Conferences are a chance to talk to designers from all across the world, find out what matters for the community right now, even find a job. Our selection features eight offline conferences to be held
AtypI Conference
Where: Brisbane, Australia
When: April 16–20
Tickets: $300–525
ATypI conference is a conference of the Association Typographique Internationale, held since 1957 and (almost) each year hosted by a new country.
The organisers of the conference state that when inviting speakers to their event they don’t expect them to deliver presentations on some major scientific research, but rather seek to have a talk on a sensitive and socially significant topic. That is why, for example, the 2023 conference featured both a talk on typography in a project exploring corruption in the art world and a set of proposals on how to bypass the Unicode restrictions through Python coding.
Six months after the conference, ATypI posts all its sessions on their YouTube channel, so you might want to listen to the talks delivered at the previous events before you actually go to a conference.
Transfer Types by Letraset from Dan Rhatigan talk at AtypI 2023
Scribo by Underware presentation at AtypI 2023
Typo Tage
Where: Leipzig, Germany
When: April 27–28
Tickets: €85–160
The Typotage conference has been held at the Museum of the Printing Arts in Leipzig since 1995, and each year its participants enjoy lectures on type as well as try various letterpress and intaglio printing
In 2024, the conference name adopted some sort of a logo: Not My Type. This year talks and workshops will address stereotypes about type and typography and how to get rid of them.
From the Typohacks book by Hannah Witte that will be a part of Hannah’s talk at Typo Tage 2024
Book with the archive of The Distaff Side collective works, which will be a part of Katharina Koch’s talk at Typo Tage 2024
Typographics
Where: New York, USA
When: June 10–18
Tickets: $157,34–390,67
The Typographics conference in New York has been running at the Cooper Union educational centre for ten years. Typographics is rather a festival than
From the Primarium presented at Typographics 2023
Posters for the David Bowie The Next Day album release, presented at Typographics 2023 by Jonathan Barnbrook
Berlin Letters
Where: Berlin, Germany
When: July 5–7
Tickets: ТВА
Berlin Letters is an annual festival on lettering, type, and calligraphy. Although the festival features a series of lectures, the most interesting thing for which it is worth getting to Berlin Letters is workshops. Those activities not only introduce their visitors to working on various types of calligraphy, but also offer a chance to create a real mural under guidance of the founder of LucasFonts Luc(as) de Groot.
Designers from the High on Type collective painting a mural at Berlin Letters 2019
TypeCon
Where: Portland, USA
When: July 24–27
Tickets: ТВА
TypeCon is an annual conference held by the Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA since 1998. Since then this event has provided a platform for discussing how fonts are rendered on different devices, CGI typography, and how the indigenous people of America preserve their calligraphy techniques today. The conference organisers currently tend to invite speakers who would rather address practical solutions to crucial design issues than present abstract ideas or their own design practices.
TypeCon is a highly inclusive
Typeface with Cherokee language support by Chris Skillern presented at TypeCon 2023
Letrastica Fest
Where: Guadalajara, Mexico
When: October 23–26
Tickets: ТВА
The Letrastica festival started with an idea to make an exhibition of local Mexican lettering, but two years later it ended up as a big international convention which addresses not only lettering, but also type design. For example, founder of Contrast Foundry Maria Doreuli and co-founders of SpaceType are among those who have already delivered their talks at the event.
Flic-Flac by Contrast Foundry, presented at Letrastica Fest 2022
Ciudadela by Muk Monsalve presented at Letrastica Fest 2022
BITS
Where: Bangkok, Thailand
When: November 2024
Tickets: ТВА
BITS is a symposium taking place in Thailand, mostly focusing on the design market in Southeast Asia. The event addresses not just type design and typography, but also such topics as brand identities, UI/UX, and the culture of teaching design. Initially the convention was an event held exclusively in Bangkok, but it now boasts a couple of satellite conferences, in Hua Hin and Chiang Mai.
Typefaces from the Arphicfont studio collection (presented at BITS 2023)
Fontstand Conference
Where: ТВА
When: Autumn 2024
Tickets: ТВА
Fontstand font rental service holds an annual two-day conference, with its first day devoted to workshops on lettering, type design, and coding and its second day being all about lectures and speeches. This conference is a space where you get a chance to listen not only to type designers, but, for instance, to people who make props of passports and documents for movie sets.
Design by Annie Atkins presented at Fontstand 2023