Letterspace Amsterdam has been a platform for the local letterform scene since early 2018. Since its inception, the initiative has set out to broaden perspectives on how we communicate, design, and play with letterforms.
Letterspace was founded by three type designers whose aim has been to look beyond their own practices and connect with others who enjoy working with type as a medium. A regular lecture programme and a focus on Amsterdam requires the organisers to seek for new voices and approaches.
For this book, letterspace invited speakers from the first 50 events to present new work, write essays, or offer a glimpse into their analogue or digital sketchbooks, while reflecting on the time that has passed since their talk. Letterspace 50 is as diverse as the lectures themselves: a collection of ideas, methods and people that demonstrates that typography is not a narrow discipline, but a vibrant and evolving landscape. The book is beautifully designed by two former members of the 530 Type Club Arnhem, which likewise stands for communal enjoyment of type.
All the people involved
#0 Introduction by Edgar Wathert #1 Milda Kuraitytė #2 Daniël Maarleveld #3 Arthur Reinders Folmer #4 David Bennewith #5 Kristyan Sarkis #5 Laura Meseguer #6 Jeroen Krielaars #7 Mark van Wageningen #8 Jolana Sýkorová #8 Mads Wildgaard #8 Woosoek Jang #9 Jan de Jong #12 Richard Niessen #13 VetteLetters #14 Frits Jonker #17 Graham Sturt #17 Pedro Arilla #19 Jasper de Waard #20 Five30 #22 Kevin Rooi #23#36DaysOfType #24 Grafisch Werkplaats Amsterdam #24 Martin Cadwallader #24 Sabina Chipară #25 Ronald Steur #26 Lara Captan #27 Maurice Meilleur #28 Pink Pony Express #29 Hansje van Halem #30 Yuri Veerman #31 Łukasz Matuszewski #32 David Millhouse #33 Johannis Force Team #34 Felix Salut #35 gebr.silvestri #36 Olga Umpeleva #37 Studio Laucke Siebein #38 Thom Niessink #39 Blast Foundry #40 Cecilia del Castillo Daza #41 Victor Brangolo #43 Helena Hesselink #43 Kasper Quaink #45 François Dey #45 Tariq Heijboer #46 Céline Jouandet #47 Ramiro Espinoza #48 Benjamin McMillan #49 Inna Kochkina #50 Anja Brunt #50 Lisa Dröes
Letterspace 50
Design: Kuan-Ting Chen & Kasper Quaink
Editor: George Sinclair & Edgar Walthert
Print: Offsetdrukkerij Jan de Jong
Publisher: De Buitenkant
De Buitenkant
De Buitenkant is a small but renowned independent publishing house located in the historic centre of Amsterdam. It is run by printer Jan de Jong and typesetter Chan Chi Lan-Ying, who founded the press in the late 1970s by translating and publishing typographic standard works into Dutch. Jan, originally a carpenter, started printing with a stencil press during his employment at antiquarian bookshop Brinkman and, after an apprenticeship at Rob Stolk, started his own printing workshop on Schipperstraat.
Since then, De Buitenkant has published books on books, nonfiction, poetry and essays, with a strong focus on socially engaged and artistically ambitious work. Design and translation play a central role in the publishing practice. When a project suits the scale of their one-colour workshop press, books are produced in-house; larger productions are printed elsewhere on a rented press. The rich back catalogue of the Buitenkant includes titles by Bram de Does, Gerard Unger, Madelon Hooikaas, Gerrit Noordzij, Hansje van Halem and Dick Dooijes.
