Yesterday evening I was lucky enough to be invited to the 90th anniversary celebration International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) awards held at the wonderful De La Warr pavilion in Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex. It was a wonderful evening at this amazing location.
The De La Warr pavilion is a modernist building by the architects Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff which opened in 1936. The enlightened town council opened this new space which was to provide culture and entertainment for the masses – a true people‘s palace.
The evening started with drinks on the rooftop terrace, which was delightful as it was a beautiful evening.
The anniversary dinner was held in the dining area on the second floor, where over a hundred members and guests gathered, including some members coming from as far as Canada.
The wonderful restaurant area has the most amazing panoramic windows looking out to sea, a really perfect backdrop.
The evening began with an introduction by Jonathan Doney, the Chair of ISTD who gave a brief re-cap of the society's history, founded 90 years ago by Vincent Steer who brought together six other like-minded colleagues, for the first meeting of the British Typographers Guild, held at an Italian restaurant in Holborn, London. Jonathan reminded us of the work of the ISTD, including the Student awards which has been running for 45 years and now with programmes in six countries!
After dinner, Andy Altmann, one of the co-founders of
Why Not Associates gave a very amusing talk about the influences on his career from the humble Ladybird books, his scrapbooks, to Eric Gill and Why Not's early life as a studio in Soho, shortly after leaving the RCA.
A very special moment in the evening was the award made to Freda Sack (pictured below). Freda was made an Honorary Fellow of the ISTD in recognition of her significant contribution to the Society and the typographic industry. Freda has been a member for over 30 years and has held pretty much every position on the board. Freda managed to achieve this while also running her own successful business.
It was an excellent evening which demonstrated real warmth and friendliness which the world of typography appears to engender.
It is so important for the design industry that we nurture and retain organisations such as the ISTD and we must take every opportunity to try and encourage membership, thus ensuring their continued viability. ...and if you aren't a member, have a look
http://www.istd.org.uk/- it costs less than £10 per month - which is excellent value!
Congratulations to the ISTD Board and the events team for arranging an excellent 90th Anniversary -- a huge amount of time and work goes into these events and it is fair that they should be recognised and applauded.
Posted by Justin Hobson 29.06.2018
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