The complete TYPO Team said goodbye, moderators, organisators and a part of the editorial team (they are very shy). Photo: © Norman Posselt / Monotype
Same same, but different – TYPO news team reinvented
Dainty designers, rapturous reporters, lovely lectures, professional podcaster and sensitive mood catchers. As a more experienced member of the TYPO editorial team, I was eager to find out what kind of content the news team would create this year. After five years of blogging at TYPO, I have seen a lot: comical performances, presenters in glittering outfits, lectures with electronic music, journeys to esoteric fantasies—you name it!
This year there also was a lot to see: five stages and a lot of great lectures, industry stars amongst newcomers, workshops and all this happening at the same time. One had to decide: Which talk to go to and which to miss? You wanted to be everywhere. But even if you could have been at every talk, it would have been an enormous flood of information! So how great is it, that the ticket gives you unlimited access to the video archive and the talks since 2011?! All videos up to TYPO 2016 are free to view. Many of TYPO 17 as well, including the Brand Talks
And even if people could not make it to TYPO this year, they were able to participate virtually in eight live streams. On top of that we introduced the Brand Talks, which are now online for EVERYONE! : 20-minute speed dates with eleven brands, their designers and promoters, accompanied by keynote presentations on work processes and methods in agencies. Find the TYPO video archive here.
During TYPO, I also met friends and former colleagues who did not have a ticket. Even if you can’t afford the ticket at the moment, it’s worth stopping by. You can network and have good conversations at the river Spree. Numerous exhibitors such as Adobe, AGD, GalleryPrint, Slanted, Monotype, WordPress, etc. are giving away goodies, raffle products and memberships. And best of all: On the stage, all the lectures FOR FREE!
The highlights of TYPO
“Have you seen the opening talk?” – “I feel like I want to hug someone …” The TYPO started with a provocative lecture by Susanne Koelbl. Intermittent silence in the newsroom just after the talk. Lisa processed the views with a blog post. ‘The moving pictures of Susanne Koelbl‘ and describes what Susanne Koelbl drives into war zones and what this has to do with Wanderlust. We recommend to watch the talk again and recommend it even to people who are not in the creative industry.
I was really looking forward to Peter Biľak’s talk. The creative all-round talent and maker of the magazine ‘Works that Work‘ or the Type Foundry ‘Typotheque‘, showed us quite different, unseen projects like a tile collection, the Kingdom of Bhutan and contemporary dance. Very refreshing summarized by Stefan Papst: Peter Biľak – ‘The best thing about design‘.
Zofia Oslislo © Sebastian Weiß (Monotype)Of course, there were also TYPO-specific subjects such as ‘The Way Out from the Diacritical Misery’, by Zofia Oslislo. Radek Sidun explains the problem of diacritical signs in writing systems and introduces Zofia Oslislos’s book ‘The Insects Project’, which is available as a free download. Philipp Neumeyer explains the background and connections of a blind-writing system apart from Braille and Moon from the lecture by Viktoriya Grabowska: ‘New life for a forgotten typeface and tactile alphabet for the blind‘ and asks programmers to help Viktoriya with the type design project Maria Teresia with its special requirements. We are looking forward to what will come out of this.
Chris Campe and her analog slides © Sebastian Weiß (Monotype)Very special for our team was Chris Campes talk ‘Tun was man nicht kann’, on the stage. Chris has been in the editorial team for several years and reported from all the workshops at TYPO 2016 last year. This year, she herself gave two lettering workshops – the queues were endless! In her talk she told us, accompanied by analog slides, how she came to publish her book about hand lettering, ‘Handbuch Handlettering’. More about Chris in the interview with Miriam Kadel and Catharina Dörr, where she describes her journey from the idea to the final book. ‘En route with Chris Campe‘.
For Sebastian Lörscher it is the second time at TYPO and this year he is on the big stage in the Hall – and that is also where he belongs. The illustrator not only proves that he can handle his pencil virtuosically, but also that he is a great story teller and stage-ready standup comedian. Nina Severding got an exclusive interview with drawn answers: ‘Fünf Fragen an … Sebastian Lörscher‘. A definite must read!
Liv Siddalls talk about the independent magazine Rough Trade was super popular as well. The magazines were sold out quickly at the TYPO bookstand. Tyrone wrote about Livs talk: ‘How to make a monthly music magazine for a 40-year-old record store‘. If you want to rewatch the talk, here is the video.
Gerd Fleischmann © Gerhard Kassner (Monotype)In addition to Erik Spiekermann, TYPO had another Typography genius on stage: Gerd Fleischmann explained what the hell “Bauhaus Typography” is and that there actually is no such thing. Lukas Horn interviewed Gerd Fleischmann and an interview from Jenny Zegenhagen with Erik Spiekermann can be listened to on SoundCloud (both in german).
I am looking forward to a whole list of further articles, provided with plenty of picture material by our three photographers Norman Posselt, Sebastian Weiß and Gerhard Kassner, further links and additional information, which our authors were able to get from the speakers after the lectures.
About Brandtalks and Anti-Brandtalks
The Brandtalks as a new format were accepted very well by all visitors. The queues in front of the entrances were long and unfortunately not all the short lectures moderated by Jürgen Siebert could be seen. But do not worry – all talks are available online free of charge. This year, it was not just the stars of the design industry that gave talks on the 5 stages, but also agencies and their clients in collaboration. Anne Rethfeldt summarizes the contents of Brandtalks: ‘Maybe it’s about tattoos? Or: How to summarize a conference within a conference’.
Debbie Millman’s lecture was particularly prominent and you could even call it an “anti-brandtalk”. As a designer and a brand expert with many years of professional experience, she also showed the downsides of her successful career, and the search for a way out of the personal identity crisis, ultimately leading to an ongoing project she loves. An interesting summary to Debbie Millman’s Podcast ‘Design Matters‘ is available from Gabby Lord in ‘10 things you did not know about Debbie Millman’s podcast ‘Design Matters until TYPO Berlin.’
Creative Chaos: The News Team 2017 in their daily Editorial Meeting. © Norman Posselt / MonotypeWhat was especially special this year?
No matter if you have been around for a long time or for the first time. The excitement remains, also in the editorial team. It’s great to meet everyone again, a lot of the team knows each other from the last years. But also many new faces are present, who were equally warmly welcomed as we all meet each other on the first day. Alessio D’Ellena, Björn Giesecke, Catharina Dörr, David Reitenbach, Jenny Baese, Nina Sieverding, Miriam Kadel, Tyrone Stoddart – all additions to the writers from former years. This year we set ourselves new goals: to cover TYPO for the web so it feels like the real thing: colorful and captivating.
The TYPO feeling
“Have you seen the insane cool results from the workshop of Salom Beaury and Doro Petersen, compiled in a video tutorial by Michael and Jan Vincent?”
Christine, Jenny and Michael on the first day of TYPO © Norman Posselt / MonotypeA big experiment was the TYPO podcast. Summaries of each of the three days of TYPO, 20 minutes of loose talk between Jenny Zegenhagen, Harry Keller, Felix von Pless and Jan Vincent Dufke on the talks, interviews with speakers, recordings from the lectures and a lot of atmosphere – unfortunately also background noise from the German ‘church day’ outside. Perfection is overrated anyway. You can hear the noise from the hallways and the foyer of the House of World Cultures, people who pass, laughter and entertainments from other visitors. Here you can find all the podcasts: soundcloud.com/typotalks
The editorial team, among others, Jannis Rietmüller, Ajda Zupančič, Jenny Zegenhagen, Michael Kress, and I joined the audience to write shortcuts from the lectures, capture quotes to share on Twitter, publish special moments on Instagram and announce book signings on Facebook. In the dim light of the Hall, Jenny Baese, collected and wrote down quotes from each speaker who then immortalized themselves with funny comments, corrections and a signature on them.
Outside of the conference rooms, David Reitenbach created drawings of the different characters he sees ‘Typen auf der TYPO’, so maybe you’ll find yourself in there. Christoph Rauscher drew portraits and interviewed different conference visitors in his ‘Illustrierte Stimmen: Tag 1’
Lukas Horn created a game in which his interview partners had to take cards and quickly associate answers to a certain topic. For example he sat down with Ludwig Übele – very fun interview to read; ‘Fragenziehen mit Ludwig Übele.’
A completely new perspective on the TYPO was shown by Jenna Gesse and her interview with the interpreter Lilian-Astrid Geese, who has translated simultaneously in English for 22 years: ‘In English, please – Six questions to the TYPO interpreter‘.
For TYPO visitors, who would also like to see something from Berlin, take the bus route 100. Tilmann Hielscher took this route for us and explains what interesting stops are related to art and design and some cool historical facts. Also a great travel guide for the 362 non-TYPO days.
Sweating and blogging until our fingers bled
Eight live streams. Three podcasts. Five interviews. Three newsletters. To date 33 Blog posts – and many more will come. This is our output of our work in numbers not counting all social media activity. Many moments will stay in our memory, for example the finalizing of the last podcast episode that took place until the middle of the night on the roof top of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
The juggling of information, videos, tweets, and submissions of the editorial team was especially noticeable on Sabine’s screens (three!). The texts and all content was passed between Jenna, Jenny, Jannis, and myself. Heads were smoking, errors happened: “… ups, wrong chat.” Fortunately, we had editors such as Luise Behr, who read and corrected everything before the release.
The team did a great job with the organization and managing of the team and the incoming content.
Summer reading
That was all? No! Great, exciting material is waiting to be published on the blog and the social media. So, stay tuned and look out for the next TYPO #typo18 with the theme TRIGGER!
