Gerry Leonidas – Greek type and typography
We’re starting our second conference day with a keynote talk by Gerry Leonidas, president of ATypI and associate professor at the University of Reading. Talking about Greek typefaces, he says it is necessary to be “sufficiently disinterested in typeface design” to be objective – but highly interested in typography. Typefaces do not exist on their own, but only in their typographic setting, within the technological developments of their time. Letterforms change over time, and today, they are part of a global environment and typographic practice. A typeface cannot be judged on its own by a fixed set of criteria; but it can capture a combination of needs and offer space for exploration and innovation – especially for non-Latin scripts.