Willie Liu

Willie Liu is a type designer at 3type based in Shanghai. Holding a bachelor degree in Urban & Rural Planning, he is currently enrolled in the Media & Communication Design Program in TJDI (Tongji University College of Design and Innovation).

With a natural passion for nature, technology and art, Willie enjoys making typefaces, illustrations, animations, and videos. In the field of type design, he is both exploratory and experimental; innovative typography and multi-script matchmaking fascinate him. He is the creator of Dinkie Bitmap, a multi-script typeface experimenting on Hanzi legibility in extreme conditions. In his free time, Willie watches anime and keeps munias.

BITS9 Conference
Willie Liu
October 12, 2019
Afternoon Session
1:30pm - 3:00pm
at Grand Ballroom Fl.2, Le Meridien Chiang Mai

“Italicising Chinese”

Setting mixed types together has been a common practice in Latin typography, and among them, the most popular and acknowledged duet is roman and italic. But for Chinese, a script that largely declines to slant, to become italic has always been a challenge. Or, for that matter, what does “italic” mean in the Chinese context? How does italic Hanzi work, with regard to both its design and setting? Does Chinese really need to be italicised? This talk will trace and analyse the recent history of “italic” Hanzi, and propose refreshing possibilities for future Chinese typography.