My last TypeCon is already a decade ago when I was invited to give a talk at TypeCon2005 NYC “Alphabet City”. I recently realised this means I celebrated my tenth anniversary speaking at conferences in July. However, to my regret, I have not yet been able to attend Granshan. The description on their website explains its particular nature and focus:
“Granshan celebrates the diversity and richness of the typographic scripts that underpin global communication, empower communities, and enables identity. The annual Granshan conference is about typeface design and typography for familiar and unfamiliar scripts, for readable and elusive languages, and for design challenges that combine deep history and unmarked territories where innovation is the only way forward.”
This July Granshan expanded the format to take advantage of the location in the University of Reading, the hub of research and practice in typeface design for global scripts. The theme of the conference was “Global design in practice”, with a programme developed around the idea of type for real typographic applications, and design for evolving document genres.
The conference opened with a presentation plus exhibition on the recently launched Murty Classical Library of India series for Harvard University Press, one of the conference’s main sponsors. The first day was dedicated to talks by MATD graduates, to highlight the expanding influence of the programme’s graduates. On Friday and Saturday the conference welcomed a global range of speakers.
A couple of weeks ago Granshan published the video capture of a whopping 20 presentations; that is more than two thirds of the conference programme. Enjoy them on their video channel on YouTube:
All photos © Ben Mitchell
