Jul 4, 2025

Type trips to NYC

When I was a kid, I used to visit my uncle’s place for the summer. Once I started working, the tradition of a summer trip disappeared completely. For many years, I had simply forgotten what it was like to go somewhere over the summer. Summer is a hopeful yet uncomfortable season. The sun is out, it feels hot and the world feels alive like no other time of the year.

Every summer for the last 3 years, I have been visiting New York to attend Typographics, a design festival about type in the middle of June. When talking to people outside the design industry, I simply refer to it as a font festival. It is always in Cooper Square in Manhattan, which makes for a consistent and comforting feeling.

There is something endearing and almost funny about hundreds of people gathering in Manhattan during a sultry June to obsess over fonts. I love New York and this festival is my biggest excuse to visit the east coast city.

There is also something joyful about obsessing over a beautiful craft. I am no type designer, but I love type. I enjoy looking at a cool typographic poster and flip through a type specimen put together by a small foundry. I feel a spring in my step as I make my way around Manhattan, taking in all that summer in a city like New York has to offer. Festivals like this evoke a sense of togetherness, a third place whose boundaries are defined by the shared interests of people. Post-covid, I have come to appreciate festivals like these and third places in general.

Typographics is fun. It is inspiring, silly and energetic. Until it goes on, I hope to keep up my yearly summer tradition.