Tÿpo St. Gallen 2021

For the sixth time, Tÿpo St. Gallen was already organized and invited visitors to the GBS in St. Gallen from November 5th to 7th, 2021. During this weekend, we learned from the speakers and presenters what intuition means to them and were allowed to participate in exciting workshops. A weekend full of inspiration with a great program encouraged us to listen more to our own gut feeling.

After a welcome and introduction to Tÿpo St. Gallen 2021, the audience was directly involved in the performance by the musician Rudolf Lutz. He improvised on the piano and spontaneously transformed the audience into a humming choir. He demonstrated very well what intuition means in music. In addition to the moderation of Clemens Theobert Schedler, the creative presentations also contributed to making the weekend very entertaining and varied. Right at the beginning, Wolfgang Ortner from the Linz-based graphic design studio OrtnerSchinko showed the role that intuition plays in their projects and that it can be worthwhile to act more by gut feeling and less by client briefing. Daniel Ammann illustrated how we use signs and media to express and communicate ourselves. Swiss designer Josh Schaub has a special talent for movement and motion design. His rules for designing moving posters motivated people to open After Effects themselves. The importance of one’s own handwriting and how we can all learn to write beautifully was demonstrated by the Dutch graphic designer Britt Möricke in her presentation. Friday evening ended with a book vernissage of the extended new edition of the classic work on the history of writing ABC—Forms of Latin Type Development.

Before we were introduced to all workshops in an elevator pitch, Andreas Koop showed us what intuition means for web design. After that, a colorful mix of workshops followed, ranging from paper theory to lettering, programming, writing, type and web design. A good opportunity to exchange ideas and get creative with the other participants.

Latvian type designer Aleksandra Samulenkova then gave an insight into the special features of fonts in the Cyrillic alphabet in her presentation. How to work well together in a team of four, what challenges there are and how teamwork can lead to more creative design—this was shown by the designers from Büro Klass from Hamburg. In the afternoon, type designer and graphic designer Just van Rossum gave a presentation on the possibilities of color fonts. Particularly surprising for us was the lecture by Meike Ziegler. She told us about her travels and how she changed from design to the concept of Creatuals. She now designs customized ritual concepts, full of collaborative creativity.

On Sunday, there was also the opportunity for a guided tour of the art museum in St. Gallen. In addition, the most beautiful books from Switzerland, Germany, and Austria were presented.

We really enjoyed the weekend full of typography, design, and inspiration and are already looking forward to the next round of Tÿpo St. Gallen.