AIGA NY + Global Typography

Jun 15

Last week I was at Parsons for an AIGA X Global Typography Event- a topic that has always interested me and is part of my job constantly.

Technology has brought the world closer in more ways than one. While Google Earth collapsed geographic distance, advances in type design have brought the voices of faraway places directly into our homes. With a click, we can now read webpages in Thai, Farsi, or Chinese. What was once considered exotic or inaccessible is now simply part of how we navigate the world.

Globalization has pushed type designers to the forefront in a new way. As companies become increasingly international and diverse, the demand for thoughtful multilingual typography has never been greater. Uber, for example, operates in 60 countries, each with its own language and its own typographic needs. Through type design, we are actively dismantling the barriers of communication, and technology has given designers both the tools and the market to rise to that challenge.

Speakers:

Chris Wu: Chris is a designer and creative director based in New York. He is a partner of the multidisciplinary design practice Wkshps
YuJune Park: YuJune is the co-founder of Synoptic Office and the Associate Director of Communication Design at Parsons School of Design.
Caspar Lam: Caspar Lam is the co-founder of Synoptic Office, a multidisciplinary studio operating in the space between design, technology, and education.
My favorite speaker of the night was Wael Morcos: Wael is a graphic designer and type designer from Beirut, Lebanon. Wael received his MFA from RISD in 2013, after which he moved to New York and worked with several studios in the city before founding Morcos Key. Wael has been featured in Print Magazine’s 15 under 30, was named a Young Gun by the Art Directors Club, and an Ascender by the Type Directors Club.

It was really inspiring to see all the type work done around Arabic Typography - while other languages are growing, Arabic type design is relatively quiet and there isn’t many Arabic typefaces at our disposal currently. It got me thinking about the prospects of working on an Arabic type-set as a side project.