➜ Outside the auditorium and on the 5th and 6th floor of the classroom building, there were workshops that ran partially parallel to the main conference. Managed by Pongtorn Hiranpruek, these workshops provided an opportunity for the public, students and professionals alike, to engage in activities led by the six international designers. Most workshops had around 10-15 participants. Some had prior knowledge of typography while others tried it for their first time.

Our Chicago-based designer, Tnop Wangsillapakun, introduced the roles of typography to the participants before moving on to the core of his workshop — separating content out of context and reconstructing them. Everyone was told to bring one small item and during the workshop they had to select a keyword that best describe the context and make detailed sketches including texture, color and form of the object. Then they had to combine the keyword and the sketches into a typeset that distinctly represent the object. It’s certainly quite a useful method for finding new ideas, and not just for lettering and type design. The participants did catch on quickly and the results were both varied and interesting.

Sebastian Morlighem, a lecturer by default, gave a rather long presentation on the history and classification of type to the attendees. In a way, it was particularly useful as the subject was rarely taught in Thai design schools. It opened up a part of knowledge we were usually not exposed to. After dozens of slides, the participants were asked to blow up a type of their choice by hand, from A4 size to A2. There were various classes of types to choose from including Baskerville, Adobe Trajan Pro, Pascal, and FF Nexus. It led us back to the fundamentals and the appreciation of the delicate letterforms. Back to basics, more or less.

What kind of activity would a perfectionist provide for the participants of his workshop? Kerning! A detailed and laborious job, even for professional typographers. Akira Kobayashi didn’t spend too much time talking, instead he gave everyone a piece of paper containing a word, asked them to cut and separate the letters, then put them back in one piece. One by one, the participants would place the characters into their original word, focusing on proper spacing between each letter. And one by one, they would come to check it with Akira, who would beam the word from almost every angle possible. This went on until the spacing looked just right. The second activity was also about kerning but perhaps a little more advanced — participants needed to kern based on the proper kerning of a pair of letters. Although these may seemed a bit repetitive, they surely gave the general crowd a deeper understanding of letter craftsmanship and the significance of negative space.

Keith Chi-hang Tam, a casual and easy-going fellow, ran a workshop much like his personality. As his talk was partly about writing tools, the activity was a continuation of that. He provided the attendees with several traditional writing tools and let them enjoy drawing letters and see the differences each tool made. Surprisingly, some participants were able to write Chinese, but obviously most went for the latin alphabet. Calligraphy is fun and it should be taught in design schools, but that will probably not be happening anytime soon. The only way to experience it, is through self-taught or by participating in a workshop like this.

The lady from New York, and the only female guest of this conference, Anisa Suthayalai, brought her personal project to Bangkok — creating a typeface for the person you paired up with. Like what she did in New York, a participant had to extract as much information about his partner as possible. Keywords would emerge and from there, the visual cues. With these, a typeface could be created for that particular person. Of course, not many people could design a typeface within a few hours, and definitely not the attendees who had never even created one before. Frustration happened, but mostly as a sign of focused effort. It was an experiment and a starting point, not a complete course in type design. Works were left unfinished but participants seemed enthusiastic enough, and perhaps some would choose to continue the project on a later date. It was a ‘personal’ project after all.

Smarter, nicer, faster, better. This was the title of the workshop ran by Akiem Helmling. As the title implied, the participants were required to make a written sentence looks smarter, feels nicer, read faster, and generally better. Unlike other things in this world, language does not change much especially in appearance. But can it be made different? That was the main question asked in the workshop. More or less, the participants were simplifying the form of the sentence they had initially written out. After this was done, each sentence was shown to the others, testing whether it actually turned out smarter, nicer, faster, and better, or not. However, it wasn’t the result that was important, it was the question…the thinking that led to the designs. In fact, it is something worth keeping in mind regardless of your profession.

It was well past six when the conference and workshops all ended. Definitely a tiring but rewarding day for the staff. Anuthin Wongsunkakon, as the main initiator of BITS, still wandered around to ensure everything was in proper order till the end. A lot of people continued to hang around in front of the auditorium, chatting and rambling about all kinds of issues. Some were smoking. Some were just chilling out. A few were enjoying a can of cold beer. Snacks were provided for all the hungry guests. T-shirts from Designiti were still on sale, hoping to grab their last flock of customers. And one question remained floating since morning — ‘Am I your type?’ Perhaps a nice way to start a conversation with someone at the end of the day. All in all, everything signified a perfect and casual epilogue to the long-awaited conference.

As the returning writer and an ordinary participant of both BITS MMX and BITS MMXI, I couldn’t help feeling nostalgic. The scenes very much reminded me of last year’s conference. It was warm and fulfilling. The inspiration and knowledge shared in these two days were enormous. They were varied, unique, and philosophical. But, overall, was this conference successful? Last year was a spark. This year, will the light shine on until the next? The tickets were sold out and the number of attendees increased. Besides, there were people who flew over to attend including those from Japan, Malaysia, Australia, and Germany. As a fellow designer, I was glad to see the increased interest in BITS and typography in general. Nevertheless, as hard as the organizers tried, the importance of typography is definitely not yet stressed enough. And to be honest, will probably remain so for many years. The problem with type is that they don’t call much attention to themselves. And when they do, it’s probably because they are so appallingly obtrusive and dreadfully awful. People don’t die from bad typography, and if they suffer from it, they suffer unconsciously. So the question is when will it move beyond the design circle and be seriously considered an integral part of Thai culture and environment? BITS is certainly not just a design conference, it is a bridge built towards that goal. Last year, many individuals began walking on this bridge and this year more joined the voyage. Next year is still unknown, but the bridge will be there, standing tall and confident, awaiting more travelers. The journey is a long one, but not without an end.