One of the main typography conferences, TypeCon, presented by SOTA (The Society of Typographic Aficionados) is coming up fast. Unlike ATypI which travels all around the world, TypeCon is hosted by a different city in the United States every year. The name of this year's conference is Capitolized, inspired by its host city Washington D.C., where professionals and enthusiast alike will gather in the Hyatt Regency Washington from July 30th until August 3rd. Known for its high quality programme while being very affordable, SOTA has decided to extend the Early Bird registration period for TypeCon through July 12th.
CC Stern Type Foundry | TypeCon 2013 Portland
Photo © David Sudweeks
As usual TypeCon is preceded by two days of pre-conference design and typography workshops on Wednesday, July 30 and Thursday, August 1. More than half are already fully booked, but at the time of writing spots were still available for Glyphs.app for the Pros with Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer & Georg Seifert; the non-Latin typeface design workshops Devanagari: Simplifying the Complex with Rob Keller & Kimya Gandhi and Hebrew Type Design: Tasting of a Square Script with Liron Lavi Turkenich; the hands-on Technographic Workshop: Letterpress Printing with Ashley John Pigford & Tricia Treacy; and the calligraphy workshop Pen Dance with Mary Hart. Don't procrastinate because these will fill up soon too.
David Jonathan Ross on Reverse Stress/Contrast Type | TypeCon 2013 Portland
Photo © David Sudweeks
Before the conference proper a special presentation on Wednesday, July 30th will be open to the public – Dana Tanamachi's Perfectly Imperfect, presented by the Type Directors Club. The main presentation programme will open on Thursday, July 31st with In Letters We Trust, the keynote presentation by Tobias Frere-Jones. One of the world's leading typeface designers and creator some of the world's most widely used typefaces, Tobias recently resurfaced with a personal website and blog.
Rob Saunders on Dwiggins | TypeCon 2013 Portland
Photo @ David Sudweeks
Then start two-and-a-half days from Friday morning August 1st to Sunday noon August 3rd filled to the brim with presentations. The single-track programmeSpecial Events are The Infamous Type Quiz & Silent Auction presented by Monotype, and The 13th Annual Type Crit with returning critics John Downer, Akira Kobayashi, and Matthew Carter. The TypeCon closing event is presented by Microsoft.
Type Crit | TypeCon 2013 Portland
Photo © David Sudweeks
And if you would like to show off your recent typeface designs to the TypeCon attendance – through July 24 you can send in traditional type specimens and designs showcasing typefaces in use for inclusion in TypeGallery2014, the annual unjuried showcase of new typeface design. Typefaces that have been created, published, or significantly updated between August 2013 and July 2014 are admissible.
I cannot be there, so have fun for me too. Happy TypeCon, everyone!
