August 1, 2025
Beirut, Lebanon
Dear ATypI community,
It is an honor to address you as the new President of the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI).
Over the past year or so, during my tenure as Vice President, I’ve had the opportunity to listen, learn, and engage with many of you—during our meetings, through collaborative efforts, and in conversations at both ATypI events in Brisbane and Copenhagen. These exchanges have deeply informed my understanding of our shared hopes for the future of ATypI.
For nearly seven decades, ATypI has brought together type designers, typographers, educators, researchers, technology experts, and all other type makers and type users from around the world—celebrating the beauty of letterforms while addressing many challenges. As our field enters new disciplines, crosses geographies, and pushes technologies, ATypI must evolve with it.
My vision is simple: to make ATypI more globally connected and more relevant to emerging voices, both at conferences and beyond. This means growing our presence in underrepresented regions, engaging younger generations, supporting education and research, and building stronger bridges across scripts and cultures—while being honest about what isn’t working. And it also means more than statements of intent.
As a non-profit public charity, ATypI depends on support from members, sponsors, and partners to make an impact, so ensuring the financial stability of ATypI is vital.
Next year will be a landmark for our non-profit organization: in 2026, ATypI will host two international conferences—one at Stanford, California (US), returning to a historic site of typographic innovation, and another in Sharjah (UAE), our first in the Middle East. These events will celebrate the richness of global type practice and open new spaces for dialogue and exchange.
As we prepare for these events, we’re excited to invite your participation.
The Call for Proposals (CFP) for ATypI 2026—covering both Stanford and Sharjah—is open. We welcome submissions for talks, workshops, student projects, experimental formats, and other programming that fits our unique community. The deadline to submit is August 27, 2025.
In parallel, the self-nomination process for the ATypI Board of Directors will open soon. If you care about shaping ATypI’s future, we warmly encourage you to put your name forward and stand for election.
In the months ahead, we’ll be working to reconnect with our members across the ATypI community. Whether you are a student, a teacher, a maker, a designer, a technologist, or a researcher—your ideas for ATypI matter.
I’m especially grateful to Laurence Penney, our Vice President, and to the ATypI Board of Directors for their trust, dedication, and collaboration. Together, we are working to empower board members in decision-making and implementation, to better represent the members who elected them.
I’d also like to thank Tamye Riggs, our Executive Director, for her continued commitment to ATypI and her support during this leadership transition.
And to the global typography community: thank you for your continued creativity, generosity, and commitment to a more inclusive, expressive, and connected design world—as we saw powerfully in Copenhagen.
If you’re not already a member, we encourage you to join us, and to engage with ATypI’s activities throughout the year. Your membership and participation are essential to our mission.
With gratitude and enthusiasm,
Nada Abdallah
President
Association Typographique Internationale
