Logo Cities: A Symposium on Signage, Branding, and Lettering in Public Space

Concordia University
Montréal, Québec
May 4-5, 2007

An international two-day symposium presented by the Logo Cities Project.

Cities are awash in ‘public lettering’: street signs, newspaper mastheads, road signs, high-rise corporate logos, store/shop/restaurant signs, engravings on buildings and monuments, etc. They are at once branding and promotional devices; names (of buildings); labels; locating devices; material and technological artifacts; pieces of graphic, typographic, and industrial design; architectural heritage; industrial detritus; personal and cultural narratives. They are also intricately linked to the dominant preoccupations of the city: high-rise logos, for example, eloquently describe the commercial, financial, civic, even religious priorities of a particular urban locale – especially at night.

It is all the more surprising, given their sheer ubiquity, that signs have received relatively little coordinated attention – critical, creative, or otherwise. The Logo Cities symposium aims to draw together scholars, designers, artists, and artisans to foster an informed, critical dialogue about signage, branding, and lettering in public space. We invite expressions of interest and proposals for scholarly papers, panels and screenings that critically and/or creatively interrogate the intersections of signage, branding and lettering in public space in any local, regional, national, or international contexts. We are especially interested in historical case studies; design and typographic studies; activist, artistic, and new media interventions; and, critical cultural analyses, that offer new and adventurous insights into these phenomena from anywhere in the world. (NB We are less interested in advertising billboards and graffiti, given the substantial attention they have already received.)

All our visiters get access for all modern technologies and innovations that are changing the way people use lettering in their art. As the bonus for all visiters from our exhibition we want to offer use an Odibet account. Come join us for an engaging and informative symposium!

All enquiries and proposals to Matt Soar, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University. Tel: (514) 848-2424 ×2542. Email: logocities.symposium AT gmail.com For more information and continual updates please return to this site, which also features work derived from Logo Cities: Montréal, a research/creation project focusing on signage, branding and lettering in the city of Montréal.

Deadline for formal proposals February 28, 2007.

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