Intrigued by the title, I was totally bewildered as to what the next hour in the Logan Hall would bring. Not only was Julian Zimmermann going to showcase the work created for his client King Bansah, but the King himself was in residence to talk us through his story.
An African King may seem like an unusual guest for a conference on typography and graphic design, but King Bansah and Julian Zimmermann’s talk about branding a royal celebrity created a noticeable buzz of anticipation amongst the TYPO attendees.
Ivo Gabrowitsch is a self-confessed ‘typoholic’. As the Managing Director of FSI Fontshop International, he eats, sleeps and breathes typography. His latest obsession and project being Mobile FontFonts, fonts specifically formatted for embedding into IOS apps and a concept he champions and conquers.
First time in the Jeffery Hall for us for some proper type talk. And there is not just Bruno but a whole group of speakers introducing us to Ubuntu, Nokia, Aktiv Grotesk and Boticario. Even more refreshing is that Nokia is presented and explained into greatest detail by the client himself.
Look again, think again was the standout sound byte from Marina Willers’ talk this morning. The invitation to keep questioning and experimenting is pivotal to Wolff Olins work, and as she flicked through case studies of their work, each project feeling different from the next, that sense of inquisitive experimentation shone through.
Arriving at #typo11, as a non designer and coming from the advertising and social media industry, I was expecting to be challenged by some hardcore type nerd lingo and design-geek dialect. But I found a real sense of the familiar in the language Jeff Faulkner used in his talk ‘Extraordinary Machines’.
Morag Myerscough is one of a kind, her talk was as colourful as her work as was her outfit. In contrast to Jeff Faulkner’s talk it was about the user experience in the physical space. I found it very inspiring, uplifting and easy to relate to due to her enthusiastic and personal presentation.
Friday closed with words from a design anarchist, Neville Brody. Few designers have divided opinion like Brody, but then fewer can claim his status, widely regarded as one of Britains most influential graphic designers. He walked the audience through numerous projects, both commercial and personal, but spent most time reminiscing about Fuse, the publication he founded in 1991, and 20 years later he is about to publish it’s 20th (and final) edition.
Andrew Stevens from the Graphic Thought Facility is introduced by Simone Wolf. She quotes Andrew as saying that commercial doesn’t exist on one side and creativity on the other, it is a framework where they work together.
Tom Uglow was introduced to the TYPO London audience as ‘Creative director for Google, Youtube … and … pretty much, the universe.’
Dylan Griffith’s presentation actually took the form of an interview conducted by Adrian Shaughnessy, who tried to get an understanding of how and why Dylan got to where he is today both as Creative consultant for the MTV World Design Studio in Milan and also co-owner of a branding company called Smorgasbord.
Lawrence Weiner spent most of his presentation talking about his life and work and also how he didn’t understand why he had been asked to attend the conference. He showed only a 5 minute silent film saying he was too intimidated by the presentations he had seen on Thursday to attempt his own. He is an artist to the core but is in awe of the work of some of the other speakers and once had the revelation “I can be friends with designers”.
