Main Program Day 2

PRESENTATIONS

1:10p–1:30p
Exploring the Use of Vernacular Typography in Latin America Through Gráfica Latina’s Poster Archive
José Menéndez

Gráfica Latina is a digital, print, and mobile archive of Latin American posters. The growing collection, including more than two hundred posters to date, features work from sixteen countries in the region. Ranging from the 1960’s through the present, these original posters reveal individual and collective design histories within the continent.

This presentation briefly introduces the archive’s collection and its research opportunities for designers and typographers. It showcases how Gráfica Latina has been activated in both academic and community spaces, using the poster as a tool for connection, reflection, and community engagement in the United States.

By analyzing the poster as an artifact of cultural history, the presentation focuses on featuring a selection of posters from the collection that use letterforms as the main visual element for communication. Examples of calligraphy, lettering, typography, and their relationship with traditional and current methods of printmaking, provide context on the diverse and expressive use of typography in Latin America and its role in shaping the continent’s graphic culture and practices.

1:30p–1:50p
Designing Perspectives: Typography, Heritage, and the Voices of Mexican Women in Design
Flor Barajas

Designing Perspectives is a traveling exhibition and MFA thesis research project exploring the intersection of typography, cultural identity, and gender equity in contemporary Mexican graphic design.

Centered around Mujeres Mexicanas del Diseño Gráfico, the award-winning exhibition spotlights current women creative directors in Mexico City through typographic storytelling and environmental graphics. Developed at Texas State University, the project draws from the AIGA Women Lead Initiative and uses type as a visual and conceptual bridge for cultural narrative.

This talk will walk attendees through the research, design thinking, and visual strategies behind the exhibition—showing how heritage and typographic voice can uplift underrepresented creatives. Now part of the Page design team, I reflect on the impact of mentorship and consider how this research continues—perhaps next highlighting the women shaping design at Page.

Typography can do more than communicate—it can connect, challenge, and celebrate.

1:50p–2:10p
Oh Mies, oh My: Designing the Home that Mies van der Rohe Made
Bud Rodecker

When Span redesigned the visual identity and website for the Illinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) College of Architecture, the solution was a whisper from the past. Rooted in the pioneering modernist legacy of Mies van der Rohe and Crown Hall, IIT’s DNA called for something more than just a fresh coat of paint—it demanded a typographic excavation.

In this lecture, Bud Rodecker shares the story behind the project’s cornerstone: the revival and reinterpretation of mid-century modernist letterforms that had long faded from use but never from relevance. Designing from intimate knowledge of the school’s archives, Span’s IIT identity is the first use case of Neue Galerie, a revival of Mies’ little-known ”Allzweck” type.

More than a case study, this is a call for designers to stay typographically curious—trained to recognize when a typeface is just right, socially fluent enough to connect with its creator, and bold enough to make its first public use a love letter to its historical roots. The identity is humble and deeply intentional. An example of how design can respectfully bridge the past and the future, and how typography is more than form—it’s cultural continuity.

2:10p–2:30p
Designing the New Typeface for Slovak Car License Plates
Michal Tornyai & Simona Császárová

In 2022, a fortunate set of circumstances created a rare opportunity for an unprecedented collaboration between academia and a state institution in Slovakia. The Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava was approached by the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic with a request to design a new typeface and layout for car license plates.

At the Typolab studio, part of the Department of Visual Communication, an internal competition was organised for students. Six proposals were submitted, and the winning design was further developed into its final form. The process of designing the typeface and license plate layout brought forward a set of challenges we had never encountered before. How do you ensure high legibility? How do you prevent character forgery? How can elements of national identity be incorporated? How do you prepare the production specifications without the possibility of testing? These were some of the key creative challenges we faced.

However, once the new design was introduced into practice, a new set of challenges emerged—how to deal with negative public opinion and resistance from some of the new state officials?

2:30p–2:40p
Q+A

2:40p–3:00p
Coffee break

3:00–3:20p
When Signs Spoke: A Dive Into The Typographic History & Origin of Malaya during the 1940s
Yong Fei Cho

Growing up amidst the bustling streets of Kuala Lumpur, I was always drawn to the weathered, multilingual signs clinging to the facades of old colonial shop houses—quiet witnesses to a time when cultures collided and coexisted in Malaya. As modern developments sweep across the city, these typographic relics are rapidly disappearing, taking with them untold stories of migration, ambition, and cultural fusion.

In this presentation, I invite you to rediscover the typography of 1940s Malayan storefronts—not just as visual artifacts, but as vessels of identity shaped by immigrants chasing the Malayan Dream. With little formal documentation, these signs offer a rare lens into a multilingual, multicultural design history that predates the nation of Malaysia itself.

Together, we’ll explore how the aspirations of early Chinese, Indian, and Malay business owners shaped a typographic landscape that is as eclectic as it is expressive—and why preserving this design heritage matters now more than ever.

3:20p–3:40p
Rickshaws, Walls and Book Covers: A Tour of Bangladeshi Urban Lettering
Jacob Thomas

In the world’s most densely populated city of Dhaka, words are everywhere. Colorful, flamboyant and often hand-painted, the Bengali script comes alive in the tremendous variety of lettering. Starting with a brief intro to the Bengali script, I’ll lead you through a photographic archive of hand-painted signs, advertisements, graffiti, book covers, and ephemera collected over fifteen years from Dhaka and other Bangladeshi cities. You’ll get a tour of the graffiti from last summer that played a part in toppling the previous regime. We’ll also hear from some of the creators of these letters and how they think about their artwork. In closing I’ll explore some of the ways this rich variety of lettering can add life to Bengali type design, looking at both the obstacles and opportunities.

3:40p–4:00p
Between Shape, Function, Technology, Language, and Our (different) Perceptions of Typography Expressions
Liyang Zha

To serif or to sans serif, that is the question for ye who design in English. At least that’s what we think about when both have been around for a long while, before the year 1982.

But 1982 was the first time the legendary type designer Xu Xuecheng defined “Sans Serif” in Chinese type design with a typeface. As Xu introduced his 无饰线体 (“Sans Serif Type”) as a modern take on the traditional, print-oriented type style, he credits his inspiration to “the rising popularity of sans serif typefaces in the Western world.” Revisiting this inspirational typeface and its pitch in 2024 made me think: what would this kind of appearance-based alteration mean for the English and Latin alphabet? Can I reintroduce a concept to whom it came from? And if so, what would it look like?

This presentation walks audiences through a year-long type design process of revisiting marginalized typefaces, constant code-switching, and endless reflections on technology and human behaviour, to discuss a core question in multilingual design: Are we delivering our message in the proper manner to all of our audiences?

4:00–4:10p
Q+A

4:10p–4:30p
Coffee break

4:30–4:50p
The Connection Between Hawaiian Heirloom Jewelry and Europe
Ocean Tuia

This project explores the history and design of Hawaiian heirloom jewelry, focusing on its origins and cultural significance. My research traces its roots back to the Victorian era in Europe, where Queen Victoria popularized inscribed gold bracelets as symbols of affection and status. This style was introduced to Hawaiʻi during the late 1800s and was quickly adopted by Hawaiian royalty. What made these pieces unique in Hawaiʻi was the use of Old English block lettering—a font foreign to Hawaiian culture, especially during a time when the Hawaiian language was primarily oral and written English was not widely used. The lettering, typically reserved for aliʻi (royalty), added an element of prestige and formality. This project will examine how these stylistic choices reflect cultural exchange, adaptation, and the lasting legacy of heirloom jewelry in modern Hawaiian identity. The final work will reinterpret these traditions through a contemporary design lens.

4:50–5:10p
A Solid Foundation for Cherokee Type
Chris Skillern

Nothing can be built without a solid foundation. This is as true for type as it is for anything else. For underserved scripts, the foundation can often feel shaky, as the answers to basic questions aren’t always clear. What are the ideal shapes for these characters? How should this script be rendered in sans serif form? Does this script have italics, and if so, how should they look?

The culmination of over two years of in-depth work and research, the Typotheque Cherokee Project aims to answer these questions and, in effect, provide that foundation for Cherokee type. The product of the project is a new series of innovative syllabary fonts in a wide range of weights and widths, obliques and italics. Our hope is that these fonts can play a role in ongoing Cherokee language revitalization efforts.

Join the designer behind the project, Cherokee Nation citizen Chris Skillern, for a look at the questions that needed answers and the challenges he faced along the way. He’ll dive into his research and share his process and results.

5:10p–5:30p
The Basics Aren’t So Basic: Learning About Oregon Indigenous Language Support
Brandon Buerkle

The need to add language support for underserved languages has been a motivating force in the type design community for some time now. While progress is being made, it often seems there’s just as much work to do as ever. So where do you start?

As part of the work for my Master’s, I wanted to explore native languages in my own backyard here in Oregon, and find out what kind of typographic support they have in the hopes of contributing where needed. Setting out to learn the basics—What languages do local indigenous populations speak? What characters do they use? What keyboards are available?—I encountered more difficulties finding the information than I expected. When I did find information, it often carried qualifications, or led to more questions.

In this talk, I’ll reflect on the key things I learned through my research and writing, including the resources I found and strategies type designers can use if they’re thinking about taking on similar work.

5:30p–5:40p
Q+A

5:40p–5:50p
Closing remarks