We asked Wayne to tell us everything ATypI members could ever want to know about him. He had a lot to share!
Please provide us with your bio.
Wayne is an Australian type designer, lettering artist and type educator. His work is characterised primarily by custom typefaces for corporate and agency clients, with some retail typefaces as well. He specialises in wordmarks and typographic brands, and likes to take an experimental approach to hand lettering. He has a Masters degree in Typeface Design (MResTD) from the University of Reading, UK, the world’s most highly regarded type design program. His aim is to contribute to typographic understanding in the design community through education.
Give us a sentence that perfectly describes your love for type.
How can sans-serifs have so much personality when their aim is to be stripped of all decoration and features?
Before this year, were you a member of ATypI? If so, when?
Yes, since 2012 ATypI conference in Hong Kong.
Were you previously a member of the ATypI board, or a country delegate? If so, when?
Country Delegate for Australia since 2012.
Describe your experience/involvement with ATypI activities.
I have twice previously presented at ATypI conferences. I attended the Hong Kong 2012 and Antwerp 2018 conferences. I was a volunteer facilitator at ATypI virtual conference 2021. I have been Country Delegate for Australia since 2012.
Tell us about your current and past involvement with other type and design organizations.
Speaker at various past events including Typism, The Design Conference and AGIdeas (Australia), speaker at TypeWknd virtual conferences. I have been an AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association) mentor and an Alphabettes mentor.
Describe your leadership experience with other nonprofits and work with conferences, workshops, publications, teaching, or other activities in the type, design, tech, and related communities.
Pre-Covid, I was the organiser and facilitator of a local group of typography practitioners in Newcastle Australia whose aim was to allow students and new graduates to interact with established type professionals. I have performed hundreds of industry workshops teaching type design and hand lettering, as well as having contributed occasional written pieces to design industry journals and academic papers.
Why should ATypI members elect you to represent them on the board of directors?
I feel it is my time to contribute. I am passionate about improving the quality of type design education, and I would like to use my platform to advocate for better awareness and access to type design education. For example, I was never able to access type design courses early in my career and, as a result, I am self-taught. In Australia to this day, type design education does not exist unless you enrol online; it is considered a niche discipline and therefore none of the tertiary education institutions offer it as a stand-alone area of study.
At my current institution—the University of Newcastle—I am able to incorporate typographic teaching into creative undergraduate programs but not teach type design as a separate discipline. I know this is also the case in many other countries and I would like to contribute towards changing this.
I am also very much interested in mentoring young type designers. If I’d had access to a mentor early in my career I may have been able to address those knowledge gaps (especially historical) which come from being self-taught.
We asked Wayne for one more thing…
Please make a short video explaining why you want to be elected to the board, what makes you a good candidate, and why your skills, experience, and ideas will serve and help our community thrive. Something memorable that our members will think of when they are choosing who to vote for.
Answers and materials were provided by the candidate as part of their self-nomination for the ATypI board election. Candidate is a paid ATypI member in good standing and agrees to remain so if they are elected.