You won’t find the history of Peruvian typography in any design history book, because it hasn’t been written yet. In 2021, I taught a class titled “On Typography and Language in Peru,” as part of the Incomplete Latinx Stories of Diseño Gráfico organized by the BIPOC Design History group. This was the first-ever overview of the visual culture of Peru through the lens of typography and language, covering visual and written communication from pre-columbian times until the early 21st century.
Typography still has a long way to go in challenging the dominant Eurocentric narrative. Using my research as a launching point, I’ll expose the ways in which colonialism and a western European narrative has impacted our understanding of Latin American design history and the development of typography in Peru. By reclaiming and connecting Peruvian’s typographic history with the world, I hope that we can not only celebrate my country’s rich visual and cultural heritage, but also add depth to our understanding of design history, to open avenues to transform, expand, and include histories that have yet to be written.
Speaker
Juan Villanueva
Juan Villanueva is a Peruvian typeface designer, letterer, and educator in New York City.
As a Senior Type Designer at Monotype he contributes to library designs including Helvetica Now, Futura Now, and Walbaum and creates custom projects for global brands such as Google, Microsoft, Tencent, M&Ms, and Entertainment One.
Juan is the co-founder of Type Electives, an online school shaping the future of type by offering courses that go beyond traditional type design education. Previously, Juan was the lead instructor of Type West Online where his curriculum brought together theory and practice, and emphasized community and collaboration. He’s the founder of Type Crit Crew, an initiative to make type design education more accessible and inclusive to students anywhere in the world. He previously taught at Type@Cooper and the City College of New York.
Juan gives talks at design conferences around the world including LADFEST, Letrástica, BICeBé, BIPOC Design History, WATBD?, and TypeCon. In 2021, he created Typefaces as Cultural Objects, an archive that highlights typefaces made by Latin American designers that honor and preserve Latin American culture.
He graduated from the Type@Cooper Extended program in typeface design and serves on the board of the Society of Scribes.
Juan Villanueva