I just moved to Berkeley on Sunday. In the company of my delightful driving pal Stephanie, the trip was bearable, but after a long U-Haul over the desert from Salt Lake City to the Bay, it was hard to feel ready for this week’s typography overdose. So I was pleased to see that the first speaker at the pre-conference event would be Jan Middendorp, a man whose knowledge of Dutch typography can fill a hefty book, but whose presentation skills are such that nothing goes over your head — even when you’re road-lagged and concentration juice is low. Middendorp spoke about the “other side of Dutch type design” — the slightly wacky, nonconformist side. Plenty of tasty visuals. The other lectures were interesting, but didn’t grab me like Jan’s.
Workshops began the next day. With much charm, Hisako Nakazawa dealt out the basics of Japanese calligraphy, a discipline that is much more difficult than it looks. I would prove this fact by posting scanned examples of my first strokes, but I’d rather spare my pride. Steph and I also got a peek at John Downer’s showcard script lettering class, where the man characteristically wowed workshoppers with his ability to swiftly replicate the tradesmen of the early ’90s. Walking by the Advanced FontLab class we witnessed an odd scene: a crowded room of computers, an overhead screen displaying obscure code, and a speakerphone in the center of it all from which the voice of a remote Adam Twardoch* came, tinny and cinematic, issuing OpenType instructions. The students were silent as they strained to hear. Every face seemed glazed over. It was pretty spooky.
That night we assembled again at the elegant Academy of Art auditorium where we were treated to Victor Moscoso, one of the men responsible for the seminal psychedelic posters of the ’60s rock scene. I’m not so hot on the style, but his stories and examples were very entertaining, particularly when he broke from amusing anecdotes to go on a serious tirade of marijuana and LSD advocacy.
Much more to say and many blackmail-worthy photos to show. Promise to shift from lazy to semi-productive soon.
* Twardoch was denied entry into the states because we need to protect our country from villainous font technicians.
Other TypeCon reports from Mark Simonson and Cheshire Dave (1 and 2).