Fonts for a Connected World with Typotheque's Peter Bil'ak and Kevin King

Talk Paper Scissors

In this episode you’ll learn about the Netherlands-based type design company, Typotheque, and you’ll hear from two of its team members (Peter Bil’ak and Kevin King) and the way they work with language and give shape to language. You’ll hear a lot about the North American Indigenous Syllabics Project and the book that Typotheque recently published, celebrating the rich linguistic and typographic diversity of Indigenous languages in North America. You’ll hear a high level overview of the syllabic writing system used by many First Nations and Inuit communities, as well as the way that type is an important part of the visual culture. You’ll better understand the ways that traditional tools influence shapes of letterforms and how Kevin got started drawing syllabic forms for his work with Indigenous type revitalization and perseveration.

Finally, you’ll learn how cognitive psychologists work on the Typotheque team to inform typeface design, including a recent typeface release from Typotheque (called ‘Dash’) and its scientific origins. I gained so much from this conversation and I hope you will too.

This episode was recorded live at DesignThinkers Toronto 2023 as part of a guest lecture series in GCM 230 - Typography in Fall 2023 at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University.

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