Keynote Presentation: Jean François Porchez

Join us at TypeCon2019 “Nice” on Friday, August 30th in Minneapolis, Minnesota for a keynote presentation by Jean François Porchez … designer, educator, and pioneer of digital typography.

Type Design in the Computer Age

What was it like to to design typefaces before digital era or launching a foundry in the 90s? This talk will explore these topics, illustrated by historical sources and ongoing typeface projects. In the context of designing typographic identities based on authentic roots: connotations, history, and even politics play a major role in type design. How communities play a crucial role in designer career, as well how teaching reinforces the understanding of daily practice. As practitioners, we are influenced by our environment, we follow trends, and we try to understand them. But what does it mean to design typefaces today? Let us question typographical genres, where to set limits in typeface revivals, and how to use sources and materials in an ethical way. And indeed, how to draw the line between interpretation and piracy. Let us reject the opportunism, shortcuts, bad and practises that threaten our small typographic industry.

About Jean François Porchez

Founder of Typofonderie and ZeCraft, Jean François Porchez launched TypeParis in 2015.He worked as a type director at Dragon Rouge, then at Le Monde. He was President of the ATypI from 2004–2007. He is board member of the Club des Directeurs Artistiques, a member of the TDC, and the typographic design master programme director at ECV, Paris.He was awarded the Prix Charles Peignot in 1998 and has received numerous other prizes for his typeface designs. Porchez was inducted into the French Who’s Who in 2009, made a knight in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015, and had his monograph published by Perrousseaux in 2014. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has used his typefaces for official communication since 2017.