PRESENTATIONS

1:20p–1:40p
Rethinking a Geometric Icon for a Global Stage
Jose Scaglione

As the centenary of Futura® approaches, TypeTogether and BauerTypes have joined forces to release Futura®100: a more accurate and inclusive reinterpretation supporting 23 writing systems and over 90% of the world’s population. While the original Futura reached the moon in 1969, this redesign now reaches regions—such as India, Thailand, and Georgia—where it was never before available. In this talk, we will explore the challenges of reinterpreting a modernist icon for non-Eurocentric contexts, balancing fidelity to the original design with the demands of truly global communication. More than a technical analysis, this session reflects on typography as a bridge between cultures in the digital age.

1:40p–2:00p
The Many Faces of Chinuk Wawa: Exploring the Meandering Typographic Journey of the Pacific Northwest’s Lingua Franca
Brandon Buerkle

Typographic infrastructure, such as fonts or keyboards, are a critical part of indigenous language revitalization efforts. But how are these pieces developed? And what does successful infrastructure look like?

The Chinuk Wawa language program at the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde is one of the most successful language revitalization efforts in the region. Chinuk Wawa is historically unique because (among other reasons) it has considerably more typed materials than other Pacific Northwest languages. For these reasons I chose Chinuk Wawa as the focus of my master’s research. In the process I’ve found its fascinating story involves two different writing systems, the development of phonetic notation, and important questions about Native identity.

In this talk I’ll explore the typographic development of Chinuk Wawa, how its history has affected the language’s current typographic infrastructure, and what role that might play in the process of language revitalization.

2:00p–2:20p
PARA: A Stop for Jeepney Typography, A Start for Cultural Preservation
Godwin Putong and JP Oquias

Growing up in the Philippines, we spent countless hours on jeepneys. What once felt ordinary now reveals itself as a vibrant visual language, one that carries stories, identity, and history in motion. It makes us wonder: have you ever imagined a future without the cultures that shaped your childhood and identity? Are we simply going to let them fade away?

This presentation explores jeepney typography as more than functional signage, but as a living form of local design that carries fragments of Filipino visual culture. As street lettering once seen on kalesas, sorbetero carts, and cinema posters becomes less visible, its influence continues through these moving signages. Yet with jeepneys facing modernization and possible phase-out, these traditions are also at risk.

Titled PARA, this talk examines the characteristics that define this style, which have become markers of identity, faith, religion, and history. Through this talk, we aim to position jeepney lettering as a form of preservation in contemporary design.

2:20p–2:40p
Cutting Half the Characters, Doubling the Impact: A Modular Open-Source Character Set for Traditional Chinese Type Design
Hao-Mei Wang (王 皓梅)

Growing up in the Philippines, we spent countless hours on jeepneys. What once felt ordinary now reveals itself as a vibrant visual language, one that carries stories, identity, and history in motion. It makes us wonder: have you ever imagined a future without the cultures that shaped your childhood and identity? Are we simply going to let them fade away?

This presentation explores jeepney typography as more than functional signage, but as a living form of local design that carries fragments of Filipino visual culture. As street lettering once seen on kalesas, sorbetero carts, and cinema posters becomes less visible, its influence continues through these moving signages. Yet with jeepneys facing modernization and possible phase-out, these traditions are also at risk.

Titled PARA, this talk examines the characteristics that define this style, which have become markers of identity, faith, religion, and history. Through this talk, we aim to position jeepney lettering as a form of preservation in contemporary design.

2:40p–2:50p
Q+A

2:50p–3:10p
Coffee break

3:10p–3:30p
Old Roots, New Energy
Nina Stössinger

Working in my new home of Brooklyn, I have just finished a typeface that I started drawing in a previous chapter of my life, while traveling between various European countries. Cassis took inspiration from signage and lettering in public space that I found on both sides of the Atlantic—infusing European roots with American energy. This is the short story of this transatlantic design, and a reflection on how relocating from the orderly visual environment of my native Switzerland to the joyful cacophony of New York City has changed my way of looking at, and thinking about, letterforms. An enthusiastic type designer’s ode to random inspiration, things we can learn from “imperfect” design, and the sheer joy of looking.

3:30p–3:50p
To Design is to Fantasize: The Illusion of Typographic Neutrality
Raven Mo

Typographic classification and marketing systems, especially around so‑called “ethnic” or vernacular fonts, are fantasy engines. From Vox/ATypI’s Eurocentric roots to retailer tags like “foreign,” designers are trained to see letterforms as vessels of cultural essence. Using the circulation of “ethnic fonts” as a central case study, this talk traces how inherited fantasies congeal into a paradoxical faux‑font typographic trope.

3:50p–4:10p
The Vernacular Type Project—Documenting Distinct Global Cultures Through Hand-lettered Public Signage
Elisabeth Kvernen

Do you travel with a camera at the ready, always on the lookout for intriguing letterforms—whether abroad or in your own neighborhood? As designers and typographers, you recognize that each piece of public lettering is uniquely shaped by place, language, and culture.

Raised abroad as a U.S. citizen, I’m fascinated by how culture and identity is expressed through the everyday typography that surrounds us. This curiosity led me to create The Vernacular Typography Project, an online collection of images documenting hand‑lettered and hand‑crafted public signage from around the world. The project focuses on public typography in places where such work has been historically overlooked, with the goal of expanding and enriching the typographic canon for students, educators, and design professionals. By highlighting local lettering practices and amplifying the voices of designers and artists in their communities, the project aims to foster deeper empathy and understanding of global visual cultures.

In this presentation, I’ll introduce the project, share striking examples of vernacular lettering from across the globe, and invite you to join me as a contributor to this growing collection.

4:10p–4:30p
Typographic Thresholds: Addressing Climate Urgency
Megan Irwin

As the climate crisis accelerates, designers must consider how our work contributes to awareness and action. We are designing for audiences oversaturated with alerts, headlines, and disasters. So how can typography cut through the fatigue to disrupt passive consumption and create space for meaningful participation and change?

Typography, bridging language and visual form, has the unique ability to make complex environmental issues tangible. This presentation looks at how experimental typographic practice—through material processes, formal disruption, and participatory spatial installation—can move beyond representation to translate the urgency and complexity of our ecological moment. Typography has the power to mediate between scientific discourse and public understanding, creating space for reflection and collective action.

4:30p–4:40p
Q+A

4:40p–5:00p
Coffee break

5:00p–5:20p
Written Once, Copied Everywhere: Taiwan’s Brush Script on the World’s Streets
Wei-Hsiang Su

Walk into a streetscape in Taipei, Singapore, or New York where Hanzi is present, and you’ll likely encounter the same bold, calligraphic style on the signs. Most people assume it’s a generic “Asian” look. Few realize it traces back to Taiwan’s bold, structured brush script—part calligraphy, part type design—and not quite either.

Liu Yuan-Hsiang (劉元祥, 1924–2001) arrived in Taiwan after WWII and self-published《商用字彙》or “Commercial Lettering Guide”—four volumes of hand-lettered brushwork designed for the sign painters and commercial artists of a pre-digital era. Nearly every sign shop in Taiwan bought a copy. Bootleg editions spread further. His style was projected, traced, and duplicated by anonymous craftspeople, then swept into Taiwan’s 1990s digital type boom—copied again, at scale, and distributed across Asia without ever carrying his name.

5:20p–5:40p
Psyched: A Typographic History of Psychic Signage and Advertisements
Maulika K. Hegde

In 2025, it was reported that 30% of Americans consult psychics and astrologers at least once a year. One estimate puts this market at $2.3 billion in revenue with 105,000 people employed. In a world that is unraveling as we speak, I found these statistics unsurprising.

While exploring my neighborhood, I chanced upon three psychics within a mile of my home promising a glimpse into my cosmic fate. This prompted me to look at 30 psychic establishments in Brooklyn within a 16-mile radius of my home, collectively comprising over 1,000 images. I also examined image archives for depictions of divination and type treatments connoting the prognosticating prowess of psychics.

This presentation analyzes different letterforms across the ages that inspired ideas of psychic or mystical ability—swash-heavy Didone-inspired serifs, Art Nouveau-esque curves, or psychedelic infusions from the late ’60s, among others. This exercise has also demonstrated that as astrology has shifted from themes of prediction to introspection, virtual businesses have largely shifted to a sans-serif sensibility to serve a larger customer base, thus indicating a sign of the times.

5:40p–6:00p
Sheriffing the Serif
Sherry He

For years, non-Latin scripts have been talking directly to Latin. However, non-Latin scripts have more similarities among themselves than with Latin. More dialogues among the non-Latin scripts can create a more diverse design community.

In this presentation, we will zoom in on one of the most Latin-based terms: serif. It is worth unpacking which elements make certain non-Latin fonts “serif,” and the alternative classifications of non-Latin typefaces.

We will first travel to Ethiopia, where the Ge’ez script seems to have a similar serif shape but is more multi-directional. Then we will continue our trip to Armenian and Cyrillic, where the shapes of the terminals matter more than “serifs.” Afterwards, we will compare the in-strokes and out-strokes of Arabic, Hebrew, and CJK; the contrast of Georgian, Burmese, and Devanagari; and end our journey with the loops in Thai, Lao, and Khmer.

We are more similar to each other than we think. Let’s create a more multi-scriptual future where every script’s beauty is celebrated.

6:00p–6:10p
Closing remarks

6:00p
Volumes Market closes