Berlin Letters is a festival for lettering, type design, calligraphy and all other letter shaping disciplines. Three days of international lectures, professional workshops and lots of other events.
Around 250 experts and beginners come together to exchange ideas. Berlin Letters took place for the second time from July 5 to 7, 2024.
July 25, 2024
Most of the photos on this page are by Norman Posselt, our trusted photographer, who previously documented TYPO Berlin and the first edition of our festival in 2019.
The website hacked, ticket sales slow and speakers canceling at short notice ... in the week before it started, I was asking myself: »Why are we doing this to ourselves?« But as soon as the festival started, the answer was obvious.
Berlin Letters is the annual festival that took place once in 2019. Then there was the pandemic, war, and crisis. It wasn’t until five years later that we decided that things just weren’t getting any better and planned the big comeback.
Organizing a festival with 23 lectures and 14 workshops and 250 participants means, above all, writing thousands of emails over months and spending the evenings in team meetings on Zoom.
Pascale Arpin is a professional sign painter from Canada. She not only gave a lecture and taught a sign-painting workshop, but also set the visual tone on the festival site silent green with her hand-painted signage system.
photo: Alexandra Schwarzwald
There are four of us: Ulrike Rausch and I curate the program, coordinate the speakers and manage the social media channels; Nils Töpfer and Claudia Guminski take care of the budget, technology, location and logistics.
The festival was Nils and Claudia’s idea because they had worked for TYPO Berlin for many years and didn’t want to live without the hassle and joy of event organization after the conference was discontinued.
After a four-year break, we had to start all over again in the fall of 2023—without start-up capital, without sponsors, the website had been hacked and the Instagram account was dead.
But when the event started and everything we had planned for nine months came together in the domed hall of the beautiful silent green location, it wasn’t just a festival, it was a celebration.
Team Berlin Letters: Claudia Guminski, Nils Töpfer, Ulrike Rausch and yours truely.
Of course, two dozen friends and volunteers help out at the festival itself, it wouldn’t be possible without them.
Berlin Letters 2024 Selfie with Hari Klein, Ran Keren, Ying Chang, Michaela Maltini, François Tusseki, Ximena Jiménez, Kwat Wulan, Pascale Arpin, Merle Michaelis
photo: Merle Michaelis
All our colleagues and friends were there—and all the people we invited because we appreciate their work and wanted to get to know them. Ulrike and I specifically invited friends to be speakers who don’t just show off their portfolio and brag about their client list, but people who have an interesting, nerdy area of expertise and really have something to say.
Moderating these speakers’ talks for three days and listening to their presentations was very fulfilling. And it was gratifying to see people get to know each other who have so much to say because they share common interests.
The greatest reward was the feedback from the participants and speakers at the end of the first day. How great the event was! How nice the people! How exciting the presentations!
And the reactions and compliments afterwards also show me that with Berlin Letters we have created a framework in which people can meet in a very open and friendly way and come up with new ideas in exchange with each other. In the reactions to the festival, the word »inspired« was used several times and that describes my feeling best.
Part of the French delegation: Carine Vadet-Perrot, Thierry Fétiveau, Léa und Céline.
photo: Alexandra Schwarzwald
At the end of the three days, I was scheduled to give the closing speech. It was hot in the hall and I was fried from three days as a presenter on stage and in the company of so many enthusiastic people.
And then Ulrike really got me with her introduction and moved me so much that I broke out in tears on stage. I gave my talk with wet eyes, there were technical problems, and I didn’t have my notes—but at the end of the talk I got a standing ovation for the first time in my life. <3!
Thank you, Berlin Letters!
Kadir Amigo Memiş dances Zeybreak and writes to techno.
Ying Chang talks about the influence her minimalist lifestyle has had on her lettering.
Ximena Jiménez about her path to lettering, graffiti and herself.
Rüdiger Schlömer about Typeknitting and the connection between knitting and code.
Ulrike Rausch designs 90s word art fonts—and their presentations are getting more and more entertaining.
Pascale Arpin tells her whole life and her path to sign painting—and back—in just 30 minutes.
July 25, 2024
Berlin Letters is a festival for lettering, type design, calligraphy and all other letter shaping disciplines. Three days of international lectures, professional workshops and lots of other events.
Around 250 experts and beginners come together to exchange ideas. Berlin Letters took place for the second time from July 5 to 7, 2024.
The website hacked, ticket sales slow and speakers canceling at short notice ... in the week before it started, I was asking myself: »Why are we doing this to ourselves?« But as soon as the festival started, the answer was obvious.
Berlin Letters is the annual festival that took place once in 2019. Then there was the pandemic, war, and crisis. It wasn’t until five years later that we decided that things just weren’t getting any better and planned the big comeback.
Organizing a festival with 23 lectures and 14 workshops and 250 participants means, above all, writing thousands of emails over months and spending the evenings in team meetings on Zoom.
Pascale Arpin is a professional sign painter from Canada. She not only gave a lecture and taught a sign-painting workshop, but also set the visual tone on the festival site silent green with her hand-painted signage system.
photo: Alexandra Schwarzwald
Most of the photos on this page are by Norman Posselt, our trusted photographer, who previously documented TYPO Berlin and the first edition of our festival in 2019.
There are four of us: Ulrike Rausch and I curate the program, coordinate the speakers and manage the social media channels; Nils Töpfer and Claudia Guminski take care of the budget, technology, location and logistics.
The festival was Nils and Claudia’s idea because they had worked for TYPO Berlin for many years and didn’t want to live without the hassle and joy of event organization after the conference was discontinued.
After a four-year break, we had to start all over again in the fall of 2023—without start-up capital, without sponsors, the website had been hacked and the Instagram account was dead.
But when the event started and everything we had planned for nine months came together in the domed hall of the beautiful silent green location, it wasn’t just a festival, it was a celebration.
Team Berlin Letters: Claudia Guminski, Nils Töpfer, Ulrike Rausch and yours truely.
Of course, two dozen friends and volunteers help out at the festival itself, it wouldn’t be possible without them.
All our colleagues and friends were there—and all the people we invited because we appreciate their work and wanted to get to know them. Ulrike and I specifically invited friends to be speakers who don’t just show off their portfolio and brag about their client list, but people who have an interesting, nerdy area of expertise and really have something to say.
Moderating these speakers’ talks for three days and listening to their presentations was very fulfilling. And it was gratifying to see people get to know each other who have so much to say because they share common interests.
The greatest reward was the feedback from the participants and speakers at the end of the first day. How great the event was! How nice the people! How exciting the presentations!
And the reactions and compliments afterwards also show me that with Berlin Letters we have created a framework in which people can meet in a very open and friendly way and come up with new ideas in exchange with each other. In the reactions to the festival, the word »inspired« was used several times and that describes my feeling best.
Berlin Letters 2024 Selfie with Hari Klein, Ran Keren, Ying Chang, Michaela Maltini, François Tusseki, Ximena Jiménez, Kwat Wulan, Pascale Arpin, Merle Michaelis
photo: Merle Michaelis
At the end of the three days, I was scheduled to give the closing speech. It was hot in the hall and I was fried from three days as a presenter on stage and in the company of so many enthusiastic people.
And then Ulrike really got me with her introduction and moved me so much that I broke out in tears on stage. I gave my talk with wet eyes, there were technical problems, and I didn’t have my notes—but at the end of the talk I got a standing ovation for the first time in my life. <3!
Thank you, Berlin Letters!
Kadir Amigo Memiş dances Zeybreak and writes to techno.
Ying Chang talks about the influence her minimalist lifestyle has had on her lettering.
Ximena Jiménez about her path to lettering, graffiti and herself.
Rüdiger Schlömer about Typeknitting and the connection between knitting and code.
Ulrike Rausch designs 90s word art fonts—and their presentations are getting more and more entertaining.
Pascale Arpin tells her whole life and her path to sign painting—and back—in just 30 minutes.
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No really,
you should subscribe to my newsletter.
You’ve already subscribed to far too many newsletters, I know. But my newsletter is really great! At least that’s what it says in the spontaneous replys I get each time I send one out.
So if you want to be the first to know what I’m working on, what events Im organizing and what books I’m recommending,