 Following the successful Bangkok International Typography Symposium (BITS) in 2010, Alliance Francaise de Bangkok together with the Goethe Institute, Japan Foundation and Cadson Demak will again organize the BITS 2012 symposium and workshops with world-famous typographers on May 25-26, 2012.
Over the last few years, designers and typographers endeavored to stress the importance and appropriate use of typography, an art for which the general public is developing an appreciation. In visual communication, font design plays a crucial role as it makes it possible to convey much more than words and ideas. In fact, typography can be used by itself to represent an identity, a brand or even an era.
The previous BITS met with great success, showing Thailand’s interest in typography. Throughout the two-day event, more than 250 people filled the room to capacity; communication professionals and graphic artists as well as amateurs eager to know more. It was the first typography symposium to take place in Southeast Asia which attracted the attention of many Thai and foreign typographers.
BITS symposium will feature an impressive list of well-known speakers to give an insight concept of typography design as well as its importance.
- Akiem Helmling (GR)
- Akira Kobayashi (JP)
- Tnop Wangsillapakun (TH)
- Anisa Suthayalai (TH)
- Keith Chi-hang Tam (HK)
- Sébastien Morlighem (FR)
- Smich Smanloh (TH)
- Jackkrit Anantakul (TH)
Additionally, typography workshops will also be held for interested Arts students (pursuing Arts courses at University level) or experienced design professionals.
The 2-Day symposium (regular card) is being offered at THB 1,200 per ticket while the symposium cum workshop (bold card) is being offered at THB 2,500 per ticket. The tickets can be purchased from Alliance Francaise’s International Art Center, Sathorn Tai Road.
For further information, please visit www.bitsmm.org or www.alliance-francaise.or.th or call 02-670-4222 or email sitanant.srichanthuk@alliance-francaise.or.th.
| BITS MMXI SPEAKERS / BIO & PROFILE |
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AKIEM HELMLING
Driving together is much more pleasurable than a solo trip. For ten years the pan-European design collective Underware has been creating versatile fonts, surfing the waves, conducting type workshops, co-founded Typeradio (the radiostation on type and design), throwing canon balls, practicing kamikaze chess; but mostly, they gave flowers for their mothers and turned them into a cover girl. Which resulted in an everlasting smile on their faces. |
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SÉBASTIEN MORLIGHEM
Sébastien Morlighem studied at the École Supérieure Estienne (Paris, France), where he learned type design. He works since 1995 as a graphic designer for books and records. He teaches the history of graphic design and typography and is co-director of the post-graduate program 'Typography and Language' at the École supérieure d'art et de design in Amiens. He created and curates the Bibliothèque typographique collection for Ypsilon Éditeur and co-authored books about French type designers José Mendoza y Almeida and Roger Excoffon. He is currently preparing a PhD for the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading (United Kingdom). He lives and works in Barcelona (Spain). |
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AKIRA KOBAYASHI
Studied at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, and later followed this up with a calligraphy course at the London College of Printing. Since May 2001 Type Director at Linotype GmbH. Kobayashi has recently completed the Neue Frutiger type family with close collaboration with the original designer Adrian Frutiger.
Awards: Best of Category and Best of Show for the Clifford typeface in the 1998 U&lc magazine type design competition. 1st prize, text category for the Conrad typeface in Linotype Library's 3rd International Digital Type Design Contest. In the Type Directors Club's type design competitions of 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2007--for ITC Woodland, ITC Japanese Garden and ITC Silvermoon, FF Clifford, Linotype Conrad and Palatino Sans (with Hermann Zapf) respectively. |
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KEITH CHI-HANG TAM
Born in Hong Kong and lived in the UK and Canada, Keith Tam is a Hong Kong-based designer, typographer, educator and researcher with a multicultural perspective. He is currently Assistant Professor at the School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he heads the Communication Design discipline and the Information Design Lab. Prior, Keith was Assistant Professor of Communication Design at Emily Carr Institute (now Emily Carr University) in Vancouver, Canada and principal of Keith Tam Design, a typography and communication design studio. In 2005, Keith co-founded Type Initiative with designer Michail Semoglou, a type foundry and design collective. Keith is the designer of Arrival, a sanserif typeface designed specifically for directional signage, currently used at the University of Reading for its campus-wide wayfinding system. In 2011, Keith founded the Information Design Lab at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a research and consultancy unit, the first of its kind in China. The lab focuses on designing accessible and usable information for various contexts and users and explores the interrelationship between typography and information design.
As a design practitioner, Keith's work includes book design, information design, identity design, lettering and typeface design. As a researcher and educator, Keith focuses on typography and information design. His work encompasses the history, theory and practice of typography, with particular interest in text typography, typographic structures, complex information and multilingual issues. Recent research projects include bilingual typography in Hong Kong, wayfinding and spatial representation, tourism information design and theory of Chinese typography. Keith is a frequent contributor to local and international design conferences. Recently, he was keynote speaker at the 'Same/difference: multilingual typography symposium' held in Hong Kong. Keith received a BDes in Communication Design from the Emily Carr Institute, Canada and an MA in Typeface Design from the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading, UK. |
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ANISA SUTHAYALAI
Anisa Suthayalai is a founding partner of Default, an interdisciplinary design practice and consultancy based in New York City and Bangkok. For over 5 years, Default has helped to create unified systems that address multiple channels of communication for art, design, architecture, fashion, media, cultural, and institutional clients worldwide. They build work from the ground up, getting their hands dirty with methodology that is both conceptual and pragmatic. They believe that concept is particular (to clients) but universal (to audiences), otherwise it's meaningless.
Prior to Default, Anisa had worked with many prestigious studios: Propaganda (Bangkok), Segura (Chicago), VSA Partners (Chicago), Design MW (New York), and 2x4 (New York), which resulted in the adding and expanding new dimensionality to her work. She was a lead designer on Prada New York Epicenter, Miu Miu, Vitra, Takashimaya, Saks Fifth Avenue, Frederick Fekkai, Malin+Goetz, Gmund Paper Company, Otis School of Art and Design, and Pentagon Memorial.
After years of keeping her head down, she was recognized as one of the New Visual Artists by Print magazine, earned numerous awards from AIGA New York, How Magazine, Print Magazine, Type Directors' Club, and Art Directors' Club, her work has been featured in various publications, such as Eye Magazine, IDEA Magazine, Plus 81 Magazine, CMYK Magazine. She occasionally judges in design competitions and guest lectures to various universities in the US and Thailand. |
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TNOP WANGSILLAPAKUN
Tnop Wangsillapakun is the founder of Chicago-based contemporary graphic design studio, TNOP™ Design. Born in Bangkok, educated in both Thailand and the USA, Tnop formerly worked as a senior designer with Carlos Segura at Segura Inc. in Chicago. After 8 years at Segura Inc., he formed TNOP™ Design in 2005.
Tnop believes that a sharp design is about the critical balance of conceptual work and craftsmanship. His philosophy is to create a customized design that can represent client's culture through distinct contemporary executions, materials or techniques.
Tnop has worked with a wide range of clients from a global brand like Corbis Images, Nike, Coca-Cola, or IRENA(International Renewable Energy Agency) to the first lady's favorite fashion designer Maria Pinto, to a small tea shop like Mitea in Chicago, and Alongkorn, a high-level bespoke suit shop in Bangkok. His works have won many awards and are featured in many books and renowned magazines around the world. He has given lectures and workshops at many universities as well as collaborated in art and design exhibitions. He's currently teaching design at Rangsit University in Pratumthani, Thailand. |
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SMICH SMANLOH
Studied film during collage years. Found out later that he prefer seeing them rather than making them. He started his first job as a graphic designer in advertising agency. Later on he hopped over to do graphic design for music label, mostly designing cd covers. Graphic design also landed him on art directing job at 'Woman Today' magazine. This could well be called another turning point of his career. Smich got a chance to explore the possibilities of using typefaces and get to know them better through out the magazine layout. He felt the first itch when he could not find the right Thai typeface to serve in his work. Finally, in 2010 he began to put extra energy into studying and designing typefaces. Worked as commercial designer by day and crafted letter by night. Trial and error took him all over the places. He joined Cadson Demak's type workshop and everything started unfolding from then on. His typeface 'Garavek' had participated in 'Katatrad' exhibition held at RMA Institute. |
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JACKKRIT ANANTAKUL
Jackkrit Anantakul (born 1997) is the graphic designer who established Design Reform Council; an off beat design studio based in Bangkok. Jackkrit has touched by various inspiration works. At the present time, he has been creating tradition graphic design in print media, time based media, performance and concert. He is also working extensively on sound design and directing music video. Not only describe himself as designer, he is often called experimenter by his colleagues. Jackkrit recently joined YouWorkForThem one of the best American firms based in Bangkok, Thailand as a senior art director. He continues producing all kind of materials involved with type and sometime spills over to type design as well. |
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