The inaugural experimental type festival Inscript took place online from 12-16 October 2022, when across five days of talks, demonstrations, and portfolio presentations, virtual attendees could engage in new ways of working with typography and type design.

Moderated by Ksenya Samarskaya, managing director of Type Director’s Club (TDC), and put on by the Inscript Collective, the event attracted almost 1300 visitors, all of whom can access video recordings of the talks in the six months after the event. With 30 speakers, the festival showed the many new ways type can be explored through technology, including artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual realities, creative coding, physical computing, and innovative use of traditional craft.

Read more in the recap over at Eye Magazine.

Curators

  • Tamye Riggs

    Association Typographique Internationale

    Tamye Riggs is a type geek, a writer, an editor, and a team builder. Riggs is completely in love with design and language. She is currently the executive director of ATypI; past executive director of SoTA and TypeCon; and past general manager of FontShop. Bringing the right people together at the right place at the right time is one of her favorite things to do.

  • Ksenya Samarskaya

    Type Directors Club

    Ksenya Samarskaya is a strategist and creative practitioner focusing on all things typographic, pedagogical, and with regenerative futures on her mind. Samarskaya is an AGI member and runs a type and branding practice, Samarskaya & Partners. In the past, she’s served on the boards of AIGA/NY and ATypI, as the director of TDC, and has taught type and creative strategy worldwide.

  • Alex Slobzheninov

    Contemporary Type

    Alex Slobzheninov does everything related to typography—uses type, makes type, and makes tools to make type. Based in Prague, he is the founder of Contemporary Type and part of Pangram Pangram, having previously worked with &Walsh studio. Slobzheninov has been featured in publications including It’s Nice That, New Aesthetic, PRINT, and Slanted; and has won the TDC Ascenders and ADC YG rising star awards.

Presentations & Discussions

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Wed, Oct 12
    11:00 AM GMT

    From Glyphs to Glyphs

    Playing around with the image to image translation models to help us imagine what-ifs in designing types.

    Yehang Yin

    Designing and computing shapes of types. Based in Hangzhou, China.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Wed, Oct 12
    11:30 AM GMT

    TIME / NATURE / EVOLUTION

    During the conference I will unpack 3 dimensions (TIME / NATURE / EVOLUTION) in which intersection my work and vision is centered. A visual narrative of my typographical journey where typography loses its rigor and its function towards a continuous evolution that generates what I call Aesthetic Imperfections, and how these can be influencing new scenarios of AI and ML.

    Gianpaolo Tucci

    A multidisciplinary designer with +15 years of experience in creative direction, product design, UX and visual design for a variety of (very well) established brands (enter NOKIA, EBAY, PUMA, Zalando, HERE & more), Tucci has shaped, reshaped and released products used by billions via his career path across the globe.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Wed, Oct 12
    12:00 PM GMT

    Making Type Move (in the Third Dimension)

    A small talk about how (and why) you can make type move in the third dimension.

    Rob Stenson

    A programmer and designer who lives in Southern California. Rob makes videos occasionally, audio plugins at Goodhertz, and various typographical tools at Coldtype.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Wed, Oct 12
    12:30 PM GMT

    TECH+TYPE+MOTION

    A transition is happening in my workflow: the final result of a creative process is now the product of a procedural system, which can be subsequently adjusted at any point in the pipeline and in turn, delivers a completely new output each time. In a live demo I will show you how I set up a procedural “organic type growth effect” where you can input a word or letter based on which the entire apparatus adjusts.

    Dennis Hölscher

    Dennis Hölscher is a Cologne-based graphic, motion, and 3D artist. He focuses his work on the combination of typography and abstract, mostly algorithm-based generative form designs in three-dimensional space.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Thu, Oct 13
    11:00 AM GMT

    Form Follows Formula

    A story of an ongoing attempt to create a type family based on a mathematical algorithm.

    Anatoly Grashchenko

    Anatoly Grashchenko is a Russian-born, Berlin-based creative coder, graphic designer, art director and educator. Anatoly found his passion at the intersection of creativity and technology, specializing in delivering custom tech solutions and bringing a generative approach to design processes.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Thu, Oct 13
    11:30 AM GMT

    Tactile Typography

    My talk presents typographic projects which work with tactility and analoge methods. Traditional craft is combined with an unconventional and innovative use.

    Laura Hilbert & Sarah Stendel

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Thu, Oct 13
    12:00 PM GMT

    Basile Fournier

    Basile Fournier is a creative studio focusing on graphic design and computer-generated imagery. Its practice oscillates between physical and virtual realms, engaging with cultural and corporate brands to generate various narratives and languages using new technologies. The studio operates in the fields of fashion, culture and luxury.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Thu, Oct 13
    12:30 PM GMT

    Type in 3D/AR/VR

    Tabitha Swanson

    Tabitha Swanson is a Berlin-based multi-disciplinary designer, creative technologist, and artist. Her practice includes 3D, animation, augmented reality, digital fashion, graphic design, and UX/UI. Commercially, Tabitha has worked with brands including Vogue Germany, Nike, Highsnobiety, Reebok, Origins, and others to create beautiful work in the creative tech and design sphere. Artistically, her work is used as a form of therapy, often composing questions rather than answers, and trying to faintly touch the unseen edges of human existence.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Thu, Oct 13
    01:00 PM GMT

    A typography for samba in the greatest show on Earth

    Over 7k people were involved. Professionals and lovers of Rio’s Carnival, outstanding samba personalities that inspire us. The new Rio Carnaval brand represents samba’s community. The power of the collective, the infectious energy, the ability to transform the ordinary in extraordinary. The flag represents the soul of the samba schools, and our great inspiration was its evolution on the avenue, in the hand of the flag bearer, with fluid and rhythmic movements. A lively and organic typography that reacts to Samba.

    Tátil Design

    Tátil is a branding, design, and innovation consultancy with offices in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, London, and Paris. The studio harnesses the power of design lens as a versatile tool for multidisciplinary collaboration, enabling us to grasp people's needs and desires, craft innovative strategies, and create business-oriented experiences that deliver value for both brands and individuals.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Fri, Oct 14
    11:00 AM GMT

    Procedural Type Design

    Procedural thinking, technological coexistence, and progress as relief and intensification.

    Daniel Wenzel

    Daniel Wenzel engages in graphic and type design, and specializes in utilizing animation tools and code. Daniel is always interested in collaborations with designers, developers, and publishers around the world. He is currently a Senior Art Director at DIA Studio.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Fri, Oct 14
    11:30 AM GMT

    3D Type in Space

    Vincent Wagner

    Vincent is a Vienna-based lettering artist with a graphic design and 3d background and a considerable obsession with everything typography and lettering. He also runs a 3d type foundry, Type Computer, where he offers a growing list of retail typefaces and gives away some libre typefaces as well.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Fri, Oct 14
    12:00 PM GMT

    Type in Motion: Code as a Design Tool

    Vera van de Seyp

    Vera van de Seyp is a computational designer and educator. Her work explores generative design tools, computational typography, artificial intelligence, and finding systems in chaos. She teaches and gives workshops and lectures to inspire makers to code and make their own design tools.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Fri, Oct 14
    12:30 PM GMT

    Type as Image

    Sanchit Sawaria

    Sanchit Sawaria is an Art Director hailing from New Delhi and now based in Brooklyn, New York. Sanchit’s practice has a holistic approach that harnesses his love for creative communication. He is a generalist that loves to try new things and expand his skillset along the way.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Fri, Oct 14
    01:00 PM GMT

    Kiel Danger Mutschelknaus

    Kiel Danger Mutschelknaus is a motion and generative designer from Maryland. Kiel’s studio focuses on crafting generative tools to create bespoke typography, image, and motion work.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sat, Oct 15
    11:00 AM GMT

    Digitalized Craftsmanship: A Look into Chinese Typography of the Neon City Hong Kong

    Through a deeper look into Chinese typography within her home city and its street signs, Hong Kong, the tech is challenged in calligraphy, especially in a visually rich and complex language. In a digitalized world, this form of art has been steadily declining, which has caught Jen’s attention to explore this heritage. Jen endeavors to raise the importance of better understanding the values of craftsmanship and technology so that both industries can collaborate and progress without losing either one.

    Jen Wong

    UK and Hong Kong based graphic designer, Jen believes that design habits are formed on the basis of collaborating techniques, tools, and technology. Jen’s journey includes experimenting with digitalizing Chinese calligraphy, and a common theme across her work has been transforming and reinterpreting traditional practice with digital techniques.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sat, Oct 15
    11:30 AM GMT

    Type on the Intersection

    Yehwan will talk about her practice of experimenting types by placing them on the intersection between physical and online space.

    Yehwan Song

    Korean-born web artist and designer, Song creates anti-friendly, nonuser-centric, unconventional, and diverse independent websites to flip the general understandings of web design and subvert users’ behaviors.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sat, Oct 15
    12:00 PM GMT

    When Pressing Speakers

    Richard The

    Richard The is a designer, artist, and educator. His work—ranging from graphic design to installations to user interfaces—investigates the aesthetic and cultural implications of an increasingly technology-driven society.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sat, Oct 15
    12:30 PM GMT

    Internet Type

    OKOK

    OKOK is an independent creative studio based between Amsterdam and Seoul, creating okok visual digital experiences.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sat, Oct 15
    01:00 PM GMT

    Realtime Graphics

    Andreas Gysin

    Andreas Gysin is a Swiss-born graphic designer and generative artist that stands at the intersection of art and technology, crafting groundbreaking code-driven art that transcends the boundaries of traditional art and design.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sat, Oct 15
    01:30 PM GMT

    Rule of Three

    Akiem Helming and Bas Jacobs (Underware)

    Zealotry wouldn’t be an inappropriate collective noun for Underware. They not only design typefaces, they live type—they educate about type, they publish about type, they talk about type, they want (and organise) others to talk about type. Representing Underware at Inscript this year will be Akiem Helming and Bas Jacobs.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sun, Oct 16
    11:00 AM GMT

    Confessions of a professional type bully

    His talk will focus on coding “type torturer tools” with Processing and P5js, going all the way from rough sketches to complex custom tools for visual identities.

    André Burnier

    André Burnier is a Brazilian graphic designer and creative coder, researching the intersection between graphic design and programming—more specifically—how to use programming as a tool to make graphic design.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sun, Oct 16
    11:30 AM GMT

    Coding Typography

    Cotton’s primary design medium is coding, and her talk will focus on the various ways to use code to design experimental type (as opposed to designing with type using code). Specifically, discussing processing type by its pixels as a basis for experimental type (why that's a cop-out!); the notion of designing typographies based on a parameterized grid (and why that opens up possibilities when fed through code); and most importantly, the parameterization of type. Her talk will analyze various ways of inputting “what makes a letter” into code, and explore various outputs and their implications.

    Talia Cotton

    Talia Cotton is a designer, coder, and educator and a leading specialist in the intersection of branding and technology. She’s fascinated by the notion of working with the computer to generate typography that is both readable and beautiful, but infinite.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sun, Oct 16
    12:00 PM GMT

    Type, Machines & Memes

    For Inscript, Dev designed a new set of serif-pixel-letters. Each letter was then run through Pixel-Diffusion, a text-to-image model, pushing the boundaries of AI and Type.

    Dev Valladares

    Dev Valladares doesn’t like boxing himself into categories or referring to himself in third person. However, he relents when the situation calls for it. He is an interdisciplinary designer, visual artist and someday, celebrated philosopher.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sun, Oct 16
    12:30 PM GMT

    Climate Crisis Typeface: Saving the World with Type

    Korkala and Coull share their journey and process in creating the Climate Crisis typeface, a variable font to visualize the effects of climate change designed for the Nordics’ largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat. Talking on subjects including type design and custom briefs, variable fonts and design spaces, working outside your skill and comfort zone, prototyping with unconventional methods, dealing with fear and doubt, and environmental ethics.

    Eino Korkala & Daniel Coull

    Cape Town-based designer Daniel Coull and Finnish designer Eino Korkala met at the TypeMedia program in the Netherlands in 2017. Their collaborative typeface Climate Crisis, released in 2021, has won numerous awards and been inducted into the permanent collection at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sun, Oct 16
    01:00 PM GMT

    Play in Practice

    A conversation about 3 year old Chief Creative Officers, creating brand soul, and finding the beautiful in the ugly.

    Thomas Wilder

    Thomas Wilder is Global Principal at Wolff Olins, former Executive Creative Director at sweetgreen and former Partner & Creative Director at COLLINS. His work has been recognized by numerous design organizations and publications including the AIGA, The One Show, Graphis, Creative Review, The Type Directors Club, Print Magazine, Computer Arts, Communication Arts, among others.

  • Presentation
    Presentation
    Sun, Oct 16
    01:30 PM GMT

    Reimagined Reality

    There is so much inspiration in our immediate surroundings that we tend to ignore while we could creativity implement in our work. It is all about training our eyes to really see things, explore the everyday from another perspective, reimagine the world that we live in.

    Tina Touli

    Tina Touli is a London-based creative director, graphic communication designer, speaker and educator. She thrives on designing multidisciplinary work that involves a variety of techniques, showcased across different platforms and mediums, always with a great attention to detail.

Branding

The brand effect for 2022 was itself created as an Exquisite Corpse of experimentation, with some early failures and happenstance compromises. Thank you to all those that contributed at various junctures—Yehang Yin, Vincent Wagner, Ksenya Samarskaya, Alex Slobzheninov, and with final bobble coding and manifesting into being by Eric Jacobsen.

    Select Press

    • Cutting Edge of Type

      ‘Inscript 2023’ was not just a celebration of creativity; it was a testament to the power of collaboration, exploration and experimentation. As we reflect upon the insights shared and connections forged during the festival, we are reminded of the boundless possibilities that lie at the intersection of typography, technology and human ingenuity. ‘Inscript’ inspires and empowers designers to push the boundaries of what is possible, charting a course towards a more innovative and inclusive future.

      Eye Magazine

    • The Daily Heller: Brazen Experiments, Phygital Media and Ferrofluid, Huh?

      The Daily Heller: Brazen Experiments, Phygital Media and Ferrofluid, Huh?


      PRINT

    • Inscript Experimental Type Festival: the moment to join a revolution dawns online

      Inscript is this fall’s must-attend event. And THE virtual portfolio and behind-the-scenes showcase experience for all things pushing the edge of the expected.

      Typeroom

    • Inscript

      Inscript will be featured in EYE 106.

      EYE 106

    • Inscript: An Online Festival of Technology and Typography

      “I think all tools change behavior. And having awareness, and dialogue, about how that happens is immensely beneficial so that it doesn’t happen in a vacuum.”

      IDEA

    • Typo Festival Inscript

      Die Sprecherliste des Type Festival Inscript 2022 kann sich sehen lassen: DIA Studio, Kiel Mutschelknaus, Tina Touli, Underware und noch viele mehr.

      PAGE

    • “Inclusive, diverse, bold”: Experimental type festival Inscript returns for its second year

      “Inclusive, diverse, bold”: Experimental type festival Inscript returns for its second year.


      It’s Nice That

    • Inscript has the best conference lineup of the year

      Inscript has the best conference lineup of the year

      Neon Moiré via Insta Comments

    • A.I., typography and storytelling: Analyzing the new visual identity of Inscript Festival with Kacper Pietrzykowski

      A.I., typography and storytelling: Analyzing the new visual identity of Inscript Festival with Kacper Pietrzykowski


      Typeroom

    • Access to the Futures of Type

      The experimental tone of ‘Inscript’ left me feeling exhilarated, liberated and impatient to try new these tools and methods in my own work.

      Eye Magazine

    • Breaking barriers for a brave new world: Ksenya Samarskaya on Inscript Experimental Type Festival

      Inscript brings together practitioners that are pushing forward the future of type — want to know what we’re all going to be doing in a few years? See what’s possible? These are the rooms to be in.

      Typeroom

    • Inscript Type Festival 2023: A not-to-be-missed rendezvous with typography and innovation in the digital realm

      Inscript Type Festival 2023: A not-to-be-missed rendezvous with typography and innovation in the digital realm.

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