Bangkok International Typographic Symposium is officially the first-ever international typographic conference organized in southeast Asia and has brought a considerable amount of attention to the design community in Thailand. This year's edition brings local typographers alongside German, French, Chinese, and Japanese practitioners. LECTURE PROGRAMME Friday October 28, 2011 TNOP WANGSILLAPAKUN Morning session starts at 10:00 am to 10:50 am “Customize your personality” Personality can be crafted. For more than 10 years, Tnop has been crafting many distinct typography for logo and identity-based projects. He’ll examine each project in detail from start to finish. SÉBASTIEN MORLIGHEM Morning session starts at 11:00 am to 11:50 am From the old to the new: the making of the modern face in France (1781-85) François-Ambroise and Pierre-François Didot, two French publishers and innovators in printing and papermaking technologies in the Paris of the late eighteenth century, decided to create their own typefoundries and typefaces. They hired punchcutters and supervised them so they could carefully follow their ideas. This lecture will give a short insight of their achievements towards the modern face, the new typographic style which would swiftly oust the old, humanist types within a decade. AKIRA KOBAYASHI Afternoon session starts at 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm Akko, a new sanserif with robust and friendly look Akira Kobayashi has spent several years working with Hermann Zapf and Adrian Frutiger. The collaborative projects with type giants have produced fine-tuned classics such as Optima nova, Palatino nova, Avenir Next and Neue Frutiger, and some brand new designs such as Palatino Sans. In 2009 Akira Kobayashi started a new Sans Serif family designed from scratch. His goal was a unique typeface family inspired by both industrial type designs such as DIN and types with organic curves such as Cooper Black. The resulted type has an unusual ‘soft-focus’ effect. In his presentation Akira Kobayashi shows its details and explains how his Japanese background influenced Akko’s letterforms. SMICH SMANLOH Afternoon session starts at 2:00 pm to 2:50 pm A Beginner When you know what you like, when you know what you can spend a lot of time with, when you have fun doing something you will feel that you ‘want to do it’ instead of a ‘have to’. Telling a story of a one year experience in making fonts, the design and the process by a new beginner’s perspective. What kind of a result does this one year experience leads him to or makes him go back and revised his first typeface? Well, it does lead him to the determination of becoming a type designer as well as working with ‘Katatrad’. One year is quite a time for someone who just begin; to design, experiment and finding solutions. It might not not be enough to make him a good type designer but it’s quite satisfying for him just to be able to start. Saturday October 29, 2011 KEITH CHI-HANG TAM Morning session starts at 10:00 am to 10:50 am Vernacular typographic culture in Hong Kong The Chinese and Latin scripts came from two distinctly different linguistic, calligraphic, lettering and typographic traditions and were subjected to diverse influences over the course of their developments. Yet in Hong Kong both traditions are fully embraced and uniquely mingle, reflecting the city’s history, cultural mix and eclectic characteristics. This presentation will look at the rich and vibrant vernacular typographic culture in Hong Kong through the lens of language, technology, aesthetics and culture. ANISA SUTHAYALAI Morning session starts at 11:00 am to 11:50 am Type – Faces Living in New York City, one of the most densely populated cities, personal connection is what keeps us sane on a daily basis. Forming relationships, learning and accepting the character of the individual is fundamental. This self-initiated project, Type–Face, is to celebrate friendships by creating a typeface for each friend. The project lends Anisa a better understanding of faces/characters by collecting data, creating story telling, developing typographic forms, and most important—having a big happy toast with her friends when everything is done. AKIEM HELMLING Afternoon session starts at 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm Everything that can happen in a day. Akiem Helmling is one of Underware members. The title of his lecture is pretty much said it all. He will show us all kind of possibilities that can happen in one day. Come to find out what he is cooking for us together on his lecture day. It has Underware name as a guarantee. JAKKRIT ANANTAKUL Afternoon session starts at 2:00 pm to 2:50 pm The Stranger Jakkrit from “You Work For Them” is ready to work for you. Generally, designer is a person who pick and chooses font for his/her artwork. If designers have to work with a “brand new font” for the first time. It seems like getting to know a stranger. As a result from Jackkrit’s experiences, he had found a new route to acquire knowledges. In order to try out and fish for the answer, he tumbles through all kind of experimentations. Let’s hear from him on how to deal with a stranger. See WORKSHOP PROGRAMME Phone booking only. You may pick up ticket at the registration desk on the morning of October 28th. Call Art Center at Alliance Française to book your seat: 02-670-4222 This event is presented by Alliance Française, Goethe Institut and Japan Foundation. Organized by Cadson Demak in association with ThaiGa.