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Don't Believe The Type - For The Love of Typography

Last November Trapped in Suburbia organised the one day typographic symposium Don’t Believe the Type for the first time – an inspiring mix of workshops, lectures, and an exhibition with the work of internationally known artists and designers, amongst which Alex Trochut and Job Wouters. As a direct result Cuby Gerards and Karin Langeveld were appointed Creative Ambassadors of The Hague at the beginning of this year. They announced they will use their new position to put typography in The Hague on the map.

Gerards and Langeveld’s first outing will be the organisation on the Dutch National Day, May 18, of a special edition of Don’t Believe the Type in Shanghai, as part of Dutch week ‘City & Creative Industry’ during World Expo 2010. The event will focus on the typographic excellence from The Hague. The day will start with workshops by Underware, Yomar Augusto, and Rogier Wieland, and in the evening Trapped in Suburbia, Underware, and Yomar Augusto will give lectures. Roger Wieland will present the results of the typo-stop-motion workshop. All these designers attended the renowned Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Their education has taught them respect for the tradition, and also instilled enthusiasm to make new, fresh and exciting typography.

The organisers already encountered a problem a while ago. One would wish for everyone in Shanghai to understand English, but unfortunately that’s a little too optimistic. The audience will not be composed of Chinese exclusively, but still. Gerards and Langeveld have already cooked up some hilarious ideas to remedy this, because they don’t feel like pausing after every sentence to allow a translator to translate what they just said.

If you are not familiar with Don’t Believe the Type take a look at the pictures taken at last year’s edition. Sold-out venue, paint splashes all over, busy bar, learned a lot, loads of fun, and mega inspiration. If you think Shanghai is a little too far away, have some patience. On November 5th the symposium will be reprised in good old The Hague. To be kept updated follow @trappedsuburbia on Twitter.

Programme · May 18th, 2010

photo by Sjoerd Groos

Workshops (in English)

Underware | type & chat

Chatography

Chat can refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct one-on-one chat or text-based group chat, using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat, talkers, and possibly MUDs. In the “contingency view” of interactivity, there are three levels:
• Non-interactive, when a message is not related to previous messages;
• Reactive, when a message is related only to one immediate previous message;
• Interactive, when a message is related to a number of previous messages and to the relationship between them.
A message in its most general meaning is an object of communication, a process of transferring information from one entity to another using language. Chatography is based on these ideas. Still no idea what we are talking about? Join the workshop and become a chatographer yourself.

In this workshop participants will work in groups of two.

Register via e-mail. The workshop is free of charge. Required material: pencils & black pens in various sizes, white paper A4/A3, laptop, earphones, video camera (1 for each team).

Yomar Augusto | type & calligraphy

The Calligraphy Collective Book Workshop

Mission 1.
The first part of the workshop will be devoted to the production of the initial chapters of the book about “exploration”, or it can be called The Exploration Book. The blank book will be handed out at the beginning of the workshop and divided into folios for each participant. The book has to be filled with nothing but calligraphy experimentations. During the course of the day, Latin & Chinese calligraphy techniques have to clash or merge, creating an exploration between “West and East” methods of writing.

Mission 2.
During the second part of the workshop participants will use a single lengthy piece of paper to produce the remaining part of the book. Their mission is to fill the massive composition with only calligraphy experimentations, front and back. After that the composition will be folded and trimmed to produce the second part of the book and brand new folios.

Mission 3.
This is where we reach the climax and the ultimate challenge. The different parts of the book are divided among the participants. The So, each student will be able to produce a book using somebody else’s calligraphies, experimentations and graphics.

Register via e-mail. The workshop is free of charge.

Rogier Wieland | type & motion

Handmade typographic music video

A workshop for twenty participants working together to produce a hand made typographic music video in one day. Using only analogue media (and a digital still camera), the participants are going to make a typographic music video for a brand new song by Dutch singer/songwriter Wotienke. She will write and record the song especially for this occasion.

Each participant produces his own part of the music video by animating typographic elements, without a computer. That means 25 frames per second, all hand made! The focus will be on adding “life” to the animations.

At the end of the day all animations will be edited to produce the final music video.

Register via e-mail. The workshop is free of charge.

Lectures (in English, with Chinese subtitles)

Trapped in Suburbia | initiators of Don’t Believe the Type

Trapped in Suburbia is a design agency that creates conceptually and strategically strong projects with clear, clever designs and solutions. They think before they act, but they act before they talk. They are the initiators of Don’t believe the type and run the art gallery Ship of Fools, and with this they focus on contemporary graphic arts.

Trapped in Suburbia was formed by Cuby Gerards and Karin Langeveld. They both studied graphic & typographic design at the Royal Academy of Art The Hague. Cuby did his masters in advertising at ‘Hallo’ academy for applied creativity. Karin obtained her masters degree in design at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. Since 2006 she teaches typography to third grade students of the Utrecht School of the Arts. In 2010 Cuby and Karin were asked by the city of The Hague to be ambassadors for the program Creative City.

Yomar Augusto | type in calligraphy

Yomar Augusto represents the new generation of designers and graphic artists in Brazil. Born in Brasilia, raised in Rio de Janeiro, and initially trained as a graphic designer, Yomar went on to study photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, before starting his own studio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He then went on to complete a Masters in Type Design from the Royal Academy of Art The Hague, The Netherlands between 2004 and 2005. He gives workshops all around the world like in Portugal, Russia, Brazil, Denmark, and now China.

Underware | type in 3d

Underware is a graphic design studio specialised in the design and production of typefaces. These are often conventional in terms of legibility – yet original and functional, incorporating concepts that investigate new visual, typographic and linguistic possibilities. These typefaces are published for retail sale or are custom designed. Underware organise workshops in various academies and at conferences worldwide. Together with Donald Beekman & Liza Enebeis they also initiated Type Radio, a radio station focusing on type, type design, and typography.

The company was founded in 1999 by Akiem Helmling, Bas Jacobs, and Sami Kortemäki. They all attended the post-graduate course typography and type design at the Royal Academy of Art The Hague.

Exhibition

Typecal The Hague

Typecal The Hague is a one day exhibition that offers an overview of typographic designs by designers working, living or studying in The Hague. The exhibition can only be visited on May 18th, from 09:00–21:00 in the Dutch Culture Centre, 800 Changde Lu, Shanghai.

The third edition of ‘Don’t Believe the Type’ will take place in The Hague on November 5th, 2010.

30.04.2010 - 12.29.46

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