Keith Tam: typography + beyond


		Keith Chi-Hang Tam		Keith Chi-hang Tam Typography Hong Kong

		Two public lectures this summer: 11 August 2009 Design Summer Hangzhou Typography: the big picture To put it simply, typography is ‘language made visible’. On the most fundamental level, typography is a necessity for human beings to communicate through written languages, conveying information and ideas. On a connotative level, typography endows written language with visual and cultural meanings that extend beyond the literal. Typography, in the Western sense of the word, implies ‘mass production’ made possible originally with letterpress printing and later phototypesetting and digital typography. Typography is therefore inextricably linked with technology, implying a sense of order, system, structure and standardization. No equivalent for the term ‘typography’ exists in the Chinese language. What one might call ‘Chinese typography’ has a much broader basis, and has a much closer link with the art of calligraphy. What could typography be in contemporary design practices and society? This presentation explores this question through looking at typography as a mediator between content and form, function and expression, textual and visual, concepts and aesthetics, techniques and technology. 宏觀看文字設計簡單而言，文字設計（typography）就是“將語言呈現出來”的意思。文字設計學建基於人類對用語言文字溝通的一個實際需要，如實地將信息及想法表達出來。更深層次的去看，文字設計與編排亦具有所謂的“言外之意”，即是除了字面上的意義之外，文字在視覺和文化上也縕含著深層的、含蓄的涵義。Typography一詞，在英語裡表明了“大量生產”的意思，是西方發現活字印刷之後所形成的一門技術。因此，typography一詞暗喻了科技的重要性，是一門追求規範化、系統化和統一性的學問。無容置疑，漢字在中華文化中有著舉足輕重的地位。然而，中國沒有和typography同等意義的字詞。中國的文字及編排設計與書法藝術同出一徹，但印刷術自古沒有如同書法的藝術地位。雖說活字印刷始於宋朝，活字印刷在中國的發展與規範化亦是比較近代的事。隨著科技的變遷，文字設計學在當代傳達設計領域和社會裡扮演著什麼角色？信息傳播的電子化對文字設計的將來有什麼影響？此講座將會探討這些問題。 18 July 2009 Vision Book Café Second floor, 9 Queen Victoria Street, Central 書籍設計一二譚愛書的人實在不少，而愛書的原因也許每個人也不一樣。不管是一本精彩的小說，一冊精美的繪本、攝影集，以至一本資訊豐富的旅遊指南，甚至工具書，無容置疑，內容是十分重要。然而，設計亦同樣扮演著一個不可或缺的角色。好的書籍設計能有效地融合內容與其表達形式，不但能給讀者一個賞心悅目的閱讀經歷，也能幫助讀者理解及吸收內容。書籍設計原來是一門裝璜工藝，但發展至今已演變成講求整體統一性、從溝通傳意出發的學問。設計師不僅僅是一個擁有美術才華的人，他更要對文字內容有敏銳觸角和有準確的組織及分析能力。現代的書籍設計不單停留於封面包裝之上；內容的編排、文字與圖片的相互關係、插圖的繪畫與選材、所有的細部處理包括物料、紙的質感重量、裝釘方法等都是書籍設計師要考慮到的範疇。是次講座將會以輕鬆互動的手法探討以上的種種問題。推薦書目《書藝問道》呂敬人編著。中國青年出版社，2006 《翻開—當代中國書籍設計》呂敬人編。清華大學出版社，2004 《中國現代設計的誕生》郭恩慈、蘇𤤴著。三聯書店，2007 Notes on Book Design by David Birdsall. Yale University Press, 2004 Book Design: A Comprehensive Guide by Andrew Haslam. Laurence King, 2006 7/16/2009 12:22:00 PM (0) comments ATypI Brighton 2007: Hands On 12–16 September 2007 Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Brighton My presentation, Sunday 16 September 13:15–14:05: Typographic bilingualism: a framework for the co-existence of Chinese and English texts 7/30/2007 07:23:00 AM (0) comments I was at the International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication in Thessaloniki last month. I ran an italic calligraphy workshop with my Type Initiative partner Michail Semoglou and gave a presentation titled ‘Teaching typography: perspectives & approaches’ where I discussed typography pedagogy and showned student work from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Emily Carr Institute in Canada. Here are some photos.. One of the typography projects I designed at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is featured on James Craig’s site Designing with Type. Here are some images of bilingual public signage and typographic design in Hong Kong. More to come later. 7/18/2007 09:40:00 PM (0) comments Several new things: 1 Digital typography: a primer (247K) 2 Baseline grid (107K) 3 My design pedagogy (8.31MB) 4 My design work (6.98MB) 10/10/2006 10:22:00 AM (0) comments Just married! Keith Chi-hang Tam & Cherry Jean Stuart Chao 1 June 2006, Vancouver BC, Canada 6/03/2006 05:30:00 AM (0) comments Village type co-op opens its doors today! Arrival is finally available for purchase and download exclusively at Village. Along with my partner and friend Michail Semoglou we’re launching our very own type label, Type Initiative, who’s one of the nine (soon to be twelve) members of Village. Village is a type co-op; the union of nine (soon to be twelve) young type foundries who have decided to go it alone, together. vllg.com is the information channel and boutique storefront for this group of equals. The members of our group hail from Canada, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, the UK, and the US. We are Feliciano Type Foundry, Joshua Darden, Karsten Luecke Type Foundry, Lux Typographics, Orange Italic, Thirstype, Type Initiative, Underware, and Village. Village is based in New York City. For a few years we’ve been thinking about a “type designers union”, a loose gathering of smart friends. We would share a distribution channel and help introduce each other to the wider design world. We did this in a limited way at Thirstype, but recently renewed our focus on this project. By coming together we benefit from the innovative website developed by Takashi Okamoto of mudCorp, featuring version 1.1 of the mudTyper, the revolutionary live type testing tool. New releases: Arrival from Keith Chi-hang Tam of Type Initiative. This sans serif font was designed for wayfinding, and is incredibly sturdy, clear, and legible. Litteratra from Karsten Luecke Type Foundry. An OpenType feat, this TDC2-winning design from 2001 has been redrawn and expanded: the 1900+ character glyphset has to be seen to be believed. Crank 8 by Greg Lindy & Henk Elenga for Lux Typographics. Nearly a decade in the making, this contemporary and very personal sans serif has been used exclusively for the last year by Esquire magazine. Upcoming releases: Omnes by Joshua Darden. A multi-weight gestural sans serif with immese joie-de-vivre. Local Gothic by Christian Schwartz of Orange Italic. The first self-published font from the great Mr Schwartz. As seen in design for TypeCon 2005. 7/14/2005 11:51:00 AM (0) comments My travel pictures – Japan, Hong Kong, China. 7/05/2005 08:24:00 AM (0) comments Somthing quite radical appeared on the front page of one of Canada’s national newspapers this past Saturday – and I’m glad I was part of it. The Globe and Mail put out a special edition on China and asked me to design some Chinese lettering for the front page. The result was striking. The Chinese characters read: Ambitious, Powerful, Restless... Get Ready for China’s Century. This weekend edition sold out in Greater Vancouver on Saturday alone. And here’s one of the emails the paper received: “To live on this planet for almost 70 years and finally witness one of the most spectacular front pages in my lifetime, makes me want to tell everyone where I was when I first saw it.” — J. Kerr, Vancouver 10/26/2004 12:54:00 AM (0) comments Powered by Blogger		about work types writings links books gallery archives [ contact ]