whose producers are keen to share their passion for a subject with other like-minded individuals. This paper will explore the graphic form of the fanzine and its place within a broader alternative culture.

Teal Triggs is Professor of Graphic Design, co-Director of the research unit for Information Environments (IE). She is also Course Director for MA Design Writing Criticism and for MRes Information Environments, London College of Communication. As a graphic design historian, critic and educator she has lectured internationally and her writings have appeared in numerous international design publications. Her new book about the graphic language of fanzines is due out in Autumn 2010 (Thames & Hudson).

Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck Danish designer, Book artist. www.ambeck.mdd.dk Play (11min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGG | MP3

I will discuss how – and why – I self-publish work, often using the most hands-on DIY means, showing examples from early, entirely hand-made, process work, to more recent hybrids of analogue/digital processes. The DIY aesthetic, focused on the intended creative goal, has for me embraced blades, pixels and all points between.

Mette-Sofie D. Ambeck is a Danish designer, book artist, and lecturer who began exhibiting at artists’ book fairs in 2000. She has since exhibited and sold internationally, from Korea to Australia, the USA and Finland. Originally, as a Graphic Design and Communications student at Central Saint Martins, she pursued her interest in making books through traditional means, getting a first taste for letterpress and glue. With a keen eye for computer-generated imagery she has since combined the two. Her distinctive trademark is hand-cutting into paper pages, using the physical structure of the book to direct the reader through a narrative sequence. Experimentation with structures and the influence of light cast on materials has also been vital to her work, which can now be found in many international public collections, including those at the Tate Collection, V&A, Manchester Metropolitan University Library All Saints and Smith College, Massachusetts.

Alex Bec, Will Hudson It’s Nice That, www.itsnicethat.com Play (31min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGG | MP3

It’s Nice That curate, publish and direct the finest work and practitioners from across the creative industry. Since setting up in April 2007, directors Will Hudson and Alex Bec have remained dedicated to staying up to date with studios and individuals and discovering new talent from all over the world, adding to their online archive daily. They’ll be speaking about how the site has developed both on and offline, and if there was ever a plan…

Will Hudson founded It’s Nice That while studying Graphic Design at The University of Brighton. Initially hailing from Birmingham, he moved to London after studying to work at a graphic design studio, honing his skills in print and web before founding studio HudsonBec with Alex. As HudsonBec ran its course, It’s Nice That became the main outlet for his work where he continues to design and art direct as well as write on the blog every day. Alex Bec joined as co-director and editor of It’s Nice That towards the end of 2008. Having built up a good working relationship with Will while working on their self initiated project If You Could in Brighton, he moved to London to work at Peepshow Collective, sharpening his project management and direction skills. On leaving Peepshow and setting up HudsonBec, it felt like a natural step for the two to also join forces on It’s Nice That, creating a more succinct studio environment and adding their individual skills.

Kevin Braddock, Peter Lyle www.themanzine.com Play (16min) Download: FLV | MOV | OGG | MP3

How and why we made Manzine, including thoughts on DIY publishing, fanzines, aspiration, conventions, hi-visibility jackets and the death of the Lad.

Kevin Braddock is former Features Editor of The Face and contributing editor on GQ. Peter Lyle is a writer and editor on Tank, Electric! and former associate editor of Arena. Woz is an award-winning art director.

Thomas Milo DecoType Play (33min) Download: MP4

Recently in a book review (of the Arabic Font Specimen Book by Edo Smitshuijzen) in the Dutch designers’ magazine Items it was claimed that the last Dutch contribution to Oriental Typography was the 1910 Tetterode Type Specimen book. Intrigued, I got hold of a copy and found only two Arabic typefaces. From there I started an investigation about the designers and the backgrounds of these typefaces. I would like to present the results of the investigation to the ATypI conference.

Mirjam Somers Type designer and a Developer of Font Technology Play (27min) Download: MP4

This is a talk about technically and aesthetically the most challenging Arabic type design projects: the slanted Arabic typefaces with cascading connections. It was exactly this challenge that brought DecoType into the typography scene in 1985 with the very first Ruqah computer typography. In 2011 a completely new Ruqah design takes its place. In addition to that, the award winning DecoType Nastaliq typeface in Persian style is very well received as the top typeface in WinSoft Tasmeem. A second nastaliq, this time in Pakistani style is under construction. All aspects of this work, such as the difference between Ruqah 1985 and Ruqah 2011, but also the minor and major Persian-Pakistani contrasts in the nastaliq style is the subject matter of this talk.