ATyp I - The Organisation

The Organisation

ATypI was founded in 1957 by Charles Peignot (from the French type foundry Deberny & Peignot). The members of the organisation come from the typographic community from all over the world and consist primarily of type designers, representatives of type foundries, graphic designers and typographers.

The organisation is democratically run by an elected board. Each board member is elected by the ATypI general assembly at the annual general meeting for a period of three years. Current members of the Board are: John D. Berry (president), Mark Barratt (vice-president), Maxim Zhukov (vice-president), Thomas Phinney (treasurer), Ted Harrison, Petra Weitz, Cynthia Batty, Simon Daniels, José Scaglione, Adam Twardoch, Clare Bell, Jo De Bardemaeker, Marina Chaccur, Mark Jamra, Linda Kudrnovská, Gunnar Vilhjalmsson. Previous presidents were Charles Peignot, John Dreyfus, Tage Bolander, Martin Fehle, Ernst-Erich Marhencke, Mark Batty and Jean François Porchez.

Goals

• to promote the creation of type and to obtain legal protection for types and typography in the form of laws and international agreements;
• to oppose all unauthorized copying with every appropriate means, and
• to ensure among its members the observance of the laws governing the protection of industrial and intellectual property rights and copyrights;
• to support work toward the creation of an international agreement that will specifically protect type and graphic designs;
• to provide an arbitration procedure to decide typographical matters;
• to maintain contact to and co operation with organizations and associations that pursue similar goals;
• to create an international documentation center for typographical issues;
• to establish an information and co ordination center for the members so as to prevent them from being held liable for damages due to ignorance of other people's work;
• to support members in protecting their typographical interests;
• to act as arbitrator in typographical disputes between the members themselves or between members and third parties;
• and finally, to promote a critical understanding of typographical issues through the organization of exhibitions, publications, films, meetings, and other public relations events.