It’s easy to use, saves time, and you can search for events by date, name or location. There’s even a secret bonus to this map of events: learning some geography.
As we’re approaching the end of May, today we take a closer look at some of the events taking place in June. It should give everybody enough time to pack and plan in advance.

In June, it looks like Europe will be the main attraction for designers. The Balkans get busy with a couple of design weeks. Belgrade Design Week (Serbia) is a three-day-long conference with speakers from south-eastern Europe and beyond, plus workshops, master classes and design exhibitions. In Sofia (Bulgaria), their Design Week will include city-wide talks, exhibitions and installations providing a platform for Bulgarian designers to present their work and an insight into the design scene in the Balkans.

In Basel (Switzerland) you can join Design Basel/Miami, a collectors’ fair that features selling exhibitions by galleries from around the world plus one-off installations, talks and events. This event conveniently coincides with the Art Basel fair. In Berlin (Germany), it will be time for DMY, when graduates and young brands from over 30 countries present work in the hangars of the former Tempelhof airport. There is also a topical program of talks and lively parties.

Design Week Kortrijk (Belgium) takes place towards the end of June and is the largest exhibition of graduate work by design students in Flanders, plus Belgian companies and industrial designers showcase their latest products. London Festival of Architecture starts in June, but ends in July. It’s a playful two-week programme of events, installations and exhibitions that show what architects have to offer to London’s communities.

How about heading south? Barcelona Design Week is part two of Barcelona Design Festival, promoting design to the public through talks, exhibitions and open studios with a focus on Catalan designers and companies. At the end of May, beginning of June, is time for Habitat Expo, Mexico’s largest design fair encompassing products for hospitality, offices and the
residential market. It also features a conference programme about Mexican interior design.

Forget about weeks, Austrians like to organize Design Months. It happens as we speak in Ganz. This annual festival has a more international emphasis this year. Attractions include fashion shows, concerts and installations. Romanian Design Week takes place these days in Bucharest. Ştirbei Palace hosts a central exhibition while student shows, workshops and parties take place around the city.

But there’s much more. So, pack those adventure fonts, and start designing your summer.

Make a Kinetic Typography Video with CSS

Check out this tutorial, where they use kinetic typography to create a simple conceptual art piece, timed to a song provided by power pop band, Be Like Pablo. Rather than using After Effects, they take advantage of CSS3 animations and transitions to create the piece with standard web tools: HTML5 and CSS3 for the animation and audio and a smattering of JavaScript to add classes to various elements at appropriate times. Don’t be put off by the language, this is for developers with a secret passion for typography. Read on to find out how the magic is done.

8 Best Typography Apps

Take a look at this collection of  free and premium typography apps available online. Why? Because in this modern age of graphics and high definition videos, typography is still a strong pillar for words. If the words are right, and they appear in the right format, no image or video can surpass them. Correct? OK, then pick the apps that serve your immediate needs. Wonder if they serve stencil fonts too…

Submit Your Art to This Month’s Typography Challenge

You still have time to submit your typography for this month’s Psdtuts+ Design Challenge. Join the community on Google+ and upload your art for the chance to get featured in their monthly reviews. This time they ask you to Create a Typographic Illustration. You can submit your artwork for this challenge using Photoshop accompanied with any additional program or technique of your choice. The deadline? Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at 12:00 PM EST. Good luck!

Trends: Going Bigger with Typography

This guy likes big type and he does his best to convince us that big typography is trending in a major way. Well, we didn’t need much convincing. You should remember that the point of text in your design is to be read. From navigation, to blog entries to item descriptions for e-commerce, type is meant to be seen and understood. Going big is a great way to do that. Read on, it gets… bigger.

Essential Design Events for 2013: Typography

This is a small part of a bigger list covering essential design events. Those in Germany, Cyprus, Turkey, UK and USA are favored by the gods of typography. There’s also traveling, so don’t despair. You can always attach a lecture or an workshop to your holiday. Enjoy!

‘Typography Cake’ Lets You Send A Message In Batter

Here’s something to remind you that the weekend is here: cake! This ‘Typography Cake’ lets you send your message within the sweet treat, by placing edible dough letters at the bottom of the pan (in one straight row) before pouring in all your batter. Bon appetit!

Silver Linings

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Thor

Mirror Mirror

Dorian Gray

Black Swan

Lincoln

Crazy Heart

The New Frontier

My Week with Marilyn

Zero Dark Thirty

Spider Man

The Rum Diary

The Hobbit

True Grit

That’s why today we’ll share some tips for those looking for typeface design courses or typography classes, workshops or even proper design schools. This is for both advanced and beginners, so stick with us.

Short Courses

For those in a hurry who prefer short workshops with famous designers, this one is perfect. World-renowned typographer, designer and letterpress practitioner Alan Kitching will teach a hands-on two day course exploring the fundamentals and details of typography using letterpress equipment. This should give participants an exceptional understanding of typesetting and the art of letterpress printing. Next workshops? 31 May – 1 June, 7 – 8 June and 28 – 29 June 2013.

This particular summer course is a… computer free zone. Designed to help everyone, from the newcomer to the professional to find confidence in their own typographic voice, this course organized by Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design begins by exploring basic elements and the principles for their effective and creative use. Key areas covered include; choosing typefaces and how to get the best from all those on offer; identifying the assorted typographic voices which surround us everyday; strategies for working with different kinds of texts, from looking at content analysis to finding inspiration in the richness of language itself, and much more. There will also be a session using letterpress facilities. Ideas presented are explored visually through projects embracing both type as information and type as art. You can also check their slightly longer (8 weeks) but convenient online course: Introduction to Typography.

Postgraduate Study

This MA in Contemporary Typographic Media is about “visible words” and it explores the relationships between visual communication and language. This nationally and internationally unique programme is built upon London College of Communication’s respected heritage in the field of typographic design. The course prides itself on the fact that encourages participants to focus on their own interests, developing practical and critical skills to provide a robust foundation for a career as a creative visual communicator. The MA has its own blog where you can find out more details. It can be a good start for a designer with a special interest in typography.

In UK, Reading University has a much talked about MA in Typeface Design. Although an MA requires time and most likely money, you can still try their Adobe FDK Workshop that is kept regularly at Reading Uni. The goal of the Adobe Font Development Kit for OpenType is to offer tools created and developed by the team in charge of typography at Adobe. For details check the page of this year’s workshop held a few weeks ago in France. The purpose? To provide a professional high-level training.

We’ll come back next week with more tips. If you want to share your favorite course, let us know!

TypeToy: A Beautiful Archive Of Mid-Century Design & Typography

You’ve probably come across Aaron Eiland before. He keeps a blog stuffed with design and typographic goodness from the mid-20th century. TypeToy is a delight to browse for anyone who appreciates that era. From attractive packaging to gorgeous book covers, the blog documents a diverse range of beautiful graphic finds, creating fascinating snapshots that show what design was like in “the good old days”. This made us nostalgic, so we ended up browsing for more retro fonts. To bookmark for vintage inspiration!

Six Beautiful Artifacts From the Dawn of Digital Typography

Pencil to Pixel is one of the most comprehensive typography exhibitions ever staged, so it’s little wonder that we are still talking about it. This week we found a post where you can see pictures taken in the exhibition. You’ll notice that it preserves some of the most fascinating relics from the 1970s and 80s, allowing you to see the early technologies that predated digital type. The explanations and images in this post will open up your appetite even more.

Typography World Map

For those interested in spending some money, here’s a One World Map in Typography measuring roughly 22″ x 45″. Vinyl lettering, custom hand painted look, and other fancy touches. Just an idea.

The Stunning 3D Typography of David McLeod

David McLeod is an Australian artist and this article takes a look at some of his works. It is quite enjoyable as you get to see typography caught up in designs in a way that keeps imagination very much alive. You’ll also get to take a closer look (literally) at the images. Quite inspiring material. Enjoy!

Make Good Art Kinetic Typography

This Kinetic typography YouTube video “shows” an excerpt from Neil Gaiman‘s University of the Arts commencement speech. Yes, there are many out there, but this one carries a few messages that should do you good. It starts with “When things get tough, this is what you should do: make good art. I’m serious.” So are we. Keep reading, listening and learning. But most of all, enjoy!

After the Jump: Technology’s Effect on Design and Typography

After the Jump is a symposium that will bring together some of today’s most inspiring industry leaders to discuss how technology affects human behaviour and how those effects impact design and typography. The event will take a holistic look at typography’s role in the modern, tech-driven world. So, Cooper Union, NYC, June 7, 2013. Enough time to make a decision. Interested?

There are lots of questions, but maybe this collection of underground and mainstream radio stations typography will provide some answers too. So, which radio would you listen to according to their taste in typography?

Kut

Hype

HD

Late Night

Graffiti

Mixlor

Hard Radio

Kiss

Two Valleys

Absolute

Z 100

Z 103.5

BBC

20 on 20

A List

Chris Bracey – I’ve Looked Up To Heaven and Been Down to Hell

This is London-based light artist Chris Bracey’s first major UK solo exhibition celebrating his lightning designs. We’re talking neon lights, so you’ll discover plenty of intriguing typography. Bracey has worked with neon and lights for over thirty years and the title of this exhibition alludes to his remarkable journey and career.

His personal life story is just as interesting as his career. His father was a neon sign-maker and Chris learnt to manufacture and design the neon signs at an early age. When it comes to his career, his fan base resembles a wing of Madame Tussauds, with names like David LaChapelle, Stella McCartney, Martin Creed, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. He also created installations for films like Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”, Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and the Batman films.

You’ll discover iconic imagery from tattoo culture, Las Vegas and the streets of Soho too. But there’s so much more in this dense exhibition filled with wonder, nostalgia and glamour, while raising questions about morality, spirituality and the role neons play in society. The London exhibition runs until 1 June. And remember, “Neon is only happy when it’s on, when it’s alive”.

Pencil to Pixel typography exhibition, New York

From London we move to New York for the ultimate showcase for the font fiends in all of us. Guilty for this treat is the British typography firm Monotype. Their exhibition offers typography fanatics a chance to get up close to rare implements, artwork and artifacts relating to type history charting the development of typography up to its present technology-infused state.

The exhibition opened last week and is actually a reprise of a first installment that was staged in London last November. The American leg will feature examples with special relevance to the United States, such as a copy of the 1931 Linotype magazine ‘Typographic Sanity,’ published in Brooklyn, as well as original Monotype Centaur typeface drawings by American typographer and type designer Bruce Rogers.

Six Things: Sagmeister & Walsh

Stefan Sagmeister (b. Bregenz, Austria, 1962) and Jessica Walsh (b. New York, 1986) are two designers known for their experimental typography and striking visual imagery. Six Things marks the first exhibition of their newly founded design firm. Sagmeister is the recipient of numerous design awards, including two Grammy awards for his packaging designs, while Walsh is a multidisciplinary designer, previously worked at Pentagram Design and Print magazine. The New York Times, AIGA, and EDP are among her clients.

Their work is by turns playful and unsettling, humanist and existential, and often expands the definition of design, embracing film, sculpture, poetry, and performance. Six Things is a continuation of a project on happiness. In five compelling short videos and a sound-activated sculpture, they examine six things culled from Sagmeister’s diary that he believes have increased his personal happiness:

If I Don’t Ask I Won’t Get
Keeping a Diary Supports Personal Development
Be More Flexible
It Is Pretty Much Impossible to Please Everybody
Now Is Better
Feel Others Feel

Enjoy the exhibitions and their famous or less famous fonts. And don’t forget to let us know if you’ve seen any of these exhibitions or any new ones.

Typecast: How New Technology Is Reinventing Typography

This is an interesting text about the rare craft of designing typefaces. For hundreds of years, designers had to master wood carving and metal casting to practice their art. However, with the rise of computers they learned to conquer bitmaps and vectors using tools like Glyphs, FontLab, or RoboFont. New technology and standards continue to put a new face on type, and the use cases are extending off our computer screens and into the physical realm too. As programming becomes a common part of the designer’s skill set, innovation is continuing along these lines and this article will guide you through. Read on!

Light and Shadows Create Striking Typography

Perfect (happy!) collision of art and typography. This shadow font experiment from Fred Eerdekens is an absolute delight. Sculpted from copper wire, cotton and various other materials, he plays on the art of light and shadow to create words on the walls. A beautiful art installation that proves typography is still one of the most creative outlets around. And that distorted fonts have many…. faces.

Nostalgic Hand-Drawn Typography Of Quotes, Posted On Instagram

By combining an image with hand-drawn type, Florida-based designer Zachary Smith has created some beautiful pieces of work based on quotes of sage advice. With beautiful graphics and famous quotes, his lovely nostalgia-themed work is highly popular on social networks such as Instagram, where he already has up to 7,500 followers. Are you gonna follow too?

This video published on YouTube at the end of April this year is a paper-letter animation about the history of fonts and typography. It took 291 Paper Letters, 2,454 Photographs, and 140 hours of work. If this video sparks any ideas, don’t forget to let the creators know. Until then, enjoy!

Pencil to Pixel typography exhibition, New York

Here you have a comprehensive exhibition offering typography fanatics a chance to get up close to rare implements, artworks and artifacts relating to type history, charting the development of typography up to its present technology-infused state. The exhibition will run from 3-9 May. Tickets are required, but admission is free. Don’t miss it if you’re in the hood!

47 Top Typography Tools and Resources

To help you improve and learn more about typography, Mashable have compiled 25 useful tools and resources, from fundamentals to modular scales. Have they left out your favorite typography tool or resource? No worry, share your recommendations!

By the way, do you know why typography works? “It creeps into you and before you know it, you’ve received the message” Erik Spiekermann

Have a fab weekend!