post-conference fatigue

Two very full days of non-Latin typeface design at St Bride and Reading are over. FR (and JDB and RR) did a fantastic job of putting together the twin exhibitions with material that rarely sees the light of day. I hope enough images and reports hit the Internets for all interested in non-Latin design to appreciate the research that goes into successful typefaces. The attendance in the second day, at Reading, was – just – small enough for everybody to have the opportunity to examine material intimately. I could only find some images on Dan's flickr pages, so far.

Two things stay in my mind: that the twin event offered yet more evidence that hands-on, small scale sessions are better learning environments than lectures. Seeing real objects, handling things with your own hands at reading distance is worlds away from the passive viewing of images on a screen. Of course, you can't do workshops with sixty people – even the thirty-five or so at Reading had to be split into two groups to make the format work. But the state of the room a few hours after the session on Greek design ended was telling: not a single book or item was in its original location; everything had been examined and photographed closely, people really got intimate with the typography as closely as possible to the perspective of users: at 1:1 scale, at reading distance.

And, it was rewarding and reassuring (if a bit strange) to have so many MA graduates attend. That we never stop learning is a platitudinous statement, but not a universal attitude – on the contrary, it is arguably an exceptional approach. But in these people intellectual curiosity, the thirst for new narratives and interpretations, goes to eleven.