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 Directorâs 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, sheâs 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 typographyâuses 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 Itâs Nice That, New Aesthetic, PRINT, and Slanted; and has won the TDC Ascenders and ADC YG rising star awards.
Presentations & Discussions
The event is best experienced live, but recordings will be available for all ticket-holders for 6 months afterward. Get your tickets here.
- PresentationPresentation
Rule of Three
Underware
- PresentationPresentation
Type, Machines & Memes
Dev Valladares
Dev Valladares doesnât 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.
- PresentationPresentationWed, Oct 12
04:00 AM GMTTECH+TYPE+MOTION
With the introduction of Geometry Nodes in Blender 3D software, 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. Actions are stored in a node. These nodes are then wired into networks which define a recipe that can be tweaked to refine the outcome then repeated to create similar yet unique results. In a live demo I will show you how I set up a procedural "organic type growth effect" where you are able to input a word or letter based on which the whole thing adjusts.
Dennis Hölscher
Dennis Hoelscher is a Cologne based graphic, motion & 3D artist. He focuses his work on the combination of typography and abstract, mostly algorithm-based generative form designs in three-dimensional space.
- PresentationPresentationWed, Oct 12
11:00 AM GMTFrom 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.
- PresentationPresentationWed, Oct 12
11:30 AM GMTTIME / 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.
- PresentationPresentationWed, Oct 12
12:00 PM GMTMaking Type Move (in the Third Dimension)
Rob Stenson
A programmer who lives in Southern California and makes lots of typographic things.
- PresentationPresentationThu, Oct 13
04:00 AM GMTForm Follows Formula
A story of an ongoing attempt to create a type family based on a mathematical algorithm.
Anatoly Grashchenko
Graphic designer, art director, creative coder.
- PresentationPresentationThu, Oct 13
04:00 AM GMTTactile 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
- PresentationPresentationThu, Oct 13
04:00 AM GMTBasile Fournier
Basile Fournier is a creative studio focusing on graphic design and computer-generated imagery.
- PresentationPresentationThu, Oct 13
04:00 AM GMTType in 3D/AR/VR
Tabitha Swanson
Tabitha Swanson is a Berlin-based multi-disciplinary designer, creative technologist, and artist.
- PresentationPresentationThu, Oct 13
04:00 AM GMTA typography for samba in the greatest show on Earth
Over 7k people were involved. Professionals and lovers of Rioâs Carnival, outstanding samba personalities that inspire us. The new Rio Carnaval brand represents sambaâs 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.
TĂĄtil Design
Designing innovative strategies and building relevant experiences to business and to the world.
- PresentationPresentationFri, Oct 14
04:00 AM GMTProcedural Type Design
Procedural thinking, technological coexistence and progress as relief and intensification.
Daniel Wenzel
Daniel Wenzel, graphic and type design, specialised in utilizing animation-tools and code.
- PresentationPresentationFri, Oct 14
04:00 AM GMT3D Type in Space
Vincent Wagner
Vincent Wagner is a 3D designer based in Vienna, Austria.
- PresentationPresentationFri, Oct 14
04:00 AM GMTType in Motion: Code as a Design Tool
Vera van de Seyp
Vera van de Seyp is a designer and creative coder interested in typography, languages, and artificial intelligence.
- PresentationPresentationFri, Oct 14
04:00 AM GMTType as Image
Sanchit Sawaria
Art Director based in Brooklyn, New York. My practice has a holistic approach that harnesses my love for creative communication. I am a generalist that loves to try new things and expand my skillset along the way.
- PresentationPresentationFri, Oct 14
04:00 AM GMTKiel Danger Mutschelknaus
Kiel Danger Mutschelknaus is a motion and generative designer from Maryland. Kiel's studio focuses around crafting generative tools to create bespoke typography, image, and motion work.
- PresentationPresentationSat, Oct 15
04:00 AM GMTDigitalized Craftsmanship: A Look into Chinese Typography of the Neon City - Hong Kong
Design habits are formed on the basis of collaborating techniques, tools, and technology. In Jen's journey of experimenting with digitalizing Chinese Calligraphy, transforming and reinterpreting the traditional practice with digital techniques has been a common theme across her work.Through a deeper look into Chinese Typography within her home city and its street signs- Hong Kong, the Tech is rather 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 Jenâs attention to explore this heritage. Jen endeavours to raise the importance of better understanding the values of craftsmanship and technology so that both industries are able to collaborate and progress without losing one or another.
Jen Wong
UK and Hong Kong based graphic designer.
- PresentationPresentationSat, Oct 15
04:00 AM GMTType 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 and try to flip the general understandings of web design and subvert usersâ behaviors.
- PresentationPresentationSat, Oct 15
04:00 AM GMTWhen pressing speakers
Richard The
Richard The (he/his) 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.
- PresentationPresentationSat, Oct 15
04:00 AM GMTInternet Type
OKOK
An independent creative studio based between Amsterdam and Seoul, creating okok visual digital experiences.
- PresentationPresentationSat, Oct 15
04:00 AM GMTRealtime graphics
Andreas Gysin
Studio for design and code based in Lugano, Switzerland.
- PresentationPresentationSat, Oct 15
04:00 AM GMTUnderware
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Underware
(Akiem Helming, Bas Jacobs) Zealotry wouldnât be an inappropriate collective noun for Underware. They not only design typefaces, they live typeâthey educate about type, they publish about type, they talk about type, they want (and organise) others to talk about type.
- PresentationPresentationSun, Oct 16
04:00 AM GMTConfessions of a professional type bully
Coding "type torturer tools" with Processing and P5js. From rough sketches to complex custom tools for visual identities.
André Burnier
Brazilian graphic designer and creative coder, researching the intersection between graphic design and programming â more specifically on how to use programming as a tool to make graphic design.
- PresentationPresentationSun, Oct 16
04:00 AM GMTCoding Typography
My primary design medium is coding, so my talk is going to focus on the various ways to use code to design experimental type (as opposed to designing with type using code). Specifically, I'll start by discussing the processing type by its pixels as a basis for experimental type (why that's a cop-out!). I'll move into the notion of designing typographies based on a parameterized grid, and why that opens up possibilities when fed through code. Finally, and most importantly, I'll speak to the parameterization of type, as such: I'm fascinated by the notion of working with the computer to generate typography that is both readable and beautiful, but infinite. My talk will analyze various ways of inputting "what makes a letter" into code, and explore the 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.
- PresentationPresentationSun, Oct 16
04:00 AM GMTSaving the world with type
For the presentation, we'll share our journey and process behind creating the Climate Crisis typeface. Talking on a few subjects like type design and custom briefs, variable fonts and designspaces, 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
- PresentationPresentationSun, Oct 16
04:00 AM GMTPlay 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.
- PresentationPresentationSun, Oct 16
04:00 AM GMTReimagined 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 juncturesâYehang Yin, Vincent Wagner, Ksenya Samarskaya, Alex Slobzheninov, and with final bobble coding and manifesting into being by Eric Jacobsen.
Select Press
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.
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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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âInclusive, diverse, boldâ: Experimental type festival Inscript returns for its second year
âInclusive, diverse, boldâ: Experimental type festival Inscript returns for its second year
Itâs Nice That
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Inscript is this fallâs must-attend event. And THE virtual portfolio and behind-the-scenes showcase experience for all things pushing the edge of the expected.
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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 â want to know what weâre all going to be doing in a few years? See whatâs possible? These are the rooms to be in.
Typeroom
Access to the Futures of Type
The experimental tone of âInscriptâ left me feeling exhilarated, liberated and impatient to try new these tools and methods in my own work.
Eye Magazine
The Daily Heller: Brazen Experiments, Phygital Media and Ferrofluid, Huh?
The Daily Heller: Brazen Experiments, Phygital Media and Ferrofluid, Huh?
PRINT
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