Character explores the social and cultural aspects of graphic design and typography.
Character takes a different form each from year. In its first two years (2005 and 2006) the event was a series of live forums and exhibitions held at Federation Square's BMW Edge. These included lively debates on whether a city can/should be style-guided, political neutrality in graphic design, the role of accident in graphic design and many other topics. In 2007 the event presented Australia's first typographic film festival, hosting the Australian premiere of Helvetica at ACMI, also situated at Federation Square. 2009 saw the development of Characters and Spaces, a self-guided tour unearthing the design stories of a single city block of Melbourne. In 2010 Character looks at the worldwide revival of letterpress, screening a series of films recently produced on the subject.
Who is behind Character?
Character is proudly initiated by Stephen Banham and the RMIT Communication Design Program (School of Media and Communication) and supported by Letterbox and AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association). The 2009 and 2010 events have been run in partnership with the State of Design Festival.