TYPO London 2011: Places

This autumn London will host a spectacular new annual design conference. From October 20 to 22 TYPO London will bring together the creme de la creme of international design for an inspirational event that transcends the restraints of a typical trade conference. Some 1,000 typographers, designers and communication professionals from all over the world will have the opportunity to follow an eclectic and inspiring mix of talks by the most influential thinkers of these disciplines.

TYPO London follows the successful imprint created by TYPO Berlin, which is in its 16th year running as Europe's biggest and most successful design event. "While this will be the first TYPO in London, the concept is tried and tested," commented Robin Richmond, Conference Director. "We are happy to be able to draw on the excellent reputation and experience of the TYPO 'mothership.'"

TYPO Berlin Conferences began 1995 with a strong focus in typography. It has now developed into a broader platform exploring graphic design, digital media, advertisement, technology, culture, entertainment and business. From Ed Benguiat to Gunter Gerhard Lange and Gerard Unger talking type; to Wim Crouwel, Tibor Kalman and Javier Mariscal speaking on design; to Ian Anderson, Neville Brody and David Carson exploring new visual languages: the list of speakers reads as a who's who of the creative world.

TYPO London 2011 will build on this heritage, with a strong line-up of more than 40 international experts. Legendary graphic designer, typographer and art director Neville Brody will speak at the conference. The current Head of the Communication Art & Design department at the Royal College of Art is famous for his ground-breaking work on magazines such as "the mother of lifestyle-mags" The Face and Arena and the experimental design and typeface annual "FUSE," as well as for designing record covers for artists such as Cabaret Voltaire and Depeche Mode. In 1988 London's Victoria & Albert Museum recognized the huge influence he has had on contemporary graphic design by mounting a retrospective of his work. Incidentally, Brody was also a speaker at the very first TYPO Berlin in 1995, in those days still going under the name FUSE.

Also among the speakers who have confirmed their attendance is Michael B. Johnson, who runs the Moving Pictures Group at Pixar Animation Studios and corporate design guru Erik Spiekermann, who this year received the German Design Council Lifetime Achievement Award. Further confirmed speakers are bestseller author Adrian Shaughnessy ("How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul"), Nat Hunter, who runs one of the UK's most popular design studios, Airside, and designer Michael Bierut. Bierut began as Massimo Vignelli's assistant and is now a leading partner at Pentagram in New York. He is classified as one of the most pre-eminent designers of our age. Filmmaker Gary Hustwit will showcase his new documentary "Urbanized." Hustwit's feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture "Helvetica" was nominated in 2008 for the Independent Spirit Award at the renowned Sundance film festival and was shortlisted for the Design Museum London's "Designs of the Year" Award.

The theme of this years TYPO London is "Places." From information and urban planning to social networks, online communities and animated worlds, places shape our social behaviour. Design and the creative process is often the unifying factor linking people, places and things together. "The three days of the event will bring a vibrant global conversation about our surroundings, how we interact with people and how we understand the environments we pass through", said Robin Richmond. "I am looking forward to an exciting panel of speakers discussing our sense of place, the way we live, behave, move around, communicate and interact with each other."