Beyond the Margins, and international symposium on experimental topographics organised by Will Hill, of Cambridge School of Art, and Ian Horton, of London College of Communication, took place on 12 September at the award-winning Gillespie Centre, Clare College, Cambridge.

Over 60 delegates and speakers attended from all over the world, including Ben Van Dyke from State University of New York, Scott Lyon from Swinburne University Melbourne, Bernhard Metz from the Freie Universität Berlin, David Jhave Johnston from Concordia university Montreal and Scott Townsend from the University of North Carolina. UK delegates included lecturers from Central St Martin's School of Art, Kingston University, University of the West of England, Camberwell College of Art, London College of Communication, Middlesborough University, University College Falmouth, University of Sussex, Arts University College Bournemouth, and many others.

Keynote speakers were Johanna Drucker, Breslauer Professor of Bibliography at UCLA, Stamford, and an international authority on language and the artist's book, and Teal Triggs, co-chair of the research unit for Information Environments, University of the Arts, London.

The Beyond the Margins project has been developed to foster dialogue and collaboration around the visual use of language across art, design, writing, letter crafts and critical practice.

Feedback from delegates confirms that the event was a notable success, and a further symposium has already been scheduled for April 2010 at London College of Communication. Subject to the success of a current funding bid, this will be followed by further symposia in Europe and the US, culminating in a major conference in Cambridge in 2011.

Will Hill is one of the authors of Art and Text, published by Black Dog in September 2009, and a contributor to the forthcoming Phaidon Compendium of Graphic Design. He is currently working on a new and updates edition of his 2004 book The Complete Typographer, for publication in 2010.

For more information about the planned symposia, please contact Will Hill.

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