At Stanford University last month, Vilnius College of Design researcher Milda Kuraitytė took part in "Industry Classification and its Educational Echo: Searchability and Sense-Making", a panel at the 2026 ATypI conference — the annual gathering of the Association Typographique Internationale, the field's principal international body.
The session circled a problem that has stayed open since ATypI retired the old Vox-ATypI classification in 2021: with no agreed standard in place, who actually decides how typefaces are sorted? In practice the answer now comes from foundries, distributors and the search and tagging tools built into digital platforms. Panellists looked at how those mechanics steer the way fonts are found and judged, and at the loop running back to the classroom — the vocabulary taught in design schools quietly shapes how the next generation of designers goes looking for type in the first place.
Speaking for the teaching and research side, Kuraitytė sat alongside educators from Artevelde University of Applied Sciences and Iowa State University, and industry figures including Google Fonts' Dave Crossland, Monotype's Tom Rickner and Font Bureau's David Berlow. The panel was led by legibility researchers Ann Bessemans and Sofie Beier.
Taking part placed VCD's work directly among the people shaping this debate internationally — one that runs right along the line between how type is taught and how it is sold and used.
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