In the spring of 2016, type.today announced its plans to give a series of lectures outside Moscow on the typefaces from our collection. We invited all who were willing to help organise free lectures to get in touch with us. And this is what happened.

We received a multitude of letters and offers, and the initial list looked truly daunting. But we couldn’t fit in all the journeys this year, which means there’s plenty left for the next. We clocked up 12,537 kilometres in travelling, and over a thousand designers came to our lectures.

Our tour began with Nizhny Novgorod. The lecture’s organiser was Alexander Kazarin, founder of the Mobile Design Academy launched several years ago.

Ilya Ruderman and Yury Ostromentsky by the door to Mobile Design Academy Lecture at Mobile Design Academy (Nizhny Novgorod)

We then set off for Rostov on Don. This time, Anna Voloshanovskaya was the one who took on all the necessary work, and who found an excellent venue for the lecture – the Mesto coworking, which we recommend to all Rostovchane. This was a record meeting in terms of length. A lecture intended to last two and a half hours went on for over four, after which the conversation continued over supper at a neighbouring bar. We were delighted to have practising designers in attendance, including Oleg Chulakov, with whom we had worked long distance while developing an original font for the Tele2 company. Incidentally, the studio soon afterwards redesigned its website and, by a strange coincidence, selected the Graphik typeface from the type.today collection as its main signature font.

Lecture in Rostov on Don at Mesto coworking Lecture in Rostov on Don at Mesto coworking» Memorial plaque Way finding signage Street typography

In Kazan, Ilya Ruderman was only to have took part in the deliberations over a logo for the Kazan Zoological and Botanica Gardens, but the possibility arose of reading a lecture. Here we were much obliged to Natasha Fishman’s team, particularly Karina Kalimullina and Kristina Vishnyakova. The meeting took place in the Smena Centre for Contemporary Culture.

The meeting at Smena Centre for Contemporary Culture The meeting at Smena Centre for Contemporary Culture The meeting at Smena Centre for Contemporary Culture The meeting at Smena Centre for Contemporary Culture The meeting at Smena Centre for Contemporary Culture

The next city was Saint Petersburg. Here we were invited by Ilya Bazarsky, on the eve of the opening of his new restaurant, Social Club.

Lecture at Social Club (Saint Petersburg) Lecture at Social Club (Saint Petersburg)

After ‘Peter’, we made our way to Minsk, where Alexei Koval had managed to assemble a record-breakingly large crowd of over a hundred people. The discussion was lively, and the participants had many questions, and the event as a whole proved a noteworthy one for a town of many millions that, regrettably, seldom hosts lectures by visiting type designers. Having sensed the appetite of the audience for knowledge, we urge our colleagues to pay special attention to this city.

Lecture in Minsk (Belarus) Lecture in Minsk (Belarus)

Next in our itinerary came the two Baltic capitals – Tallinn and Riga. In Tallinn we had the heroic aid of Sergei Chashchin and Mart Anderson. The lecture in Riga was organised by Alexey Murashko, who regularly arranges useful meetings with visiting notables, and who is a fine fellow all round. Both lectures were more intimate affairs, thanks to which we were able to communicate in a more informal manner with our fellow designers.

Lecture in Riga (Latvia) Lecture in Riga (Latvia)

Lecture in Tallinn (Estonia) Lecture in Tallinn (Estonia)

The next point on the map was Chelyabinsk, were we were invited by Pavel Pisklakov to give a lecture as part of the Landing Stage-2016 festival at the State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals.

lecture at the State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals lecture at the State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals lecture at the State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals lecture at the State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals lecture at the State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals

And then, the final chord played in Moscow. We are very grateful to Yury Vetrov, to whom we owe the chance to give type.today’s lecture at the latest UX-Sreda designers’ micro-conference held by the Mail.Ru Group.

Lecture at the latest UX-Sreda designers’ micro-conference held by the Mail.Ru Group

And so, there you have the outcome of our Tour. This summer has been an unusually full one for type.today – with many journeys, meetings and discussions with our colleagues. We enjoyed it immensely, and so we aim to continue the Tour next year, including visits to new cities in our plans. If you are interested and are willing to help in finding a sponsor, organising and financing travel and accommodation where necessary, please let us know at grandtour@type.today

Once again, we would like to express our greatest appreciation to all those who helped us this year, who came to type.today’s lectures, and who have already begun to make use of what they learnt in the process. Thank you!