ATypI 2006 Lisbon | Day One 
Image Author’s Image CD-ROM - Portugal & Madeira
The Association Typographique Internationale held its 50th ATypI Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, 27 September–1 October 2006 on the theme ‘Typographical Journeys’. Starting in the late afternoon of Thursday 28 September, this year's ATypI conference offered three full days of talks, seminars, events and games, winding up in the early evening of Sunday 1 October. Preceding the conference Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 September featured the popular TypeTech specialist workshops and tutorials for type designers and developers.
Shu Lai in Lisbon, Portugal © Tiffany Wardle
Most international journeys start in airports. Unfortunately my stay at Brussels International Airport lasted quite a bit longer than expected, because my flight was delayed by almost one and a half hour. As a direct result of this I couldn’t make it to the press conference in time (I heard afterwards it was reasonably attended).
Aparthotel VIP Eden © Tiffany Wardle
I stayed at the Aparthotel VIP Eden – the alternate choice offered by ATypI which was billed as “the best urban renovation project in 1996”. The apartment I shared with Shu Lai (SOTA) and James Grieshaber (Typeco) featured a tiny kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom with a double bed, and a living room with a sofa that converted into twin beds. It was rather small but very comfortable and reasonably priced.
Night view of Lisbon from the VIP Eden rooftop terrace © Tiffany Wardle
The beautiful Art Deco facade of the VIP Eden fronted an arched modern building with elevated gardens. Plus the hotel had a rooftop terrace with swimming pool overlooking the city, making this a great meeting place with a breathtaking view. Several people staying at the Hotel Tivoli Jardim (the official conference hotel quite a bit further down the road and away from the venue) told me they regretted not booking the VIP Eden.
Shu and JimmyG, cold and miserable because Stewf’s not there © Yves Peters
We were supposed to have a fourth person in our room. Regrettably, due to unforeseen circumstances noted type commentator and my partner-in-font-geekery Stephen Coles of Typographica and Typophile fame was unable to attend. His absence cast a veil of sadness over the typographic community, as can be witnessed from numerous pictures on Flickr.
FBAUL © Leonardo Xavier
When I arrived at the conference venue, the Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Belas Artes, the first spot of bad news was doing the rounds. Ellen Lupton’s flight had been cancelled and she was stuck in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Baltimore, meaning she would be unable to deliver her keynote speech that evening. This was especially unfortunate as for the first time in recent years the ATypI Conference opening keynote would be accessible to everyone, non-attendees included. Rumours that Erik Spiekermann would fill in for her were soon confirmed.
The São Jorge movie theatre © Ben Kiel
Cinema São Jorge had been selected as the location for the ATypI Conference opening keynote. This beautiful Art Deco movie theatre by architect Fernando Silva was built between 1947 and 1950. Seating 1,827 on orchestra and balcony levels, it was the largest cinema on the Iberian peninsula when it opened on 24th February 1950. We couldn't have hoped for a more fitting place to kick off the conference.
By 6:30 PM droves of type professionals and enthusiasts, practitioners and students alike were gathering in the lavish lobby, some of them forming a queue at the temporary registration desk. After everyone had been seated, organiser Simone Wolf welcomed the audience. Then ATypI president Jean François Porchez took the mic, opening the 50th ATypI Conference ‘Typographical Journeys’ in his charming but not always quite understandable Franglais.
As mentioned previously, renowned information designer, graphic designer and type designer Erik Spiekermann replaced the transportationally challenged Lupton for the keynote speech. Erik told me afterwards that he was asked at 4:00 pm that very day if he could substitute for the absent Lupton. As he explained at the beginning of his speech, his computer was stolen in Valencia some months ago. Since then he lugs around a hard drive which fortunately holds all his presentations amongst others. This allowed him to pick the most convenient one for this specific occasion, one that would appeal to students that might not know him, yet wouldn’t bore out of their skulls people who were familiar with his work.
Erik Spiekermann’s impromptu opening keynote © Henrique Nardi
Erik's gave a presentation entitled “Ideas. How to get them without stealing”. Given the recent publicised story of Futurebrand appropriating the outline data of FF Dax to build UPS Sans this – perhaps unintentionally – added a hint of sarcasm to the subject. As always Erik spoke in “bold condensed, sometimes even italic, with very tight word spacing” (his own words). He started his presentation by quickly going through his work and publications. Then in his usual good humour and deadpan wit he discussed several strategies to find ideas. By bringing up very recognisable topics like “Avoidance”, “Thinking”, “Research”, “Collecting”, “Sketching”, “Deconstruction” etc. Erik made some excellent points, providing new insights by making you think about seemingly obvious concepts. He ended his talk with a slide that gave rise to contemplation – the depiction of a conceptual “house” with four rooms. The Room of Reason which used Research as a strategy spawned Mediocrity; the Old Stuff in the Room of Safety resulted in Repetition; the Room of Great Results that had as main purpose Impressing Peers was responsible for Imitation. The Room of Not Knowing was the most intriguing one: as you were encouraged to Take someone else’s view you could Presume nothing.
Although the seasoned pros already knew most of the stuff Erik was talking about, the material was presented in such an entertaining way that it hardly mattered. Furthermore the talk was peppered with hilarious anecdotes and in-jokes (he asked the in-crowd to enlighten the bemused students about his remarks about Gill and sheep).
Once again Spiekermann confirmed his status as one of the most knowledgeable and entertaining speakers in the industry. Add to that the fact that he is forthcoming and always prepared to help out wherever he can – he agreed to and was able to give a presentation on two hours notice, no mean feat. Throw him in the water and not only does he swim, but he crosses the friggin’ Channel from Calais to Dover without even breaking a sweat.
The cocktail after the keynote © Jean-Baptiste Levee
After the presentation all conference attendees were invited to the opening reception. It was the occasion for meeting new friends and old acquaintances, and sometimes for the first time meet in the flesh people you've gotten to know over the internet. There were drinks aplenty, a DJ was spinning the decks and the hors-d'œuvres were delicious.
As the evening progressed groups formed that left for dinner. When exiting the venue together Dan Reynolds presented me with the first scoop. Contrary to the press release announcing the acquisition of Linotype by Monotype Imaging which stated “Linotype will continue as Linotype GmbH under the leadership of Bruno Steinert, managing director, (...)”, Bruno Steinert had in fact just left Linotype. As we were walking up to the restaurant Bruno himself clarified that he had worked non-stop for Linotype for 45 years since he was 16 years old, and maybe it was time to stop. In retrospect I shouldn't have been so surprised because such a career ending is pretty common. Dan confirmed that day-to-day business was still quite the same at Linotype under the new Monotype Imaging management. There haven’t been any relocation nor layoffs, so let’s wait and see what the future holds for The Source of The Originals in Bad Homburg.
:: The ATypI 2006 Lisbon Reports ::
Day 1 | opening night
Day 2 | morning session | afternoon session
Day 3 | morning session | afternoon session
Day 4 | closing day
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Good job, Yves!
Rather compact, but to the point. Spiekermann's key note was indeed an uber-upbeat start of the conference and - I have to say it - much more worthwile than the scheduled 'Univers strikes back'.
Waiting for the rest...
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I can't afford but to be compact. It's already this long, and wait till you read Day Two tonight...
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