Osmond Tshuma is a Zimbabwean award-winning artist, designer, art director, typographer and curator who specializes in African-inspired themes. Inspired by the surroundings whilst growing up in Zimbabwe and the urban metropolis of Johannesburg, he merges the two worlds on a postcolonial canvas. He studied Graphic Design at the University of Johannesburg and is the Creative Director at Mam'gobozi Design Factory, which is a South African based design studio which creates work and spaces that celebrate the Afrikan identity.

Title: 'Afrika - Love letters'
Description: This self-initiated project is based on celebrating Afrikan countries independence from colonial rule through an exploration of lettering and letter forms. This was initiated by the disturbance of the xenophobic attacks happening in South Africa towards other Afrikan nationals. In educating myself further about each country, I started critiquing the state in which it is in, by means of ancient cultural symbols, art, sculptures, or patterns. I also attempt to explore the similarities we have with one another. By doing so I am able to realize that it’s more about learning from the past, and from other cultures so as to preserve who we are and also celebrate one another.

David Blatner is the co-founder of the CreativePro Network, co-host of InDesignSecrets and CreativePro Week, and the publisher of InDesign Magazine. David is the author or co-author of 15 books, including Real World InDesign, The Joy of Pi, and Spectrums: Our Mind-Boggling Universe From Infinitesimal to Infinity. He is also the author of the "InDesign Essential Training" and advanced InDesign training titles at LinkedIn Learning. David has spoken at conferences and workshops on five continents and has been awarded Adobe MAX Master twice.

Title: 'Hope Springs Eternal: 40 Years Digital Type, from Xerox PARC to Adobe InDesign'
Description: Today's digital type industry is largely based on technology that escaped from a small research laboratory in Palo Alto, California, in the 1970s. Amazingly, design guru David Blatner spent his childhood at this lab. Today he reflects back on his life in digital type, providing some insights from using PostScript, PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and now Adobe InDesign. Next, he will consider what the future holds for typographers. And if there is time, he will even share a few tips on InDesign's typography features.

Jorge Ivan Moreno Majul is a graduate of Centro de Estudios Gestalt. At some point, he joined Pampatype. Based in Veracruz, Mexico, he designed the sans typeface Fresca (2011, Google Fonts) and the multiline layered colored and animated typeface Antorcha (2010). Antorcha, which revives the famous 1968 Mexico Olympics font, won an award at Tipos Latinos 2012. His typeface Wixarika won a prize at Cuarta Bienal de Tipografía Latinoamericana Tipos Latino in 2010.
Typefaces from2016: Teris, Palitroche Sans and Serif. Typefaces from 2018: Saudade, Octothorpe (prismatic and op-art, based on Tony Wenman's font Stripes released by Letraset in 1972; released at Pampa Type in 2020), Automata, Presta (after Lucian Bernhard's 1908 Priester poster). Winner at Tipos Latinos 2018 of a type design award for Octothorpe. (Reference: http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-86575.html)

Title: 'Hypnotic Revivals'
Description: A brief look at some multilinear and modular experimental typefaces of the past and its potential beyond the ephemeral printed uses that show us that we can still learn from forgotten typesetting methods.

Mariko Takagi is a typographer, an author and designer of books and an associate professor based in Japan. She likes to explore and understand the intermediary between the Western and Japanese cultures in general – and between Latin letters and Japanese/Chinese characters in particular. Typography is her passion, her form of expression and at the same time her subject of research.
In 2010, she moved from Germany to Hong Kong. This move from a Latin letter based environment to a bilingual (Latin letters and Chinese characters) gave her new inspirations and insights to multilingual typography culture. Since April 2017, she is located in Kyoto Japan.

Title: 'Hope & Design – personal thoughts on possible correlations'
Description: In the recent two years, we have all experienced drastic changes in our daily lives on a global scale. The pandemic, clearly perceptible climate changes, and political destabilizations are only three examples that affect people all over the world with varying forces. As a graphic designer, I wonder what positive contribution we can make. The lecture will reflect on this question.

Prof. Panchanan Mohanty is currently Professor in Department of English and is Head, Institute of Applied Sciences and Humanities at GLA University, Mathura. He has supervised thirty one PhD scholars for their thesis and supervised thirty seven post graduate students for their project thesis. He has forty three important publications during last ten years. He has a rich publication history in reputed journals in areas such as language teaching, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, language endangerment, translation studies, computational linguistics, quantitative linguistics, audiology besides phonology and morphology that were the topic of his doctoral thesis. He has written and edited 28 books in English and Oriya besides translating 4 books to Oriya. He has held positions in different linguistic associations and journals nationally and internationally. He was a member of the Executive Body of Foundation for Endangered Languages, U.K., Round Table for Protection and Preservation of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Endangered Languages. He is also the Principal Investigator of projects on endangered languages under the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India.

Title: 'Diversity in Language and Environment: A Design of Hope'

Dr. Nadine Chahine is an award-winning Lebanese type designer. She is the CEO at I Love Typography Ltd and the principal at ArabicType Ltd. She has an MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading, UK, a PhD from Leiden University, The Netherlands, and a Master of Studies in International Relations from Cambridge University. Nadine's work has been featured in the 5th edition of Megg's History of Graphic Design and in 2012 she was selected by Fast Company for its 100 Most Creative People in Business. In 2017, Nadine was selected by Creative Review to their Creative Leaders 50. In 2021, Nadine was elected to the board of Type Directors Club in New York.

Title: 'Power and Politics in Arabic Type Design'
Description: Power. Politics. Identity. Typefaces embody the unspoken messages in our words, which is why it's more important than ever that there is plurality for the voices of the Arabic culture. Nadine's talk will explore the theories of power in international relations and link them to the forms of power available to designers to use. This thread is then linked to the politics of Arabic type design, identity, and expression. Nadine will argue that there's a place for both the classical and the modern letterforms in contemporary language and presents her exploration of Arabic type design through key projects and milestones.

Dr Vicki Couzens, prominent Indigenous artist and researcher working with others in her community to revitalise her people’s languages and respond to the deep Aboriginal community desire for reconnection to cultural knowledge and practice. With 250-300 identified languages and more than 700 dialects in Australia - and over 50 known languages and dialects in Victoria alone - there is much to be done.

Dr Couzens is Gunditjmara from the Western Districts of Victoria. She acknowledges her ancestors and elders who guide her work. Dr Couzens has worked in Aboriginal community affairs for almost 40 years. Her   contributions in the reclamation, regeneration and revitalisation of cultural knowledge and practice extend across the ‘arts and creative cultural expression’ spectrum including language revitalisation, ceremony, community arts, public art, visual and performing arts, and writing. She is a Senior Knowledge Custodian for Possum Skin Cloak Story and Language Reclamation and Revival in her Keerray Woorroong Mother Tongue.

Vicki works at RMIT as a Vice Chancellors Indigenous Research Fellow developing her Project ‘watnanda koong meerreeng , tyama-ngan malayeetoo (together body and country, we know long time)’ The key objective of this Project is to produce model/s, pathways and resources for continuing the reinvigoration of Aboriginal Ways of Knowing Being and Doing with a special focus on language revitalisation.
Ref: https://www.anzsog.edu.au/

Veronika Burain has a BA degree in Product Design and graduated with distinction from the MA in Typeface Design at the University of Reading, UK in 2003. Type design has been her true passion ever since. She got first hand experience and valuable input while working at the London type studio DaltonMaag developing original typefaces for a variety of clients. Currently, she is founder and partner at the independent font foundry TypeTogether and gives talks on type design at international conferences and universities. Her partner José and herself also collaborate with educational institutions and NGOs around the globe organising seminars, master classes and workshops on typography and type design. These are tailored for the specific level of the students, ranging from the very first steps of letter sketching to the highly complex processes of font production. Veronika is also one of the organisers of the Alphabettes mentorship program, co-chairwoman of the GRANSHAN project, co-curator/organiser of TypeTech MeetUp, and guest lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Design NTNU in Norway.

Title: 'Play-Work-Laugh-Type-Together, in Pursuit of Happiness'
Description: The talk will be a journey into TypeTogether’s philosophy, business credo and design practice by showcasing our multi-script type design projects and educational, community-driven efforts.

The following are the accepted papers for presentation during the online conference:
27th and 28th August 2021,
Hosted by IDC School of Design (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay)

Type for Peace. A Development and International Cooperation Project
Daniela Piscitelli, Rosanna Cianniello, Roberta Angari, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy .........

 

Towards a Typography of Place
Dale Sattler, Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, New Zealand .........

 

Method Experimentation on Display Typeface Design Based on Visual Cultural Artifacts
Brian Alvin Hananto, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Indonesia .........

 

The typographic poster from local culture to the world
Mónica Acosta-Torres, Universidad Técnica del Norte, Ecuador .........

 

Plecnik: Typeface Designed on the Basis of Hand Drawn Letters by Jože Plečnik from the Archive Collection
Alja Herlah, Type Salon , Slovenia .........

Ik Onkar Gurmukhī (ੴ ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ): Decoding Culture-Form Associations in Writing practice
Nanki Nath, Visiting Faculty, Vishwaniketan Institute of Design [VID], Pune, India .........

 

Typographical Investigation of Mauryan Brahmi – Origin, Evolution & Role in development of Indic and Southeast Asian Scripts
Ankita Roy, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India .........

 

Evolving to survive the ‘new normal’ of teaching and learning Typography during COVID-19
Manasi Keni, Rachana Sansad College of Applied Art& Craft, India .........

Designing an Interlocking Devanagari Display Font
Adarsh Malviya, IDC School of Design, India .........

 

Curating “Kuppai”: Research and Explorations with Found Type from Ancestral Attics
Jayasri Sridhar, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India .........

 

Exploring ways of writing and documenting Bharatnatyam using notations
Saloni Tangal, Kingston University, London, UK .........

 

Synesthetes Type - An Audio reactive Typeface
Sushrut Jangid, S.P.A Bhopal, Department of Design, India .........

 

Asking a Shadow to Dance : Creating Poetic Spaces through Interactive Typography
Priti Pandurangan, Gramener, India .........

 

Balcony - A Type Family Inspired by Metal Safety Grills
Shaily Patel, Department of Applied Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India .........

 

Devanagari Typeface Inspired By Gender Equality
Srishti Mitra, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India .........

 

Understanding the development in Indian Calligraphy with focus on Devanagari
Lakhi Shreya, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India .........