Design Thinkers Typographic Quiz

Monotype's Nadine Chahine and Allan Haley will host "Design Thinkers Typographic Quiz" as part of this year's DesignThinkers2012 conference, which will be held Nov. 8-9 in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Together, Nadine, an Arabic specialist for Monotype subsidiary Linotype, and Allan, Monotype's director of words and letters, will try to stump—and educate—audience members on the finer points of typography.

Better than school, the Typographic Quiz will pose a series of questions about type, type history and the typographic arts. If you know the right answer—and are quicker to give it than those around you —you'll win a cool prize.

The educational part? After each correct response Nadine and Allan will provide valuable and insightful information about the question–and the answer. For example, did you know that the first italic fonts contained only lowercase characters: no caps, no numbers, no punctuation?

Looking for a challenge? Want cool, free, type stuff? Test your "metal" at the Design Thinkers Typographic Quiz.

—

Engaging with the Middle East

Thursday, Nov. 8, 11:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

On Thursday, Nov. 8, Nadine also will present "Engaging with the Middle East," a look at the challenges of brand consistency across different scripts and cultures.

How does one translate "modern" in Arabic? What is the visual translation of "chic" in the Middle East? Every culture and script brings to the table a new set of expectations and collective memories. Nadine will focus on how to establish dialogue with the Middle East while looking at design trends and considering cultural factors.

Allan Haley is Director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging. Here he is responsible for strategic planning and creative implementation of just about everything related to typeface designs.