Keith Chi-Hang Tam

Keith Chi-hang Tam
Typography
Hong Kong

Hello. Haven’t done a serious update for a while now – I’ve been busy. I hope you’re still reading! ATypI is coming up next week. For those of you who will be here, you’ll get a special keepsake cast by local letterpress printer and type designer Jim Rimmer. It’s a 48pt casting of the conference mascot ‘Shamus’.

John Hudson has kindly compiled a restaurant guide for those who are coming from out of town. Not included in the guide is the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, conveninently located at the entrance to Granville Island. It has a student-run restaurant, newly expanded to a larger premises right by the mariner, offers fantastic 3-course lunches and dinners at $20 for and $30 respectively. The cooking is French. You should definitely try it but do book ahead of time.

I’m still preparing for my presentation on Sunday morning. I’m a bit anxious, to be honest. It’s turning out to be a collection of anecdotes on the Chinese language and typography, rather than a coherent, deep study. The schedule organized by track, time and alocation is now published, which allows you to compare the tracks. There are going to be many tough decisions to be made!

There are going to be a series of satellite lectures opened to students at the Emily Carr Institute. At the time of writing, Gerard Unger, Jean-François Porchez, Jeremany Tankard and Gerry Leonidas will be talking to students on type design before the conference starts, on Wednesday and Thursday. Underware will present on the Tuesday following the conference. Emily Carr students who are reading this: make time to go to these!

If you have time, visit the secondhand and antiquarian bookstore McLeods on Richards Street (cross street is Hastings) downtown. It doesn’t have as many books of interest to type enthusiasts as they used to (they used to have an entire section dedicated to typography and books on books), but off and on you might still find titles of interest, of even gems. I picked up a mint copy of Gottfried Pott’s The music of lettering from there a month ago. It’s a beautiful book. Pott is a brilliant German calligrapher who is known for using unconventional tools and materials and his free, rhythmic letters that are full of energy. Other treasures I bought from McLeods over the years include a gorgeous Bernhart Brothers & Spindler type specimen from the 1930s, a mint copy of Bertram & Sutton’s An atlas of typeforms, Fairbank’s a book of scripts and A handwriting manual among others.



I’m looking forward to seeing many of you in Vancouver next week!

9/21/2003 12:29:00 AM

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