Type Brigade

Type Brigade №61

Thu, May 28 · 7:00 PM PDT

BCIT Downtown Campus, 555 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, CA

Type Brigade is Vancouver’s typography meetup.

Join us at the BCIT Downtown Campus:

• Doors at 6:30pm
• Talks begin at 7:00pm

Please note that any guests you’d like to bring with you should register on the Meetup group themselves.

Speakers

Diana Varma – Deoptimization: Thoughts on Working Harder Not Smarter
talkpaperscissors.info

We’re at a turning point in the history of craft. As digital tools become frictionless (and AI makes tasks easier than ever) there’s a rising desire to slow down and ask what we’re doing, and why. In this talk, type educator, author, and podcaster Diana Varma hits pause, exploring deoptimization and making a case for “working harder, not smarter.”

Diana Varma works as a design educator at Toronto Metropolitan University by day and a podcaster by night—getting creative with creatives about all things creative. She’s the author of Brave Creative Human: Embrace Failure, Reframe Imposter Syndrome, and Be Unapologetically You (2025) and she currently serves as VP of Education on the Board of Directors for the RGD, Canada’s largest professional association for graphic designers. Diana lives with her family near Toronto.

Nicolas Candelaria – Typography IRL
github.com/NicolasCandelaria

Nicolas brings a rare mix of brand-scale production and independent studio work to everything he does. At Billboard Agency International, he’s shipped typography across 200+ merchandise concepts for brands like Coca-Cola, the NHL, the Olympics, and Delta Airlines - learning firsthand how type decisions made on screen live or die in the physical world.

As co-founder of OnePathStudios, he's also worked across hundreds of clients, giving him a broad perspective on how different industries approach type at a production level. This talk draws directly from that experience: what happens when your carefully chosen typeface meets a screen-printed tee, an embroidered patch, or a foam-printed event banner.

Sponsors and Partners

BCIT Digital Arts, Media and Design
bcit.ca/business-media/study/digital-arts

Arcane Type Foundry
arcanetype.com

Kenneth Ormandy
kennethormandy.com

Call for Speakers

If you’re interested in speaking at Type Brigade our Call for Speakers is currently open. Submit a talk yourself, or share the link with a friend or colleague you’d like to see speak.

Accessibility information

We will be on the 2nd floor of BCIT’s Downtown Campus. It is wheelchair accessible via an elevator from the main floor. If there are additional accessibility considerations that we can provide information on or help facilitate to make this event worthwhile for you, please email: alanna at typebrigade.com

Code of Conduct

Type Brigade strives to create a welcoming, safe, professional environment at our meetups. We commit to this through our attendee, organiser, and speaker Code of Conduct.

Follow us

The best way to be part of Type Brigade is to sign up for our email list: typebrigade.com/newsletter

@typebrigade on Instagram
@typebrigade on YouTube

See you at the event!