ECAL: A Typography Atlas

From 9 April to 9 May 2026, the exhibition “ECAL: A Typography Atlas” will be on display at the Academy of Fine Arts (HGB) in Leipzig. It provides an overview of the diverse possibilities of type design and is deliberately aimed not only at specialists but also at a wider audience. Although we encounter typefaces constantly in our daily lives, the designers behind the letters usually remain unseen. “A Typography Atlas” puts their work centre stage and demonstrates the visual, cultural and linguistic impact of type.

Curated by the Master’s in Type Design and Bachelor’s in Graphic Design programmes at the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL), the exhibition brings together around 300 typefaces designed by students from all over the world. On display are experimental letterforms as well as extensive typeface families and multiscript projects.

The project is presented as a typographic atlas based on a uniform indexing system. Alphabetical entries and numerical coordinates form a kind of navigational structure that guides visitors through a typographic ‘territory’. The modular exhibition system was designed by designer and professor Adrien Rovero and is inspired by the frames that book printers once used to hang freshly printed pages to dry.

The Leipzig leg of the touring exhibition was organised in collaboration with the Type Design class at the Academy of Visual Arts, Leipzig, and the HGB Gallery. Following stops in Turin and other cities, the exhibition will also be on display in New York (The Cooper Union), Montreal (UQAM), Los Angeles (HMCT Gallery), Paris (Program/me), Lausanne (ECAL) and Tokyo (SKWAT Kameari Art Centre).

To accompany the exhibition, “ECAL: A Typography Atlas” is also being published as a 536-page book, published by Empire Books and designed by Giliane Cachin and Eurostandard.