The Biennial Tipos Latinos is Latin America’s biggest typographic showcase. Fernando Mello and Henrique Nardi, both involved with the Biennial since its early years, will give a brief illustrated overview of the Biennial’s 18 years, discussing not only its history, its evolving structure, and statistics, but also the impact it has had on the continent’s type design. Alongside the panorama, Fernando and Henrique will focus on the current edition, published earlier this year.
Tipos Latinos 9th Biennial is a very special one: it was postponed due to the pandemic, having its organization redesigned to work remotely. In total, more than five hundred projects were submitted. Because of the four-year gap, the organizers decided to increase the number of selected works from 70–80 to 100. Within the selected works, the jury awarded three typefaces with Excellence badges. Given the freshness of its results despite adverse conditions, the current edition of the Biennial is one of the most representative editions to date.
Speaker
Fernando Mello
Fernando Mello is a Brazilian type designer holding a MATD from the University of Reading (2007) and the diplomas Expert Class Type Design (2013) and Type@Cooper Condensed (2014). He was a type designer at Fontsmith and Monotype in London for about 12 years, and currently runs his own studio Font FM in São Paulo. Fernando’s journey in type started more or less at the same time asin which the Biennial Letras Latinas was born, and he participated in the latest 8 editions either with selected typefaces, as a speaker at their events, or now at the latest 9th edition representing Brazil in the jury. The third edition of the Biennial in 2010 also used his typeface MelloSans as the event’s corporate font.
Instagram @fermello78 / @fontfm / @tipocracia
Twitter @fermello78 / @fontfm / @tipocracia
Speaker
Henrique Nardi
Henrique Nardi is a graphic designer, photographer, and typography professor from São Paulo, Brazil. In 2003, Henrique started Tipocracia, an educational project to promote typographic culture in Brazil. He organized and hosted over a dozen conferences on type and design around the country, and is a former director of the Brazilian Graphic Designers Association, ADG Brasil (2011–2013). He also served as chair/member of the ATypI São Paulo 2015 organizing committee. As of 2016, Henrique is a Graphic Design professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Fernando Mello 
Henrique Nardi