Type Drives Communities

The Type Directors Club is pleased to present Type Drives Communities, an international conference exploring the ways in which people use typography to form and transform creative communities.

On Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8, 2021 for, attendees from around the world joined for two half-days of illuminating talks, presentations, and group discussions spanning design disciplines and local and global communities. The conference highlighted communities that use typography to pursue a common purpose, establish intergenerational connections, and spark and sustain change. What do their strategies suggest about how we might navigate the challenges of our present moment of physical distance and virtual connection?

Friday, May 7, 2021
Saturday, May 8, 2021

12:00PM

Prem Krishnamurthy

Partner and Director, Wkshps

On Bumpy Letters

12:00pm-12:40 pm

The pandemic has slowed down the world on both macro and micro scales. How can today’s designers embrace an unfamiliar tempo? Weaving together theory and practi... See More

12:45PM

Mariana Álvarez Uribe

Independent Type Designer

Finding Your True South

12:45pm-1:45 pm

Up until the early 1980s most of the Latin American typographers were looking up to their peers in the north. In Argentina the recovered democracy opened the do... See More

1:50PM

Lisa Huang

Designing with Multiple Unknowns: Digitizing of Undigitized Script, Designing of Unfamiliar Script, Deciphering a Script with Scarce Resources

1:50pm-2:40 pm

Designing Noto Sans Nüshu to join the large Noto Sans family brought me into multiple unfamiliar territories, both theoretically and literally. But thorough res... See More

2:45PM

Panos Vassiliou

Lead Type Designer, Parachute Typefoundry, Typeroom

Typeseeing - Athens, Greece

2:45pm-3:10 pm

TDC Members from around the world take us on a highly visual tour of their home citiy and the typographic forms they see and how it influences their design sens... See More

3:10PM

Tereza Bettinardi

How a Virtual Book Club Helped Brazilian Graphic Designers to Grow Community

3:10pm-3:55 pm

Having designed books for more than a decade, I have never imagined I would create a design book club during lockdown. During these challenging times, while man... See More

4:00PM

Ariel Seoane

Co-founder, Buena Letra Shop

Typeseeing - Montevideo, Uruguay

4:00pm-4:20 pm

TDC Members from around the world take us on a highly visual tour of their home city and the typographic forms they see and how it influences their design sensi... See More

4:25PM

Paul Soulellis

Founder/Director, Queer.Archive.Work / RISD

“What is Queer Type?"

4:25pm-5:15 pm

How can typography resist and loosen power? From stylistic considerations to political activism to issues around legibility, authority, failure, and control, th... See More

5:15PM

Friday Roundtable: Font Piracy

5:15pm-5:45 pm

Join Alexandr Kudriavtsev, Nadine Chahine, and other registrants from around the world on small roundtable discussions where you get the opportunity to discuss ... See More

9:00AM

Hussein Alazaat

ALAZAAT Design Studio, wajha.org

Bringing Hope to the Arab World

9:00am-9:55 am

A visual journey in our past projects in different Arab cities, also shedding the light on Wajha’s typographic treatments and utilizing the Arabic calligraphy t... See More

10:00AM

Giang Nguyen

Creative Director & Founder, Behalf Studio

Typeseeing - Ho Chi Minh City

10:00am-10:15 am

TDC Members from around the world take us on a highly visual tour of their home citiy and the typographic forms they see and how it influences their design sens... See More

10:20AM

Jo Malinis

Type63 / UP Diliman / Plus63 Design Co.

Figuring out Filipino Type Together

10:20am-11:05 am

Type63 was founded on Instagram out of a desire to discover other type designers in the Philippines. More than 200 featured works later, its goals have shifted:... See More

11:10AM

Andreu Balius

Type Republic, The Typecraft Initiative

Pehchaan: IdentiTYPEople

11:10am-11:55 am

Typecraft Initiative develops a range of display typefaces based on the rich crafts and tribal arts of India. While the end product is a font, the goal of the i... See More

12:00PM

Laura Meseguer

Custom Lettering and Type Design, Laura Meseguer

Typeseeing - Barcelona

12:00pm-12:15 pm

TDC Members from around the world take us on a highly visual tour of their home citiy and the typographic forms they see and how it influences their design sens... See More

12:15PM

Saturday Roundtable: Vernacular Typography in Southeast Asia

12:15pm-12:45 pm

Join Mark De Winne, Gumpita Rahayu, Sueh Li Tan, Hsin Yin, and other registrants from around the world on small roundtable discussions where you get the opportu... See More

12:50PM

Julio Martinez

Partner & Creative Director, studio1500

Sharing Across the Table

12:50pm-1:35 pm

A look at an ongoing collaboration between the San José State University BFA Graphic Design Program and La Cocina, a food business incubator in San Francisco. T... See More

1:40PM

Fungi Dube

Looking within Africa

1:40pm-2:40 pm

Inspired by an older generation of designers, and through the influence of educators and mentors such as Saki Mafundikwa and Chaz Mavhiyane Davis, a younger gen... See More

Time Zone: (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) []