logocity
http://www.logocities.org
Logo Cities: A Symposium on Signage, Branding, and Lettering in
Public Space
Concordia University
Montréal, Québec
May 4-5, 2007
A two-day symposium presented by the Logo Cities project
Cities are awash in ‘public lettering’: street signs, newspaper
mastheads, road signs, high-rise corporate logos, store/shop/
restaurant signs, engravings on buildings and monuments, etc. They
are at once branding and promotional devices; names (of buildings);
labels; locating devices; material and technological artifacts;
pieces of graphic, typographic, and industrial design; architectural
heritage; industrial detritus; personal and cultural narratives. They
are also intricately linked to the dominant preoccupations of the
city: high-rise logos, for example, eloquently describe the
commercial, financial, civic, even religious priorities of a
particular urban locale – especially at night.
It is all the more surprising, given their sheer ubiquity, that signs
have received relatively little coordinated attention – critical,
creative, or otherwise. The Logo Cities symposium aims to draw
together scholars, designers, artists, and artisans to foster an
informed, critical dialogue about signage, branding, and lettering in
public space. We invite expressions of interest and proposals for
scholarly papers, panels and screenings that critically and/or
creatively interrogate the intersections of signage, branding and
lettering in public space. We are especially interested in historical
case studies; design and typographic studies; activist, artistic, and
new media interventions; and critical cultural analyses that offer
new and adventurous insights into these phenomena. (NB We are less
interested in advertising billboards and graffiti, given the
substantial attention they have already received.)
All enquiries and proposals to Matt Soar, Department of Communication
Studies, Concordia University. Tel: (514) 848-2424 x2542. Email:
logocities.symposium AT gmail.com For more information and continual
updates on the symposium, including speakers and special events,
please visit
features a variety of work derived from an eponymous research/
creation project focusing on signage, branding and lettering in the
city of Montréal.
Deadline for formal proposals February 28, 2007.