[Allan Haley] TypeCon has been described as “personal and intimate,” “more fun than a room full of type geeks,” “the best place for typographic information and inspiration,” “a typographic lovefest,” and simply “a great little conference.” It is all of these – and more. TypeCon is held in late summer each year, in a different North American city. This year’s gathering of typographic aficionados was held in Atlanta last week, from July 14 to 19.
Packed into these four days was a one-track conference devoted to virtually all things typographic, including a one-day forum for type and design educators. A suite of workshops covered everything from letterpress printing to beginning font design. Liberally sprinkled throughout were special events: the premier of the film “Typeface” {about the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin} and a presentation on the history and current work of the Hatch Show Print shop in Nashville, Tennessee. There were also impromptu presentations, a silent auction, and a gala Saturday night party complete with a raucous (yes, raucous) type quiz with more than fifty prizes, culminating with a complete Monotype typeface library (valued at over $5000) awarded to the “Typophile of The Year.”
The conference presentations covered a collection of topics that were wide in range, deep in scope, rich in content and sometimes, well, just quirky: a history of the Filmotype Lettering phototype lettering machine; an exploration of the need for more new Non-Latin typeface designs; a plea for restoring the CBS “type wall” created by Lou Dorfsman; Gail Anderson talking about her design work and obsession for collecting bottle caps; the sculptural lettering of Arnold Flaten; and a controversial – yet thoughtful – panel discussion about font embedding in web pages. The main presentations lasted 45 minutes; these were interspersed with rapid-fire, 20-minute, “Type in 20” vignettes.
By most standards, TypeCon is a small conference {300-500 attendees}, but it is kept this way by design. One of its main goals is to be open, friendly and intimate. Attendees include graphic and type designers, students, educators, the cream of the type design community, and true type superstars the likes of Matthew Carter, Akira Kobayashi, and Jim Parkinson. It’s not uncommon to see a young design student, the marketing person from a large type foundry and a type design luminary chatting over a coffee break. Ninety percent of TypeCon’s events are also held in the conference hotel, creating an inviting, almost cozy, environment for meeting old friends and making new ones.
TypeCon is also infectious – in the nicest of all possible ways. Judy Livingston, an educator from upstate New York shared the following story with me. “The Alfred University School of Art and Design participation in TypeCon2008, in Buffalo, created so much ‘buzz’ with our students in the design program that members of our Student AIGA Group took the initiative to petition for funding to attend this year — and got it! Four students received funds from the Student Senate and the School of Art and Design and were here in Atlanta for TypeCon2009! They took copious notes and plenty of video and photographs to bring their newfound knowledge back to the university.”
TypeCon2010 will be held in mid-August in Los Angeles, next year.
Photography: Eben Sorkin. See many more of his TypeCon2009 photos here.
Allan Haley’s excellent title is Director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging. He is a past president of the Type Directors Club and the Society of Typographic Aficionados. He MC’d the raucous type quiz at TypeCon2009. You can reach him in the typeface of your choice: allan.haley@fonts.com.
