Every year, type enthusiasts worldwide make their way to a host city to celebrate and learn from fellow type designers. This four-day-long event is put on by the AtypI organization (Association Typographique Internationale). Initially founded by Charles Peignot, director of the French type foundry Deberny & Peignot, it has run continuously since its beginning in 1957. Each year, a visual brand is created for the conference. This branding is visually distinctive from the main AtypI brand—and much like the winter and summer Olympic brands—is modified to reflect and celebrate the host country or city. But unlike the Olympic brands, AtypI’s annual conference branding focuses primarily on type to express the host city’s culture or typographic history. In 2024, the 65th annual conference will take place in Brisbane, Australia—the first time an AtypI conference has ever been held in the country. In anticipation of this year’s conference, we thought it would be fun to walk through the past 10 years’ branding to see how they reflected and were inspired by their hosting cities.

2014 : Barcelona, Spain

Designer Mario Eskenazi created the simple modern look for the 2014 gathering. The minimal system utilized the Franklin Gothic URW font in bolder weights, with a combination of bright cyan and black colors. To give each sign or presenter's screen a unique two-letter bold graphic, the system employed letter pairings of capital and lowercase letters. For instance, the “AaBb” pairing was used as the graphic element for the primary signage for the ATypI Barcelona signs.

2015 : Sao Paulo, Brazil

The core idea for the 2015 branding was derived from the ‘ã’ sound in Portuguese. Designer Crystian Cruz, inspired by the pronunciation of the ‘ã,’ utilized the visual representation of phonetics, combined with inspiration from the tilda-like Copan building by famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, to create the core mark for the conference. Two typefaces, Voces (designed by Ana Paula Megda and Pablo Ugerman) and Brasílica (designed by Rafael Dietzsch and published by CAST), were used throughout the conference materials and wayfinding.

2016 : Warsaw, Poland

The theme for the 2016 gathering was “Convergence”. 2016 AtypI Chair and Professor at the Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology in Warsaw, Ewa Satalecka curated the branding. It featured the boxy san serif typeface Doppio One by fellow Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technology graduate Szymon Celej.

2017 : Montréal, Canada

The year 2017 was unusual for the branding in that it used no less than twelve fonts. Julien Hébert, who created the system said, “The A17Mtl mark was created from scratch and meant to reflect this year’s theme: Atypique (atypical in French). I had fun with ink traps, making the mark look good at all sizes, as well as geometry, creating very satisfying alignments and fitting the mark in a perfect square.” The primary typeface for the event was the Swiss international style-inspired sans serif, Guilon (designed by Feed Studio). Other fonts used in the system to add typographic texture and visual interest were Minotaur Beef (design by Jean-Baptiste Levée and Yoann Minet), Sharp Grotesk (design by Sharp Type), Joe182 (design by Jan Horčík), Gander Alte (design by Daniel Sabino), Frauen Roman and Script (design by Lucas Sharp), Triade (design by Alexandre Saumier Demers and Étienne Aubert Bonn), Rozza (design by Denis Serebryakov), Pareto (designed by Dinamo), Octanco, Umbra, and Symptom (design by Ellmer Stefan).

2018 : Antwerp, Belgium

Pulling from local folklore, the design system for the conference in Antwerp was inspired by the legend of a giant’s hands being cut off and thrown into the river (where the city gets its name) and the coincidental connection to typographic manicules. The primary typeface was Meran Pro by TypeBy (inspired by diamonds and the triangular rooftops). Parry Pro by Artur Schmal was used for the primary body copy.

2019 : Tokyo, Japan

2019 saw the conference convene in the bustling city of Tokyo, Japan. The identity used bold colors such as red, black, and white with touches of blue to create clean color fields in which the typography could confidently be centered with plenty of surrounding negative space. The Latin typeface used was Allium (designed by Cyrus Highsmith) and A-OTF UD Shin Go Pr6N (Designed by Morisawa Inc) for the Japanese typeface.

2020, 2021, 2022: Virtual

Like many things scheduled in 2020, the AtypI conference was canceled due to the COVID outbreak and instead moved online. Subsequent years, 2021 and 2022, remained online as the pandemic continued to be an issue for large gatherings. For these years two programs were offered online: Tech Talks (discussions and presentations about technology and type) and All Over (a showcase of type design worldwide). The identity was designed by Laura Meseguer and Gerard Joan with animations by Emilia Miękisz. The system used the typefaces Sisters One and DINosaur Black , both by Type-Ø-Tones).

2023 : Paris, France

French design studio Bureau Brut was initially slated to create the branding for the AtypI 2020 conference. However, with the cancellation of the in-person conference due to COVID-19, their contribution to the look and feel of the conference was postponed until 2023—when the meeting could resume in person. Bureau Brut’s approach was inspired by the playfulness of childhood and the desire to remain fun and break the stereotype of seriousness often associated with type design. They created two custom fonts: one very bold and blocky and the other an extreme contrast of very thin and minimal. The playfulness of the system extended into more experimentation with the typographic elements and additional shapes—even adding a light-hearted 3d visual of the letters inflating like balloons.  

2024 : Brisbane, Australia

And now in 2024, the 65th conference in Brisbane, Australia, has an exceptionally tight tie to its host city. The branding was headed up by David Sargent, Creative Director at Liveworm Studio and Senior Lecturer at Queensland College of Art and Design. Katie Maxfield was the student whose final design concept was chosen as the winning brand. Katie chose the aptly named typeface Brisbane by our very own Troy Leinster. The typeface was originally inspired by the city of Brisbane, a relaxed sans serif reflecting the personality of the place and people. The design team utilized the wayfinding and directional devices included in the typeface.

Written by Courtney Garvin for Leinster Type.