Artwork by Kyle Letendre

For 2024 TypeCon in Portland, Oregon, local designer and illustrator Kyle Letendre combined influences of American roadside and marquee signage (of which Portland has some prime specimens) to pull off a show-stopping brand that reflects the jovial atmosphere of the conference and its host city. Letendre chose typefaces that reflects the welcoming community that the conference attracts, and also some with special ties to the Portland area, which has hosted the conference for the past two years.

The star typeface is Yumex, designed by DualType (Zrinka Buljubašić and Gen Ramírez) and released in Spring 2024 by OH no Type Co. Backing it up are VCTR Mono, by Portland-based Vectro Type (Lizy Gershenzon and Travis Kochel), and Future Fonts darling Puffling by Ro Hernandez.

Kyle filled us in on his thought process for the brand design:

Yumex caught my eye from the first time I saw it in use, at an exhibition at 2022’s Letrástica. It felt lively and lovely in a way only Zrinka and Gen could achieve, and the family has become a favorite tool since it was released by OH no.

As the primary type for TypeCon, Yumex handled its role beautifully. I initially thought of it for body text, something very easy to read but far from lifeless. And eventually found a way to decorate the living daylights out of it, even turning its italic into a neon sign for banners, the podium, and a sticker. Given that the identity this year had a bit of nostalgia with its focus on signs, I found Yumex very useful in that it has vintage roots, but feels unmistakably modern.

I thought of Yumex as the grounding center of the type used for the conference: Ro Hernandez’s Puffling added a sprinkle of gregarious charm and versatility with its varying widths and weights where needed; and Vectro’s VCTR Mono was our dutiful companion for name tags and spaces where something very utilitarian was necessary. It’s fun to use fonts your friends make, but even more fun when the fonts make you look really good as a designer.

Finally, the 2024 TypeCon website also uses Obviously (OH no Type Co) for “call to action” text on buttons, and Yumex Script in the header.

Typefaces took center stage here along with the 2024 Catalyst Winner, Raven Mo.

The dutiful companion, VCTR Mono on the name tags.

Yumex in action, text and headlines.

Yumex Script in the header

This year Nick and I filled in for long-time TypeCon Quizmaster Allan Haley. Nick made use of his Hamilton Wayzgoose Quiz template and whipped up this design minutes before we went on stage, adding Globe Script, a font that was released just the day before [and soon after renamed to Eubie Script]. I think it’s safe to say we were its earliest adopters.

Typography for Mobile Phone Devices: The Design of the Qualcomm Sans Font Family presented by Jared Benson and Christian Robertson of Punchcut at TypeCon 2006. The presentation featured an interactive component built into the visuals known as The Punchcut Heckle Engine™. This allowed the audience to send text messages that changed the type specimen across the top of the screen in real time.