Kyiv-Poznan-Wroclaw-Kyiv / 2018
More than four years ago, Viktoria Grabowska wrote to us at Behance with a proposal to come to Poland with a calligraphy workshop and, oh, wonderful, we read this message in time and replied that we wanted to do it, of course! That time we were very active and ready to rush into battle anywhere anytime.
Now we practically do not give workshops for our personal reasons on this subject, now we are focused on historical lectures more. BUT this workshop was a part of the educational process for students of the second year of studying at the University of Arts in Poznan.
4 years ago, our (first) trip to Poland was combined with a rest in the forest in Zielona Góra and a workshop, this is written here.
Then we met Maciej, he came one day, but about that I’ll tell a bit later.
And now, after 4 years, we are in Poznan, in our beloved workplace, in which we have never been before.
Poznan, cozy, the hospitality of Vika and Sebastian, dinner in the cozy house of Professor Kochnowicz, the meeting with Szyman, Robert — everything seemed like we returned to the time of 4 years ago, to the time when we lived in that hotel in the forest, ate the “smalets” cooked by a professor and “russkie pierogi” (dumplings) with spinach and cheese being, of course, engaged in calligraphy 🤫🤗
During this visit, our workshop lasted for five days, it was difficult — 21 people, all the guys of different levels of training and with different interests. This university invited us, so, the guys, in fact, did not pay for their classes, they only paid for the tools. But what is nicer, for the most part it did not affect the involvement in the process. On the contrary, there was a feeling that they respect you as a teacher even more kindly. Some, without knowing it, directly opened up themselves, revealed their abilities. Some people already knew us on social networks (probably), followed us and asked the right questions in the process of working on the task.
What is surprising, Jan Middendorp also was in Poznan and wrote to us to say that he will also be at the conference in Wrocław! And we even managed to invite him to the final presentation of the students before the trip to Wrocław, which was especially interesting, I think, for each of us. Thank you, Jan, for coming!
Special thanks to Vika Grabowska for the wonderful organization of the event, help and hospitality. Thanks to Krzysztof Kochnowicz for the super organization, hospitality and such a wonderful training of students in your workshop. We love you!
Some final logotypes by students there:
So, the workshop is over, we sit down and come to Wroclaw, to Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Eugeniusza Gepperta where the Wrocław Type Forum is.
For you to understand, rarely happen at narrow-profile conferences lately, therefore, when Maciej invited us, we definitely agreed. It was a “chamber” forum, it is not a large-scale festival for 5–7 days. And we liked it too. There were cool lecturers: Riccardo Olocco, Dan Reynolds,
(Vika & Vita Lopukhiny), Peter Bence Simon, Maciej Majchrzak,
Viktoria Grabowska, Nikola Djurek, Katarzyna Roj and Adam Twardoch.
Everyone is different, and everyone has something to say.
For example, Riccardo spoke about his typeface and his studio, about teaching, and the lecture was called: “The historical sources of contemporary type design”. We took the topic of Cyrillic: “Cyrillic in design. Old traditional Cyrillic graphemes in the modern graphic design”. We had a lecture in English for the first time, were a little nervous, but it had to be done. When, if not now😅
Vika Grabovskaya spoke about the tactile font of the blind Maria Theresia, everyone could touch the fonts and understand how well the work was done. Peter Bence Simon talked about “TYPO LAG. Desynchronosis of letterforms”, on the combination of typography, motion and art in its teaching activities. During the lecture the letters were spinning as in a psychedelic trip :) And at the end of the first day there was an impresca (party). It was a lot of informal communication! And dancing, dancing. For example, it turned out that Jan Middendorp is a professional dancer! I hope there will be more parties like this.
And then afterparty we were talking until 2 am with Vika Grabowska about everything in the world ♥️
The second day began with a lecture by the forum organizer,
Maciej Majchrzak “Distinct voices in Polish brand communication based on typography”.
Then there was the presentation of the book Dutch type.
We have long been in love with the books of Jan, and are very grateful for such a gift.
Then a lecture by the wonderful Katarzyna Roj „Wanna be a type activist? How to become one in 6 steps”.
And the lecture of Tomasz Bierkowski “Type for solidarity — typography as a social service”.
This is just a gift before departure, a very cool lecture about the visual style of Solidarity, imbued with!
And then we ran off to collect bags, and straight to the airport. There, Vika had to repack the bags, because Ryannair is tough, the odds are our all 😅
We didn’t manage to buy a lot of things, didn’t have time to walk around museums, galleries, restaurants … but we managed to communicate with familiar colleagues, friends, meet many interesting people, be ill (I, Vita, caught a cold to Poznan, but recovered in a day), cry and laugh heartily, and, of course, speak, speak English. We are learning it now, for us it is very important.
We talked a little bit in Polish, too.
The adventures of this trip will be remembered forever, but for now, here are such photos for everyone who was there and will be able to recall this trip from the photo.
Peace!
Vika&Vita
