Programme

Petr van Blokland (1956) studied at the Graphic and Typographic Design Department of the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, Netherlands. In 1979 he graduated cum laude and worked as an intern at Total Design in Amsterdam and Studio Dumbar in The Hague. From 1980 until today he was designer and partner in Buro Petr van Blokland + Claudia Mens in Delft, working on a wide variety of design projects, including corporate identities, typography, type design, programming and simulations of the design process. To specialize himself he studied for several years at the TU-Delft department Industrial Design. From 1984 until 1989 he taught at the Academy for Visual Arts in Arnhem. From 1988 until 2010 he is a teacher at the Graphic and Typographic Design Department, where he is still teaching the Master Type & Media of the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague. Since 2010 he lectures at the Master Graphic Design AKV St. Joost in Breda. As partner in webtype.com his focus is currently on designing type and the development of tools for type design.

Josipa Selthofer, is a senior teaching/research assistant at the Department of Information Sciences at the University of Osijek, Croatia. She obtained a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design from the Faculty of Graphic Arts, University of Zagreb, and a PhD in Information Science from the University of Zadar. Her areas of interest are primarily visual communication, history of and contemporary printing, graphic design and publishing. She is a member of the organization committee of the International Conference on Publishing Trends and Contexts and of the Libraries in the Digital Age International Conference. She acts as a graphic design editor for several scientific journals.

Niki Sioki is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, where she teaches typography, publishing, design history and research. Her research interests lie in the fields of design for reading with a focus on the typographic history of Greek alphabet books, book history concentrating on design and production, and the printing history of Greek. Niki holds a PhD in Typography and Graphic Communication from the University of Reading, UK.

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Nik is a freelance designer involved in all kind of projects, from typography to video art. His passion about communication has led him to undertake major promotional projects online and offline advising brands in Greece and abroad how to make the most out of the new technologies. He is highly interested in ideas such as interactivity and participatory design, ideas that he finds highly inspiring and motivating. Nik has won a Design Week award in 2008 for the design of the “Finger Print” publication but also another three Greek Graphic Design and Illustration awards the last few years.

Anna Efstathiou received a Diploma in Architecture from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, a MA in Industrial Design from Birmingham Polytechnic, and a PhD from the Edinburgh College of Arts, Heriot Watt University, UK, with the support of the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. The PhD dealt with the semiology of Interior spaces, specifically those of offices and banks. She has also an MBA degree from the University of Macedonia, Greece. She served in academic positions as a senior lecturer in the AAS College (1992-2004) and as the Course Leader of the BA and MA in Interior Design of the AAS–UCLAN partnership in Thessaloniki (2005-2012). Since 2012 she is the Coordinator of the Interior Design Programme, University of Nicosia, Cyprus. As a professional she collaborated with the Technical Department of ATE Bank of Greece and since 1992 as a freelancer with the “Archigraph” architectural practice team. She is a member of the following professional bodies: TEE in Greece and ETEK in Cyprus, the Greek Colleges Teaching Staff (Ministry of Education) and the Hellenic Energy Inspectorate (Ministry of Environment and Climatic Change).

Brian Kwok is currently Assistant Professor in Communication Design at the School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He is Lab Leader of the School's Information Design Lab. Brian’s research interests lie mainly in information design, user-centered design and visual culture. Recent projects include redesigning medicine labels for the elderly, typography and visual culture in neon signs, as well as wayfinding and spatial representation for the local community. Brian holds his MA in Design from PolyU. He also gained his MA in Visual Culture Studies and MPhil in Communication from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Georgios D. Matthiopoulos teaches Graphic Design at the School of Fine Arts and Design of the Technological Educational Institute of Athens and his research work is in the fields of type design, typography and Graphic Arts history. He is a founding member and type designer for the non-profit organization Greek Font Society. He has authored the work Anthology of Greek Typography (University of Crete Press, 2009), the textbooks Lettering and Flexography (Greek Open University Press, 2002) and he has translated into Greek the works of: Robert Bringhurst, Elements of Typographic Style (University of Crete Press, 2001), Victor Scholderer, Greek Printing Types, 1465-1927(Typophilia, 1995), Tim Wu, The Master Switch. The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Gialos, 2012) and John Berger, A Painter of our Times (University of Crete Press, 2002). He has also designed many editions and art catalogues, museum exhibitions and conferences.

Yiannis Papadopoulos is a visual artist living between Athens and Antwerp. He has studied Mathematics (BA) and Visual Arts (MFA) in Greece and in The Netherlands. His work, formally diverse, drawing on the traditions of conceptual art, relative thinking andthe sciences, is notable by its aesthetic economy and poetic ambition. Latest shows: Deste Prize 2015 (Cycladic Art Museum, 2015), The Ister (Extra City Kunsthal Antwerp, 2015), Antique Fever (Greek Archaeologists Association, 2014),Borger (Antwerp, 2014), Print (Frans Masereel Centrum+MORE publishers, Kasterlee, 2015).

Tatiana Marza was born and raised in the Republic of Moldova. At the age of 18 she moved to Greece to study Economics at the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki (BA in 2006). Later, she earned her BA (Honours) Degree in Graphic Design from Middlesex University, UK, at AKTO, Thessaloniki (2014). Her BA thesis focused on the exploration of Greek letterforms and typography. Her online quest for answers led to the involvement of the most well known type designers, giving new insights into the field. Given that she is fluent in Greek, Romanian, Russian and English, she occasionally offers typographic consultancy to type designers regarding fonts in these languages.

Irene Vlachou is a typeface designer based in Athens, Greece. She graduated from the Vakalo School of Art & Design graphic design programme (Athens) and holds an MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading, UK. She has collaborated with various international type foundries and has worked as a typeface designer and as a consultant on several projects with specialisation in Greek. During the last years she works as a senior type designer for the Type Together foundry.

Vaibhav Singh is an independent typographer and type designer. He received a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Pune and a master’s in Visual Communication from IDC, IIT Bombay. He was a recipient of the Felix scholarship in 2010 for his MA in Typeface Design, and again in 2013 for his PhD research, both at the University of Reading, UK. Having worked as a typographer and exhibition designer in Mumbai, Delhi, and Panjim, he now specialises in designing typefaces for north Indian scripts.

Born at Arnhem, Netherlands, 1942. Studied graphic design, typography and type design from 1963–67 at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. He teaches as visiting professor at the University of Reading, UK. Department of Typography & Graphic Communication; taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy till January 2007. From 2006 till 2012 he was Professor of Typography at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Freelance designer since 1972. He has designed stamps, coins, magazines, newspapers, books, corporate identities and more, but he is best known for his type designs.

In 1984 he received the H.N.Werkman-Prize, in 1988 the Gravisie-Prize, in 1991 the Maurits Enschedé-Prize and in 2009 the Sota-Award.

In 2013 he obtained his PhD from Leiden University on the subject of Alverata, a contemporary type design with roots in the Romanesque period (±1000–1200) and in early Europe. Last year this type design won a golden European Design Award and this year the tdc-gold in Tokyo. He has written many articles and one of his books, Terwijl je leest, has been translated in Italian, English (and while you read this) in German, Spanish, French and Korean. Gerard Unger lectures frequently about type design and related subjects.

Gerry Leonidas is a Senior Lecturer in Typography at the University of Reading, UK. He teaches, supervises, and lectures on typography, typeface design, and typographic education. He writes on typeface design, and is often asked to evaluate bodies of work. The rest of his time is taken with enterprise and knowledge transfer projects. Gerry’s research interests cover the practice of typeface design as a response to wider contexts, and a range of issues surrounding Greek typeface design.

http://leonidas.org/