Here’s a post for my Swiss readers:
Are you into Typography and live near Basel? Then don’t miss the first installment of Typo Stammtisch Basel – a recurring, informal event to bring together makers, users, and lovers of type. This first Typo Stammtisch will take place January 22, 7pm, at Stellwerk Basel, Vogesenplatz 1 (directly at Bahnhof St. Johann).
Yes, I wish I could go.
ps: Stammtisch is one of my alltime favorite German expressions.
(via Roland Stieger)
Went to this event and enjoyed a lively discussion <> with guest speaker American Daniel Reynolds from Linotype in Frankfurt. All went well until the hosts decided they resented us speaking in English and basically shunned us until we felt uncomfortable enough to leave. Typisch.
Jan 25th, 2011 / 3:16 am
Hi Sara, I feel sorry about that and I didn’t realize it. I had very interesting discussions. Hopefully you come again next time, I would like to discuss with you as well.
Jan 25th, 2011 / 6:39 am
Dear Sara, as I am one of the hosts I’m a bit confused now. There were nearly 40 people there, some talking in English, some even in French. Nobody ever had a problem with that. Especially nobody of the hosts. Actually we really liked the fact that the Stammtisch turned out to be that international. And we’d definitely be happy to have you with us next time!
Jan 25th, 2011 / 6:59 am
Thank you both very much for your responses. Perhaps it was not one of the organizers, but I thought she was. She was not against the wall during the introductions, but she spoke during the discussion about “Stammtisch” when Dan Reynolds spoke. She used the word “we” and referred to inviting Dan down from Berlin to join in the Typostammtisch – so I thought she was an organizer.
I was surprised to say the least. It was awkward. We are Masters students at the Basel School of Design, who are eager to make contacts with the Basel design community, and I am glad to hear from you both that not everyone felt that way. I just heard from Dan, and he said it was an unfortunate situation to feel that disdain from them that they did not want us there. I will try to have the courage to attend the next event! Danke!
Jan 25th, 2011 / 8:24 am
sara, – i personally share your discomfort regarding that evening. reading this makes me feel like we were right to leave very early. too bad, because we were really looking forward to coming to stellwerk and to meet you guys.
Jan 25th, 2011 / 4:56 pm
Hey Sara, as another one of the hosts I’d like to reinforce Oliver’s comment – I must say I’m rather shocked, and deeply sorry, that you would have felt the way you describe. I’m not sure what happened; we did not observe any sort of hostility, otherwise we would absolutely have acted. As Oliver said, we very much appreciate cultural diversity, and specifically enjoyed hearing different languages spoken in the room.
Please know that you are warmly welcome to any of our events. Also (and this goes out to anyone really), if a situation does come up at any of our events that makes you unhappy or uncomfortable, please don’t be shy to address it at the moment too, so we can look at the causes together. It is our goal to make this event as enjoyable as we can for anyone who cares to attend.
Jan 25th, 2011 / 4:59 pm
Dear Nathalie and Sara, I’m very sorry, too, that you felt uncomfortable during the evening. Speaking just for myself, I had a great time, and I very much enjoyed meeting you and your fellow Basel MFA and MA students. I was pleased to be able to meet several other Basel-area designers during the evening as well … in fact, I stayed in the Stellwerk so long that I was in the last group of guests to leave. I’m saddened to read that you felt shunned, and hope that this is just the result of some unfortunate misunderstanding. Since Basel is such a long trip from Berlin, I won’t be attending most of the future Typostammtische. But I do hope that you consider attending the next typo_basel events. Feel free to write to me if you have any questions, concerns, or raw feelings about the evening. I’d be happy to try and help clarify anything that I can.
Jan 26th, 2011 / 5:39 am