Education
Concerns about design education have been at the heart of ATypI from the outset, in different forms and at different intensities, witnessing some notable highlights as well as periods of quiet. Despite these ebbs and flows, the objective of promoting discussion on typographic and typeface design matters, and opening channels between professionals, teachers, and students remain central to the considerations of the association.
The current Education Committee is more of a loose group, comprising primarily Board members who count teaching amongst their main occupations. There are three main strands in our thinking, which we aim to translate to activities visible to the whole of the membership. The first involves the introduction to the association of design students and young professionals worldwide, through activities in the institutions that ATypI has visited and where members are teaching. Therein lies the evangelising aspect of our agenda, which echoes but updates the association's concerns for respect of font software licenses: an effort to get a simple message across as early as possible.
The second strand of our thinking revolves around the documentation of design practice, both current and on previous technologies: essentially to the extent of our members' recollections. This is something of interest to many parties: students and professionals wanting to learn about the process of typeface design; established professionals at different levels who can benefit from sharing approaches with peers, and reflect on how practice adapts to new technologies and business approaches; and readers and researchers at all levels (from the online debaters to the armchair historians, and all the way to formal programmes of research and publication).
The final strand is, of course, dissemination: getting things out there for people to to use. This is something that ATypI used to do with variable frequency, but with notable outcomes (for example output of the Working Seminars in Basel (1974) and Reading (1976), Gerritt Noordzij's Letterletter series (1984--96), and the Language/Culture/Type volume (2002)). These and other examples offer models for consideration, along with the nowadays obvious routes of online publication.
We have just described an agenda that can keep a few people fairly busy all year round. Keeping in mind that everything happens in our spare time, this may seem over-stretching. But experience has shown that both small and large projects can happen if you persevere, and can push back the deadline every so often.
In the meantime, we have made an education panel/forum a permanent fixture in the conference, and would like to see the format extend. We will also attempt to use the education list more constructively, and explore ways of involving Country Delegates.
So, if you have any ideas or comments, fire away. Gerry Leonidas and Barbara Jarzyna are just an email away.